The Role Of Nurturing In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

He was working so hard that his “cheeks had grown pale with study” (Shelley 29). Also the book states, “Natural philosophy, and particular chemistry… became my sole occupation” (Shelley 29). All the time Victor was spending on this monster was physically causing him to get sick. As the monster started coming alive, Victor realized it was not how he thought it would turn out. The monster was described as “limbs were proportionate… yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath… teeth of pearly whiteness…” (Shelley 35). When the monster came alive, Victor could be seen as a biblical allusion to the readers, as he could be playing God. He created a life, just a God does. When he begins to have nightmares about the monster, he begins to realize it was a bad idea for him to create this creature. Fast forward two chapters, and the readers also begin to agree with Victor’s theory that the monster was a bad idea. Victor learns of his youngest brother William’s death and assumes his creation has done it. When he later returns home he does not say a word because he does not want to be labeled ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’. The book states, “Two years have passed since… he received life… was this his first crime?” (Shelley 50). Victors knowledge prior to making the monster did not include his creation ever becoming a murderer. Victor had no intention of creating such an evil being, yet now he learned that not everything is as good as it seems. Victor contemplates suicide because he know it will not be easy to stop his creation but instead he voyages out to destroy it. While running into the monster in the woods, he now knows what the monster is capable of, and “trembles with rage and fear” (Shelley 68). The monster insists Victor sit with him in the cave and hear his struggles and how much knowledge he has

To begin, Victor betrays nature with the physical creation of the monster. Upon giving the creature life, Victor becomes horrified of what he had created and essentially left the creature in fear. It is nature’s responsibility to create life, not mankind. Since Victor gives the monster life, he has created something unnatural and he himself even admits his mistake when he states, “I have created a monster.” To make matters worse, Victor had left his creation on its own when the monster had no prior experience in the world and was learning everything from this point on. The monster, at this point, reflected the innocent nature of a child and needed to be taught properly about life. Victor’s

Perhaps what led Victor to this rejection, why he was so horrified of his creation, was because he had had such high expectations. In chapter 1, he talks about his life and his parents, he says he was an “innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven”. Perhaps this is what he wanted from his creation, for it to be a gift from heaven, and when it turned out it was ‘hideous’ and not so heavenly, he was disappointed. He wanted something that was “perfect”, “human”, but what he made was something hideous, and his gigantic structure made him different from a human. However, what we realise later on in the book is that it’s what’s on the inside that makes him human. This monster is capable of human emotions and intelligence, he learns to read write and think like a human. This is what makes us have sympathy to the monster- that we can relate to his feelings.

For many centuries, a vast dispute has iced the world over whether genes or environmental inspirations might affect one’s disposition, development, and deeds. As crucial as canvas in art, the philosophy of nature and nurture come together as the fundamental structure to one’s personality and genetic makeup. In the novella, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the association of the exterior appearance and inner feelings are openly linked. The hideous creature that the science addict, Victor Frankenstein, makes is initially innocent yet severely deformed. His nature is to be benevolent and sympathetic, however, society only views his external appearance, which is of defect. The natural act of mankind is to judge based on exterior appearance, thus the creature is quickly detested and branded as an abnormal mutant due to his peripheral look. Mary Shelly’s efficient utilization of nature vs. nurture conflict ultimately serves to emphasize that the nurturing development of an individual gyrates around nature.

Victor obsession with his creation represents the dark side of ambition. By creating the monster, “darkness” follow him wherever he goes through the representation of deaths and daunting weather like lightning. After his release from prison, he saw around him “nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me” (Shelley 160). By trying to turn himself into a god through the creation of the monster, that is, the unnatural, Victor is deprived of joy and is tormented by fevers, anxiety, and stress because he had thrown nature into the state of imbalance. Rather than feeling a sense of accomplishment through his scientific achievement, he lives in fear and guilt knowing that he is the cause for the destruction of his

Victor thought “for this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”(page). This quote demonstrates that once Victor had concluded his work of creating the monster, he realized that it may have been a huge mistake. He was not satisfied with his creation instead he was filled with terror. In result of his realization, he left the monster to fend for himself and suffer. Victor shows an evil side of himself by abandoning the monster and leaving him to be universally shunned by society. By Victor doing this one evil act, it causes the monster himself to go off and initiate evil acts of his own.

Shelley addresses romantic conventions in Victor to convey his loss of identity. Victor is impatient and restless when constructing the creation, so much, that he does not think about it’s future repercussions. One of the great paradoxes that Shelley’s novel depicts is giving the monster more human attributes than to it’s creator [p. 6 - Interpretations]. This is true as the monster seeks an emotional bond, but Victor is terrified of it’s existence. The monster later reveals, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurred at and kicked and trampled on [Shelley, p. 224].” Victor’s lack of compassion is rooted from the inability to cope with his reality. He distances himself from others and is induced with fainting spells [Shelley, p. 59]. From this, the nameless creature exemplifies Victor’s attempt to abandon his creation to escape his responsibilities. His creation is described as, ‘wretched devil’ and ‘abhorred monster,’ eliciting that the unobtainable, pitied identity [Shelley, p. 102]. The act of not naming the creature reveals Victor as hateful, and unnaturally disconnected to his own created victim.

