How Does Frankenstein's Childhood Negatively Affect Their Future

A book in which a character’s childhood negatively effects their future is “Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein is based around the life of Victor, who is overindulged as a child and who later creates a “monster”. He disowns the monster, who then goes on to kill several of Victor’s friends and family out of hate for Victor who left him. Victor then tries to create a friend for the monster so as to calm him, but rebels midway and then proceeds to chase the monster in attempt to put an end to him.

In this essay I will be looking at Victor Frankenstein and the monster, and considering what Mary Shelley may be trying to tell us about parenting, child development and education through experiences.

As a

Unless supervised, the autodidact is in danger of learning things from a very narrow field, for instance, Frankenstein’s knowledge seems to be solely based on science, without any education in morals, the arts, or social skills that would have helped him to develop and become a more socially compassionate person.

The creature’s “childhood” is condensed into just a few months. His first experience of Victor, his parent and maker, is one of rejection, and this sets the pattern for his life. We are told that, on being “born” the creature made his way to Victor’s bedside,

“He held up the curtain of the bed, and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear, one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me.” In all probability, the creature was stretching out, like a child does to their mother, but his ugly appearance only frightened Frankenstein into running away.

With no-one to love him or care for him, the creature spends his first days in a forest near Ingolstadt. Through his narrative, we learn that, at first he was like an abandoned baby, alone, and in his own

He never manages to interact positively with others or find friendship, and we can see his self esteem sink lower and lower, the more he is rejected, and becomes lonelier and more alienated from society. It is at this that eventually changes him from a kind, affectionate, and reasonable being, to a bitter murderer. He tells Frankenstein,

“I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph, remember that and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder, if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in an interchange of kindness, and, instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his