In the novel Frankenstein, it shows examples of how nurture is what shapes personality. The creature that Dr. Frankenstein creates changes personality from the beginning of the book to the end. He begins by not fighting his assailants, proving his innocence, purity and good intentions. Towards the end of the book the creature changes for the worst. This is because of his environment increasingly worsening. He states in the book, “Perhaps, if my first introduction to humanity had been made by a young soldier, burning for glory and slaughter, I should have been imbued with different sensations” (Shelley 2005). This quote describes the creature recognizing that his environment directly affected his behavior and personality. He grew up around
Nature (our genes) and nurture (our environment) affect our individual differences in behavior and personality. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley addresses the conflict of nature vs. nurture. Victor Frankenstein creates a "child" whom he abandons upon birth. This brings up questions such as, was the creature genetically inclined to be evil, or did the hostility he encountered turn him evil? Are one's surroundings determined by who they become later in life? Does nurture form one's characteristics that will determine who someone is later in life? Mary Shelley used these questions as an approach to show that the monster is intelligent, but destructive, and had guilt due to his environment and isolation. The monster’s guilt due to its
In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external apperence and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is seaverly deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appereance which is grotesque. Human nature is to judge by external apperence. He is automatically ostracized and labeled as a monster because of his external apperence. He finnaly realized that no matter how elequintly he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust.
Throughout Shelley’s work, the creature struggles to conform to society, alone from his first moments - abandoned by his creator - he is given no proper upbringing, and abhorred by society. He grows up in hiding and fear, his only interactions with others ending in violence. Hence, seems only natural that his desperate need to conform would lead to violence. The need to “belong” is an essential “human” desire, however this sense of belonging his completely dependent on one’s upbringing.
In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external appearance and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is severely deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appearance which is deformed. Human nature is to judge by external appearance. He is automatically detested and labeled as a monster because of his external appearance. He finally realized that no matter how well he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust. The creature is
In Mary Shelley's gothic novel Frankenstein, Shelley introduces a Creature who represents many symbols throughout the story. Such as the war between passion and responsibility, the effects of a corrupt society, and the Creature is a symbol of nature vs. nurture . through this Creature we see mainly the effects of society on an abandoned, innocent being and how it matures in the story fending for itself against society as a whole.
Knowledge plays an incredibly large part of Mary Shelly’s novel, Frankenstein. I think that Victor’s obsessive and unhealthy search for knowledge is the true cause of his suffering. Not only does he neglect his friends and family while working to create the monster he puts his own health in danger. “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health.” In this quote we see that Victor stops at nothing to find if he would be successful with his creation. Victor has made this project such a main priority that once it is completed and the creature comes to life he does not know what to do. Since Victor has met his goals and done what he said he wanted to do he does not want to deal with the being he just created so this becomes a problem for him. We see that Victor was very troubled by this whole experience when he says, “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.”
In the novel Frankenstein, Victor and his Monster compete over who is a monster and who is human. This competition makes one think of if it is nurture or
Responsibility means to be accountable for something and it can be possible to be responsible for the actions of others. Throughout Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein, there are multiple deaths due to Doctor Victor Frankenstein’s creation. This creation of his, was a single man made up of many dead men, brought back to life. This creature had a brain of its own but was not taught how to use it properly. The reason why this creature was not taught right from wrong is because Doctor Frankenstein was terrified of him and neglected him.
Questioning is a natural human instinct. We do this when we are unsure of a situation or thing. Another human instinct is lying. We often lie to protect ourselves or others. Guilt is a human emotion that you experience when you know you have done something wrong.
In the novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley during the romanticism period, we see different characters who struggle with self-understanding and self-deception, as well as those who shift to gain a better realization of themselves and others. Victor Frankenstein’s creation is one example of a character we see shift from being very self-deceptive to gaining self-knowledge and understanding himself in relation to others. In the beginning, the creation’s false expectations, based on limited human interactions and knowledge, lead him to deceive himself by believing humans can accept him and overlook his deformities. But after many negative experiences, he understands the true and cruel nature of humans, vows vengeance on the entire species, and gains self-awareness and accepts his identity as a “monster.”
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, nature has the ability to deeply alter a character’s mentality and can also reflect on their emotions. Mary Shelley illustrates how nature impacts the monster’s mentality as he learns the way of the world.
The end result of dangerous and unwanted discoveries is expressed in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, when she uses characters and symbols to represent the theme that the thirst for knowledge can lead to amazing endeavours but more often than not, it has dangerous end results. All along the monster’s journey back to Victor and Robert Walton’s journey to the North Pole, there are a lot of dangerous events that happen. Prometheus learned pretty quickly that knowledge can be too much, when he is chained to the side of a mountain. The fellow definitely thought that the outcome was suppose to be a lot better than it was but all because of his thirst for knowledge. The reason Shelley had titled the novel also as The Modern Prometheus is because
In Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus we see the monster as the outward expression of Victor's Id or his demoniacal passions. Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages during which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain behaviors. These childhood stages are known as the psycosexual developmental stages.
Instead of starting the story of Frankenstein with regular text Shelly decides to use letters from Walton to his sister. The purpose of this is to show an outside observer stumbling upon the story of Frankenstein. This detachment gives Walton an excellent reason for his later friendship with the man he accepts on his boat. His letters show a wanderlust. He feels that if he gets to the pole he will reach a new level of enlightenment. He is on a quest for answers until his hunger is satiated. On page 2 he writes “... for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” I really liked this quote because I can relate to it and it can also relate to science in general.
The concept ‘nature vs. nurture’ refers to the debate surrounding the influence of genetic factors and the environment in determining personality. It still remains contentious as to whether our personality is primarily determined by inherent genetics (biological approach) or by environmental conditioning (behaviourist approach). Shelley effectively embodies this life-long debate through the characterisation of Victor Frankenstein and the Frankenstein creature. She highlights the significance of the environment in creating personality as indicated by the influence of Victor’s home education and the creature’s character development. This essay shall hence illustrate that Frankenstein does not only engage with the nature vs. nurture debate,