Evil or Mistreated?
It is proven that the way you are treated as a small child affects the way you act as an adult. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, the readers see this kind of effect. The creature created by Dr. Frankenstein was terribly mistreated. The creature wasn’t evil in the beginning, but as time went on he started behaving like a monster. Although he did not seem evil in the beginning does not mean that he was not. He could have turned out that way without being mistreated, yet because of the mistreatment we may never know. So; was all of this caused by the way his creator treated him, was it caused by the way other people treated him, was it caused just by his nature, or was it caused by all of the three combined?
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is a
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stimulating scientist who studies the dead, he wants to be the first person to give life to a dead human being. Therefore Frankenstein formed this “creation” which means that it would be his place to take care of it and nurture it as his own. “This leads to a major “chicken or the egg” type question. Was Frankenstein’s creation a monster from the start or did he become one because of the way he was treated? The ultimate question of Nature vs. Nurture (or in this case non-nurturing)” (Connection 1). Dr. Frankenstein shows his lack of interest by not even giving his creation any proper name Brown even states, “He has no name because he has no one to give it to him” (Brown 153). Just the word creation plays an important role in the novel, “creation is the act of the mind that brings something new into existence” (Rose 814). Once something is created it is the “creators” place to take care of it. This shows that Dr. Frankenstein never intended on trying to nurture his creation. Frankenstein could only think about how ugly and monstrous that the creation looks, "I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived" (Shelly 43). As a parent, it is your place to teach your child right from wrong and not judge them based on the way that they look. Although Frankenstein did not personally father the creation he did create it. In one statement it is specified that the creation’s “newfound bitterness was reinforced after being rejected and denied by his father" (Reese 51). Also meaning the reason he was so bitter and mean was because his father, Dr. Frankenstein, neglected him. “Frankenstein who irresponsibly creates a living being, then dishonors his solemn promise to create a partner, and a monster who lacks nurture, and self-control, are emotionally disordered” (Brown 148). So basically, they both ad problems, yet the creation’s problems were caused directly by not having any nurture from his creator. Anything in existence needs to be nurtured and cared for if it is expected to turn out well. Imagine having a garden, if you take care of and nurture the garden it will flourish and produce sweet, bountiful fruits for you. However, if you neglect your garden, it will be covered in weeds and you’ll have dead plants and rotten fruit. Frankenstein’s creature, however, was not nourished so he did not flourish into a sweet, caring creature. Dr. Frankenstein makes it his mission to destroy the monster, who has been ruining his life. This shows that he has no intention of nurturing the creation up, instead he wants to full out destroy it. He was beaten and treated as though he had no feelings, so of course he wasn’t nice in the end. He didn’t know what nice was. Although he is called “creation” or “monster” he represents all that is human, “he is filled with human emotions and thoughts, representing a character among many” (Brown 156). The creature is created with such an innocence, as a child is born, and is never taught right from wrong. Hutis compares Frankenstein to the Greek god Prometheus, she argues that Dr. Frankenstein is very different from Prometheus and feels as if Dr. Frankenstein sympathy, for the monster he created, is a “purely intellectual” acknowledgment of the monster’s sorrow and anger (Hustis 848). The creature doesn’t murder anyone out of ill will, he only does so because he is told to do so by his creator whom he loved and yearned to be loved in return. After he discovers that his father, Dr. Frankenstein has left him, he accidentally kills William; he is just so much stronger than delicate human beings. Also, while Felix is beating the creature, the creature never strikes back. It is obvious that the creature thinks, feels, suffers, and desires just like a normal human, so it can be said that when the creature is produced he is oblivious as to what is right and wrong. Frankenstein’s abandonment is what sets into motion the chain of events that transforms this being full of endless potential into a being mean and unmanageable most likely because of vengeance, “Shelley’s modernization of the Prometheus legend suggests that (male) participants in a moral conflict may invoke ‘justice’ and insist on theoretical objectivity simply to avoid acknowledging responsibility for the dilemmas they have created, conflicts which, when neglected, take on a life of their own. The modernity of Shelley’s Prometheus figure is illustrative of how, when Promethean pity is overlooked in favor of appeals of justice, ‘fairness,’ can become little more than a means of denying involvement in the problems of others, even when those ‘others’ are a creator’s own progeny” (Hustis, 851). They are comparing him to the Greek god in order to show how she feels about the whole matter, Frankenstein chose to push away the creation therefore causing problems for not only himself but everyone around him. Besides the way he is treated by his creator, the creature is also mistreated by other towns’ people.
