Compare What Extent Are Born Good In Frankenstein

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Born Good? A timeless question that continues to stump psychologists. Are humans born good? Do we learn evil traits or are they imprinted into mind as we come into the world. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, written in the early 1800’s, this same question comes into play. Shelley presents two completely different beings, one brought up with a family in a happy setting, the other in solitude hated by everyone. Both human in nature brought up completely different. Frankenstein and the Monster show traits of both good and evil, however, they are both born good. Victor Frankenstein is born into a “distinguished” family (16). His mother and father travel together with Victor in a carefree lifestyle trekking across the land (17). At an early age
He was left by his creator, his father, without a mother or sibling to care for him. He is like a babe, born in innocence unaware of evil around, “half-frightened” and “cold” in a new and unknown environment (72). The Monster finds a small village and is instantly hated. The Monster scares the villagers, “some fled, some attacked” automatically hating the strange being that had come into their midst (75). However, the Monster does nothing against the villagers even though he is seen with giant stature and brute strength. After the village incident the Monster flees and finds a small family living in the wilderness in a small cottage. As he stays near the cottagers for a time he begins to learn that he is indeed alone. He learns the roles of family members and yet he does nothing to provoke them. Even after confronting the bling cottager and being “struck” by the man’s son he does nothing but run into hiding. Only after discovering Victor do we see the Monster show sign of evil traits. After telling his story the first sign of hate the Monster shows is talking to Frankenstein saying “Cursed, cursed, creator!” (99). The Monster begs for a “companion” from his creator, longing for someone to spend his days with in happiness (105). As Frankenstein agrees to the Monster’s terms, the Monster feels some sense of happiness. The happiness is not long-lived as Frankenstein recants his promise and

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    The monster tells Frankenstein of the wretchedness of the world and how it was not meant for a being such as himself. At the end of his insightful tale the creature demands a companion of the same hideous features but of the opposite gender to become his. Victor only has the choice to make the monster or suffer a lifetime of horror his creation would bring upon him. Which the creator ultimately agrees to make the female monster to save the lives of his family but gains a conscious that fills with guilt of all the destruction he has created and creating. When the monster comes to collect the female he tears her apart and the monster vows to destroy all Victor holds dear. The monster’s emotional sense is consumed with rage against Victor, murdering Frankenstein’s best friend. Though when the monster’s framing ways do not work to lead to Victor being executed, he then murders Frankenstein’s wife on their wedding night. This tragedy is the last for Victor’s father who becomes ill with grief and quickly passes within a few days, leaving Victor with nothing but his own regret. Shelley doesn’t give the audience the monsters side of the story but hints that the remainder of his journey consisted of being a shadow to that of his creator. It is at the graves of the Frankenstein family when the creature makes an appearance in the solemn and

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  • Nurture vs. Nature in the Novel "Frankenstein"

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    Soon after, the Monster discovers the De Lacey family and starts to learn the language, emotions, and many other human traits. For example, when the Monster watches Mr. De Lacey comforting Agatha by hugging, playing the guitar, and telling stories, the creature expresses his feeling as a mixture of pain and pleasure such as he never experienced before. He also learns that the family is poor, and instantly quits stealing food from them. So the Monster starts to have an ability to think reasonably and sympathize with people.

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  • Compare And Contrast Victor And The Monster

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    In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor and the monster go through a journey filled with love, betrayal, and ambition. However, there are key differences between the two of them. Victor leads a good life, but has an inner spark within him that leads him to rebel against the normal world and seek glory. The monster starts off with derelict beginnings and simply wishes for the basic needs that every human gets to experience such as love, affection, and friendship. Eventually, they both face problems, and as a result, devise evil plans, and yet their motivations and rationale cause the reader to have more sympathy for the monster than Frankenstein.

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  • Nature vs. Nurture: A Study Through Frankenstein

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    Mary Shelly first deals with Victor’s childhood in a supportive household. Victor and his family are identified as exceedingly wealthy and kind hearted. He labels himself as being born “a Genevese” and “wealthy fortunate child” with a family that is “one of the most distinguished of that republic” (Shelley 18). This use of characterization of Victor in such an early stage in the novel is to identify the social and financial stand point of the house he was born into. Victor later explains that his ancestors, for many years, had been “counselors and syndics” (18). He carries on in stating his family with words such as, “honour, wealth,” and “integrity” (18). These strong words are carefully used by Shelley to focus on the structure and provide a description on Frankenstein’s family. Frankenstein’s prestigious history of powerful ancestors directly is

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  • Human Relationships-Frankenstein

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    ...e seeking help and strength to take care of problems in their lives. Victor Frankenstein is a man with a loving and caring family. Family and friends are an important part of his life. He has his whole life in front of him, when creates his monster. He creates the monster in the likeness of man with same need of love and affection as man. Although, this is his creation, he lets the monster down and does not care for him. The monster begins to feel neglected and lonely and wants desperately to have a human relationship. The monster turns angry and revengeful because he is so sad and abandoned. He wants Victor to feel the way that he does, all alone. The monster succeeds and Victor ends up losing all the important in his life and his own life. In the end, the monster dies and the need for human relationship becomes the destruction for both the monster and Victor.

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  • Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

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    ...ime, such as reading, speaking, and how to find shelter. More importantly however, he learns something that affects his entirety of his short life: how humans truly are. Frankenstein learns that humans can be kind and moral, but more often are cruel, brutish, unfair, and unsympathetic. He learns that he will never be accepted, and learning this drives him to do rather evil human-ish acts. Even as he does these bad things though, he still experiences regret, longing for companionship, and the drive to do good things and be a good person. This inner conflict is present in all humans, as we struggle to do the right thing and avoid temptations and violence. This struggle is what causes the creature to truly be human, encompassing all of humanity’s aspects, including both the good and bad.