The enormous difference in the way Victor views the creature before and after its completion shows that he has an altered state of mind while he works on it. As a result of Victor’s secrecy about his creation, he sacrifices his health and happiness to make a creature that disgusts him.

The monster knows his master and knows that Victor wishes he hadn’t created him and this makes the monster feel terrible about himself. He also knows that Victor feels like he played a hand in every person that his creation murders and the Monster learns to use this to his advantage. He does what he know will hurt his master the most, be kills Victor's friends one by one. This twists Victor and sours his very being. It turns him into a completely different person and killing his creation becomes his goal in life. He went from an energetic and curious young scientists to a old, licentious man bent on killing. The monster felt that he was getting back at his master but probably didn’t fully understand what he was doing by killing. He never had anyone teach him how twisted and evil taking a life is and as a result it was relatively easy for him to nullify a human being. Society had shunning him because of his horrific appearance from the first time they saw him and never looked back. He stands at an intimidating eight feet and is crafted of mangled human corpses, not exactly a common looking being. While he might at looked strange or scary, he had the mind of a very young child what needed guidance. Because of Victor’s guilt, he never gave the monster the teaching that it really needed. This feeds into the cycle and really makes the problem that ends up killing several people and twisting Victor into someone no reasonable person would strive to

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is undoubtedly one of the greatest books ever wrote. “Frankenstein” is about a young scientist named Victor Frankenstein who creates a living being using body parts of dead beings. After his creation is complete, Frankenstein disowns his creation due to it’s hideous looks which causes Frankenstein’s perspective of his creation to be a monster. Throughout the story, it shows how the creature tries to find a place to be accepted since his own creator did not. However, the creation is given harsh treatment and is always driven off by people due to his physical looks. The inability of being accepted by humans and the terrible treatment from them causes the creation to vow revenge on the whole mankind. Therefore, he starts killing people and he kills people specifically related to Frankenstein. Frankenstein then vows revenge on the creation and chases him for the rest of his life, and he eventually dies. On the other hand, after his creator's death, the christian goes to the Arctic to spend the rest of his life alone. “Frankenstein” deals on the topic of one's identity being more affected by nurture rather than nature. Nurture is the idea that one’s identity is made by one’s experiences and nature is the idea that a person’s identity is by heredity. This message is great supported and is modeled by the creation. “Frankenstein” shows the support believing in n

The fact that his creation was not given a name is another significant example of Victor’s indifference for his “child”.  “The absence of a name denies a child the knowledge of his origin and familial connection.” (Defrain 21)  Not only does the monster lack a name and place in society, but he never experienced motherly-love and tenderness upon his birth, which is crucial to the healthy growth and development of any new being.

As Victor states, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley 13). It shows Victor’s great ambition to succeed from his creature. Moreover, Victor recognizes this creature as his “child”, by using the word “child” Shelley implies that monster will inherit the thoughts of Victor (Shelley 14). Victor states that he wants to “claim the gratitude” from the child he creates, it shows that Victor is a selfish man because he only focuses on gaining the benefit from his creature (Shelley 14). When Victor finds the "dun white" eyes of the creature (Shelley 87), it means that there’s something wrong with the creature, but Victor completely ignores the potential danger of creating this monster; he decides to go ahead with satisfying his own desire without having a deliberate intention to create the monster. In short, the intention of creating the monster brings out Victor’s selfishness and irresponsibility, and this determines the reason for the monster to be a disaster in the

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.

When Victor goes to college he is the center of attention due to his knowledge. “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example…”(Shelley 39) Slowly his ego gets the best of him and he wants more attention. He decides to create a life and cure illness but in reality he is doing it for the fame and glory. In the book it is stated “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.” (Shelley 40). This shows that his entitlement as a “god” figure would consume and/or corrupt him. He is isolated from everyone for 2 years working on the creature. According to Syliva Bowerbank “though Victor has abandoned her, -- the first time for six years of study in Ingolstadt and the second, for two years of travel -- her first concern is for his well-being, since he fell gravely ill during both separations from his home.” (Bowerbank) He

Griffith further supports the idea of Victor being the problem and his ignorance becoming increasingly detrimental to his family’s health. Victor’s actions inevitabely brings death and pain to his family although the monster is responsible. Victor is the real monster for creating the monster and negleting his very own creation. Also, after creating the being, he neglects its needs and wants and runs away from his responsibility as the creator. This quote from Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, shows that Victor, being too binded in his ambitions, did not think through the process of creating a human and rushed it creating a bitter and crushed soul: