The Concept Of Self Identity

While attempting to uncover the meaning of life and death, and though he believed his experiments would further the paths of science, Victor fails to see the potential consequences of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 37). This, in turn, creates a monster. After his “great” experiment, Victor spends his life in grief. Despite this, he manages to belittle his creation, and act superior to him, claiming that “I [Victor] will not hear you. There can be no community between you [the creature] and me; we are enemies” (Shelley 84). Even later on, when assured by the creature himself that Victor would be left alone if he creates a female counterpart, Victor cannot see past the shreds of pride he has left and refuses, causing the death of his family and loved ones. It’s Victor’s pride and his fear of the creature that clouds his judgement and in the end leads to his

Labeling theory holds that individuals come to identify and act as per their labels. The major tenet of this theory is that the behavior and self-identity of individuals is affected by the way they are described by other people (Vold, Bernard, Snipes, & Gerould, 2016). According to this theory, the act of deviance is not implicit in a particular act, but is hedged on the inclination of the majority to ascribe labels to minorities in society who deviate from standard behavior. Labeling leads to dramatization of a particular act – which propagates the behavioral clash between the individual and the community. Through ascribing labels, the individuals acquire a negative self-image. The individuals accept themselves as labeled by the

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

Frankenstein, a novel by Mary Shelley, tells the story of Victor Frankenstein’s pursuit of creation and the monster he unintentionally brought to life. Horrified with his own creation, Victor escaped his responsibilities, leaving him to fend for himself. The story follows the monster’s futile attempts to assimilate into humanity, his hatred finally leading him to killing his creator’s family one by one until Frankenstein committed himself to vengeance. The theme of humanity was prevalent throughout the novel as the monster’s existence blurred the line between what was “human” and “inhuman.” The question of whether nurture, or nature, mattered more to one’s identity was explored throughout the story. In Frankenstein, nurture rather than

When reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, it can be discussed in recurring themes of procreation and death. Erik Erikson's Theory of psychological development can be applied to modern society and the texts itself. Erikson believed that each stage of life has it’s own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution. At each stage, a conflict is emphasized between society and ego, one will succeed or fail. Success can be described as a (healthy personality and acquisition of basic virtues). Throughout the story the characters acquire traits described by Erikson's eight stages of psychological development.

To do so, he closed himself off and dove into his research for many months. Because of this, he was blinded by his Id and the possibility of if he could create this instead of if he should. When Victor finally created the Monster, stating that “His [the Monster’s] limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!” (Shelley 59). Victor had dreams of creating the perfect human, and goes into more detail about his charming physic. However, when the Monster finally comes to life, Victor runs away screaming to the courtyard “[...] which had been [his] asylum” (Shelley 61). Victor becomes so enwrapped with the possibility of reversing death that he unintentionally creates an abomination. Leaving the Monster behind was another example of living his Id. The creature now has the freedom to do as he pleases, like the eventual killing of Victor’s brother. These, along with many others, are the Id behavior that Victor shows through his

Shelley explores identity through the character of the monster whom is a victim of Victor’s abandonment. An identity indicates more than merely a name or label specifically to the monster as it signifies that one has a place within society and that one has a purposeful existence in the world. A deeper understanding of identity emerges from Shelley’s writing stance of the monster seeking an improved quality of life, mirroring the issues of her time due to the poverty and large numbers of unemployment. Frankenstein displays identity through portraying the abandoned character of the monster constantly desiring and longing for a purpose in society through the use of rhetorical questions to illustrate his inability to find his place in the world, “I was dependent on none and related to none. The path of my departure was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation. My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.” Furthermore Shelley stresses her notion on identity through having the monster long for a companion to belong to in the world. This is seen in, "'I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My

According to Psychologist Abraham Maslow in “Self-actualization and Beyond,” self-actualization is a process in which one identifies his inner ability to do something productive. Once this inner talent comes out, that’s when a person actualizes himself. He believes that every individual self-actualizes, and while doing so one might make many wrong choices. Sonny and his older brother are faced with several obstacles while being on a journey to self-actualization in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. However, these obstacles not only come from their surroundings, but within themselves as well. The narrator himself and his younger brother, Sonny struggle with, and gradually develop their own

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

Victor’s creation was another character in this story that experienced alienation and isolation. The monster was subjected to alienation his entire life. Unlike his creator, the monster did not choose this life of segregation, he was born into it. It seemed as if from the very first moment that Victor had laid eyes upon his creation he was viewed as being an abomination, and condemned to a life of rejection. The first experience that the monster had in life was upon opening his eyes and seeing the look of terror in his creator’s eyes. After Victor had abandoned his creation the creature is left with only questions and no one to answer them.

In particular, the motif of the Double, or Doppelgänger, very popular in nineteenth-century gothic fiction, is central to the parallels drawn between the Monster and Victor, in Frankenstein. In modern society, there is a popular tendency to refer to Frankenstein as the monster, or vice versa, reflecting the use of the motif. In this case, the monster represents Victor’s hidden inner desires and unexpressed psychic needs that stem from his brutal pathos for success, glory and knowledge. Thus, in Victor’s attempt to realize this ambition, he gave form and shape to his deepest fears; his desires. Through the rejection of the parameters set by society and humanity, Victor gives in to his egomaniac god complex seen throughout the novel. Specifically while consciously creating an abnormal being, which appalled him, but still enthralled him, "…often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion." Hence, by giving life to the monster, Victor created a manifestation of his suppressed self, stating, "I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch" , being vague whether this refers to the creature itself, or the manifestation of his dark, disturbing desires, hinting that the two are similar, and creating a link between them. Thus, following Freud’s theory of the structure of the human psyche, the creature becomes a human form of Victor’s id, with the first proof of the connection shown in the monster’s need to fulfill the most basic urges such as anger, thirst, hunger, and sex immediately, regardless of possible consequences, "I longed to obtain food and shelter,” as explained in Freud’s theory . He is now seen as a human being in the eyes of basic psychology, and can be thus seen as a plausible

“Since Victor’s story is a story of creation, murder, investigation, and pursuit, Frankenstein is ultimately a book about our pursuit of self-discovery, about the knowledge of the monster within us” (Griffith 2).

Emotions can be experienced through more than one outlet. Discovering and forming a taste in music, is a mutable unique experience in which we as individuals connect in some form to a melody or string of words that can alter our perception on life. For some, music is a way to let loose and de-stress, but for others, it goes beyond that and essentially becomes a lifestyle. Music can change people’s mood in less than a couple of seconds, but what is most unique about it, is the way in which we all have different reactions to a melody. Reflecting back at how I personally expanded (and continue to expand) my music taste I see how different artists have altered my consciousness and played a role in the type of person I am. Within music genres there