The creature was tormented because of his hideous appearance. It is unfair that they judged him so harshly because all the creature sought was to be loved. He just wanted to fit in with other people. He is pretty much left by himself to discover that he is ugly and what that actually means. Once the creature realizes that he is ugly and the townspeople treat him so badly, he becomes the monster that everyone assumed he was in the first place. This once so kind-hearted creation is molded into a repulsive monster by the way he is treated by society. The creature accidentally causes the townspeople poverty by stealing their food in secret, when he realizes the effect of his thievery he leaves wood on the doorsteps of the people to try to ease their scarcity. All he wants is to be accepted, yet because of his ugly looks the townspeople still deny him of acceptance. “As a society, we build our own monsters” this is a statement that is describing so much (Connection 1). The town’s people are making him everything that he is. “He was merely provoked into acting out” (Rose
819). The creation was not made to be bad but since the people are telling him that he is bad he feels as though he has to be bad. “The monster is like a newborn baby, being led in the wrong direction” (Rose 820). The creation has very good intentions, but can never carry them out because he cannot be seen by people without being too harshly judged for his one flaw; his monstrous appearance. In all reality “the creation just wants a little symphony. Reese compares the monster's attempt to throw his hands over the eyes of the doctor to a symbol of "blind justice" and a literal translation of a "hearing" (Reese 52). In today’s culture it would be seen as a horrendous thing to just abandon a newborn, especially because it was ugly “The Frankenstein monster obviously does not appear or act as we imagine most humans do. There is a lack of mannerisms, language, and motor skills. He grunts and groans in response to everything” (Connection 1). Could it have just been in the creature’s nature to be an evil monster? I do not believe that is the case, when the creature first comes alive and Dr. Frankenstein realizes he’s hideous and runs away from him, then the creature follows him smiling; clearly oblivious to the Drs. Cruel judgment. I believe this is proof that the creature was not evil when he was created. His innocence shows when even though the Dr. ran from him, he followed him with a smile. It is argued that he was evil to begin with because he is made up of dead people’s body parts, but this does not make him evil because he was not those people even though he was made of their parts. Because he was a new creation, he didn’t necessarily have a certain “nature”, therefore it couldn’t have been in his nature to be evil. Just like a small child, I believe the only thing he would do naturally was try to learn from other peoples actions. Since the only actions he saw from people were cruel and evil, that’s the only nature he picked up. He did try to be nice and he only pursued affection from other people, realizing he was lonely and never would obtain love and affection, he evolved into what everyone thought he was to begin with; a monster. Although he was not evil to begin with, I do believe that a combination of the three forced him to become a monster. It is so easy to conform to society when you realize that being yourself is clearly not getting anywhere; it still happens today. If you’re treated badly by the ones you love then you probably won’t amount to the best person you could be. When people in society mock who you are, you’re more than likely going to try your best to change so that you’ll fit in; or stop them from terrorizing you somehow. Like the creature becoming a monster so that maybe people would stop abusing and tormenting him. I’m sure he thought if people were scared of him they would finally leave him alone. After he learned the nature of the ones around him, his nature followed the evil ways of others. Weather the “creation” would have been good or evil all along, he chose the path that he wanted to take and that was not a path of righteousness. He was abandoned and left alone, but in the end the choice was ultimately his. He was not treated with respect, so he decided to go for blood. Seen as a monster, merely a creation. Left alone and fatherless until his last breath. The choice is yours is he created evil or brought to do evil things by mistreatment? He lost his creator, his towns’ people, and even his mind.
Ever since the beginning of Frankenstein’s tragic narrative, his story has been filled with distortions. When happy, the world seems imbued with a mystical glow and when depressed, darkness threatens to conquer everything and everyone. However, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that was not just the narrator who had a various distorted outlooks on the world, but other primary characters as well, including, but not limited to, Frankenstein’s monster and Frankenstein’s dear friend Henry Clerval.
I have empathy for the monster because he was not created to be evil. His creator Victor D. Frankenstein and the people he encountered after he was created, were the ones who were being hateful towards him. The monster was happy and had a kind heart towards the people he met , but his kind heart and pleasant demeanor was short lived. People started talking about him in a bad way and that made the monster angry and also it made him a product of his environment. This is how he became who he was.
In many works of literature, authors place morally ambiguous characters in their work to allow the readers to decide on the character’s true morality. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, Shelley inputs a morally ambiguous character, which takes on an extreme significance to the work, allowing the reader to understand the emotional journey that occurs throughout the novel. The morally ambiguous character in Frankenstein is Victor Frankenstein, which is displayed through the way he treats his creation, his arrogant personality, and his obsession with natural philosophy.
In the novel ‘Frankenstein’ the creature is presented through many narrative voices, it is through Victor's narrative that we see the Creature as a 'wretch', 'daemon' and a 'fiend'. Mary Shelley chooses to present the creature as a ‘fiend’ due to circumstance beyond the creature’s control
In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein the protagonist Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. The monster in the novel is deprived of a normal life due to his appearance. Like the creature, some serial killers today are killers due to the same rejection. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warns that a childhood of abuse and neglect will often result in evil actions.