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  • Selfish Ambition Frankenstein

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    The question “What makes us who we are?” has perplexed many scholars, scientists, and theorists over the years. This is a question that we still may have not found an answer to. There are theories that people are born “good”, “evil”, and as “blank slates”, but it is hard to prove any of these theories consistently. There have been countless cases of people who have grown up in “good” homes with loving parents, yet their destiny was to inflict destruction on others. On the other hand, there have been just as many cases of people who grew up on the streets without the guidance of a parental figure, but they chose to make a bad situation into a good one by growing up to do something worthwhile for mankind. For this reason, it is nearly impossible to determine what makes a human being choose the way he/she behaves. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) published a novel in 1818 to voice her opinions about determining personality and the consequences and repercussions of alienation. Shelley uses the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to make her point. Rousseau proposed the idea that man is essentially "good" in the beginning of life, but civilization and education can corrupt and warp a human mind and soul. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (hereafter referred to as Frankenstein), Victor Frankenstein’s creature with human characteristics shows us that people are born with loving, caring, and moral feelings, but the creature demonstrates how the influence of society can change one’s outlook of others and life itself by his reactions to adversity at “birth”, and his actions after being alienated and rejected by humans several times.

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  • Frankenstein: Less Human Than His Creation

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    There are obvious similarities between Victor and his creation; each is abandoned, isolated, and both start out with

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  • Nature vs. Nurture in Frankenstein

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    Shelley addresses Victor’s nature, first. He writes being born “a Genevese” with a family that is “one of the most distinguished of that republic” (Shelly) Victor describes his family with very powerful words including, honor and integrity. Shelly writes more about their place in society and the ability to lead. The Frankenstein family had a very rich history background. Victor could not help but become of his nature. Being in a family such as his, he must uphold a certain standard. Victor had much envy for power. However, the power that he received was too much for him to handle. “I had worked…for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body… I had desired it with ardor that far exceeded moderation,”(Shelly) Victor states. Shelley portrays the idea that Victor is overwhelmed by his newly gained power. The creature woke up something in him that was from is influenc...

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  • Frankenstein Theme Analysis

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    There was no one left to provide the creature with companionship and was forced to isolate himself from society once again. When the family moved out of their cottage, the creature decided to go on his own adventure and seek out his creator. Upon doing so, the creature encountered a young girl who was about to drown near a lake. When the creature successfully saved the little girl, an older man confronted the creature and shot him in the shoulder. Because of what happened, the creature explained to Frankenstein that his, “...daily vows rose for revenge-a deep deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish [he] had endured.” (Shelley 61). With this burning rage, the creature decided to take his revenge out on his creator, Frankenstein. One by one, Frankenstein’s relatives and closest friends were murdered by the creature, but his father’s death, was the final push. Frankenstein believed that he was the cause for all the murders and that he had to destroy what he created. He told Walton that, “...as [he] awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge.” (Shelley 88). The only way to stop future deaths, was to hunt down the creature and kill him. Fueled with hatred, Frankenstein traveled for months in hopes of finding the creature. However, in his final days, Frankenstein was no longer

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  • Nature vs Nurture in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

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    Philosophers and scientists alike have debated for centuries whether a person’s character is the result of nature or nurture. In the writings of Thomas Hobbes, it is expressed that humans are endowed with character from birth, and that they are innately evil in nature. John Locke’s response to this theory is that everyone is born with a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and then develops character after a series of formative experiences. The idea that true character is the result of experiences and societal interaction is a theme deeply explored throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Through different interactions with the monster, Shelley attempts to express that it is because of Victor’s failings as a parent and creator, because of the monster’s isolation, and because of society’s reaction to the monster that the monster has become evil. The monster’s character is a direct result of how he was nurtured, based on his experiences and circumstances, rather than his being innately evil from “birth.”

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  • The Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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    Victor, out of horror of what he had created leaves the monster in isolation. The monster describes what it was like, “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate… I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept,” (Shelley 87). At this point the monster is just an innocent child, who in his first hours has faced abandonment and such strong emotions. However, he is pure, like most babies. While he looks like a monstrosity he shows himself to be anything but. His first encounters with humans are all very negative. A man runs away screaming just at the sight of him. Villagers pelted him with rocks and chased him away. This makes him very fearful of humans. However, when he comes across the De Lacey family in their little cottage he sees how peaceful they are and he regains some hope. “What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people; and I longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching, and endeavoring to discover the motives which influenced their actions,” (Shelley 93). He is curious little

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  • The Effect of Frankenstein's Monster

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    Countless situations created in life will always have some consequence, whether the outcome is a positive outcome or a negative outcome. During the novel, Frankenstein, there are many incidents portrayed through the characters that have both a positive outcome and a negative outcome, no matter the type of situation. The majorities of the situations that are conveyed in this novel almost always have a negative outcome because of the way the effects damage and hurt the innocence of the other characters in the story. In this novel many of the negative outcomes are a consequence of a hideous monster, known as Frankenstein’s monster, which was created by the hands of Victor Frankenstein.

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  • Opposition In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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    In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, many similarities can be seen between the creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein. While Victor and the creature are similar, there are a few binary oppositions throughout the book that make them different. The binary oppositions in the novel serve as thematic contrast; and some of the most illustrative oppositions between the two characters are on the focus of family, parenthood, isolation and association with others.

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  • Theme Of Love In Frankenstein

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    When the monster was created, he was born in the world with innocence, as a defenseless being in the world. Even when Victor rejects him, the monster still seeks love from society and performs unselfish acts. He seeks the love of others. Longing for company, the monster stays in the cottage without revealing himself and watches the family that lives there. By watching them, he learned how to speak and read.

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