Firstly, a scapegoat is defined as “One who is blamed or punished for the sins of others” (OED). In biblical scripture, the goat symbolises and stands for evil, with lambs being sacrificial beasts (Kearney 28). Rene Girard: “any community that has fallen prey to violence or has been stricken by some overwhelming catastrophe hurls itself blindly into the search for a scapegoat” (qtd in Sørensen 19). Additionally, in agreement with Sørensen, there is a rationale behind an individual making someone or something a scapegoat, which the writer views as a defence mechanism: “a safety valve used to rid our mind of the anxieties that can be eliminated with the destruction of the monster” (Sørensen 19-20). This idea that these scholars refer to is highly
Compassion and empathy are often described as human-kind's greatest quality. Yet, many things can distract or overpower our compassion to allow room for things like cruelty, selfishness, and the need for vengeance. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein has no compassion for his creation; however, his creation is born with large amounts of compassion, but Frankenstein ignores and abuses his monster. Victor’s lack of compassion towards the monster, makes the monster lose his own compassion in a need for vengeance to make his abuser feel the same pain he does.
Throughout the book, the creature doesn’t show emotions that lead towards being a monster. Animals do show emotions, for example, I watched a video about a mother seal who had a miscarriage and she did not understand why her baby was not moving, it resulted in her having real tears. In the beginning, we see the first emotion that the creature has, which is a sense of belonging. After the creature was forced to fend for himself, he finds a family in the woods that he starts to observe and want a place of belonging in their family. . The creature knows that he is ugly and doesn’t look like a human, but he still wants to belong. To belong to a family and feel wanted, he wants to be beautiful. This is a human desire. He shows how much his looks
In the novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley the motif of cruelty functions as a motive and mode of retaliation. Both Victor and the Creature portray the roles of the perpetrator and victim of cruelty as seen through the rejection the Creature receives from the humans, Victor’s betrayal to the Creature, and the revenge sought out by the Creature.
Knowing how to read, write, and even tie your shoes may seem like the everyday norm to most, but for Victor Frankenstein’s creature, it is one of the leading causes of his destruction. Frankenstein is obsessed with the idea of creating a being superior to humans. However, when his creation turns into a murderous monster, he is quick to blame his relentless search for knowledge, but he is unable to see how his ignorance brought his downfall. In the Gothic novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the concept of knowledge being not only a blessing, but a curse is demonstrated through the creatures desire to learn, society’s lack of empathy for the creature, and Victor’s ignorance.
A monster can be characterized by an extreme deviation from the normal standards of society including an internal or external wickedness. In the case of Mary Shelley’s Creature, his appearance overwhelms those who lay eyes upon him. A mere glance can send a villager running for the hills. It was not until the Creature caught a glance of his own reflection that he understood why villagers were so afraid of him. The realization of his ghastly appearance began the monster’s journey into hopelessness. In Peter Brooks’ article he writes, “Self recognition as the ‘filthy type’ completes the mirror stage of the Monsters development.” (Brooks 377). Seeing oneself as ugly and slovenly can cast shadows on even the most compassionate of hearts.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein written in 1817, and published in 1818. Almost 200 years later the novel is still being printed and sold around the world. The novel is due to its science fiction and horror themes, as well as its great messages about inner beauty. Frankenstein also includes the theme of injustice, which effects almost all of the characters. The injustice in the novel is mainly felt by the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his Monster. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the theme of injustice is the direct cause of the sympathy that readers’ feel towards Frankenstein and his Monster.
Left on his own to strike out in the world the monster soon experienced the prejudices of those he came meet. Prejudices based upon his frightful, or unusual, appearance and his inability to communicate initially. I quickly had empathy for the abandoned creature, despite the descriptions of his gruesome appearance, and felt mixed emotions about his actions towards others in the story. Were the violent actions of the monster towards others spawned from their violent rejection of ...
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley portrays an individual in a unique situation trying to overcome daily interactions while being faced with inconceivable misfortunes. Created by Victor Frankenstein, who set out on a journey to bring life to scrapped pieces of waste, he was then abandoned and left to fend for himself in a world he was abruptly brought into. After being abandoned by his creator for his less than appealing looks, this then sparked his inevitable desire for revenge. Eventually leading to the destruction of those associated with his creator. Knowing that he will never fit in, the monster began to act out in hopes of getting back at his creator for what he did. His vulnerability due to missing guidance and parental figures in his beginning stages of life contributed to his behavior. The books and article Family Crisis and Children’s Therapy Groups written by Gianetti, Audoin, and Uzé, Victim Of Romance: The Life And Death Of Fanny Godwin by Maurice Hindle, and Social Behavior and Personality by Lubomir Lamy, Jacques Fishcher-Lokou, and Nicolas Gueguen support why the monster acts the way he does. The monster’s behavior stems from Victor’s actions at the beginning of his life and therefore is not to blame. The creature in Frankenstein is deserving of sympathy even though he committed those murders because the lack of parental guidance, lack of family, and lack of someone to love led him to that. All in all his actions were not malicious, but only retaliation for what he had been put through.
From the beginning, the monster was abandoned by his creator Victor, the only man he's ever had a relationship with. He was made eight feet tall and very grotesque. At first sight, his creator rejects him. The monster tries to integrate himself into society, only to be shunned universally. When the creature goes to the village, he is attacked because of his horrifying appearance. He assists a group of poor peasants and saves a girl from drowning, but because of his outward looks, he is rewarded only with beatings and disgust.