“I am malicious because I am miserable.” (P.124) Nature vs Nurture is prevailed all throughout Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein. Shelley created the creature as if he was a newborn baby and his personality was shaped by the events that had happened in his life. The creature's environment, good or bad, impacted his personality as well as the lack of love, and a combination of isolation and hatred, led the creature to turn towards a path of destruction.
Man by nature judges people and such based upon their appearance. If a person is charming then they will be given more of a chance to show people who they really are. If they are hideous or disfigured, they usually aren't given much of a chance to show their true colors. “Hideous” people are thought of as monsters and are rejected by MANY. People seem to be scared of the unknown and unfamiliar as well as being scared of things they do not really understand. Disfiguration is something that most people cannot look past. As Shelley states in Frankenstein
“His limbs were in proportion and I had selected his features as beautiful.
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Beautiful! - Great god! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing: his teeth of pearly whiteness: but the luxuriance only formed a more horrid contrast to his watery eyes… Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.” (P.56) This quote takes place a little bit after Frankenstein had given life to his creation. He had spent a years working on this one project. By nature he wanted his creation to be beautiful but when he realizes that his creation is far from beautiful, being deformed and hideous, he runs away. He does not spend any time with his creation because of how ashamed he is of the horrid appearance of his creation. From that point on the creature is cursed to receive that type of reaction from whomever he comes in contact with, because as said before, human nature is to fear the unknown. Frankenstein’s creation does not have anybody to nurture, protect, or teach him things needed in life. Victor says after he creates his creation "I beheld the wretch…His jaws opened and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear, on hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs." (P57). The creature opens his eyes looking for his creator. As the creature grins, he’s reaching out for Victor for guidance, thinking that is his father. Victor jumps to conclusions just by his horrid appearance, thinking he is out to attack him. As in this article it states, “It begins its life as any other baby, hungry for attention and the need for love and compassion. He, the creature, approaches humans in hopes of being accepted, but is beaten and unwelcome in return for his unguarded advance. He does not understand this, and is hurt and broken by the events that took place” (StudyMode Research). Victor is not interested on spending any time to finding out what he has created. Is he intelligent? Kind? Does he have any sort of feelings? He leaves his creation to fend for himself. As Victor runs away from his creation and forgets about him, he moves along with his own life. As years pass the creature spends this time lonesome and is rejected by society in many ways. “The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel....” (100) Upon the rejection he receives from the people in the village, he finds a family and hides in their farm. He begins to gain many new abilities such as speaking, reading and even the understanding of daily chores and poverty of the family just by simply observing the De Lacey family. Even though many think of Victor’s creation as a monster, it is more than clear that the creature did not start off life that way. Spending time watching and observing the De Lacey’s, the creatures amazed by these people and their doings. He is very generous towards them and even helps them pick their vegetables and shovel pathways for the girl known as Agatha. “My heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures; to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition” (P127). As you can see, the creature truly cares for this family and shows signs of consideration and love. But when the creature decides to show himself to the family, he is pushed aside and is rejected by them, he then declares war against all human. Mary Shelley puts this idea of the creature not being a monster until people refused to nurture him and push him to his breaking point. Victor and his creation then meet up a few years later in the woods, after Justine’s trial, the creature goes on to confront Victor with, "Remember, that I am thy creature, I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy and I shall again be virtuous…These bleak skies I hail, for they are kinder to me than your fellow beings. If the multitude of mankind knew of my existence, they would do as you do, and arm themselves for my destruction. Shall I not hate them who [hate] me? I will keep no terms with my enemies. I am miserable and they shall share my wretchedness." (P97). The creature tells Victor that he is his “fallen angel” meaning that he wishes that Victor would have actually raised him. The creature thought that he was born wholesome and good but as loneliness and misery hit due to the separation he had to keep from people because of his appearance, had made him feel like a true monster. People see him as a monster and make him feel as if he is one, so now he will begin to act like it. Lastly, one final but important aspect of nature versus nurture is the irony included in the novel. Even though it would have been expected for Victor to take responsibility for his actions and try to seek help for all the problems he has caused, he does not. He only considers himself as a victim and even free of all guilt he has caused. “I felt as if I had committed some great crime, the consciousness of which haunted me. I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn a horrible curse upon my head, as mortal as that of a crime” (P158). It is very ironic how he thinks he should not be the one to blame for the deaths of his family members by the monster when he was the one who created it.
If he would have taken care, nurtured and raised his creation properly, there would have been no victims and therefore nothing to take any blame of. It could have been as simple as nurturing him as any other human, with teaching his creation kindness, love and happiness towards others; if only Victor had just given in the time and effort. His creation required love to become kind but because he did not show or give love he is a monster himself. To blame is definitely on Victor for the deaths in his family since he created the creature, but he refuses to take blame. The irony of Victor murdering his own family makes it ludicrous for him to take no blame and place the entire fault on the creature that he totally OBSESSED over to
create. In Frankenstein, the theme has a strong presence of nature vs nurture. Throughout the story the reader is shown the evolution of the creature’s personality through events in his life. The creature had been born good, only wanting to be loved and taught right. But people’s ignorance only saw his appearance, never what was truly inside, as well as never giving the creature a choice but to become evil and hostile. At this point nurture prevailed over nature when the creature decided to behave as the people of the world saw him.
We must ask ourselves if his guilt pardons him from his actions. Is he truly a dark and disturbed person if he feels guilt? I believe the answer is yes, solely because his guilt isn't enough to push him to try and amend for his actions. As a man alone, Victor has not at all failed. Man is flawed and as such is expected to make mistakes. In Victor's case, his mistakes are many and much, but nothing less is to be expected of a man, who in his own nature, is nothing more than someone else's creation. He did however, fail as a creator who is responsible for the actions and wellbeing of those he creates. The creature's actions are to be seen as not just his own crimes but Victor's as well. I do still that he can be classified as a morally ambiguous character. I personally believe that Victor acted selfishly a majority of the novel and has a poor moral compass guiding his actions. However, others may argue that he was acting in a way he thought would benefit those around him. There is evidence to argue both side, thus leaving Victor morally
In Frankenstein, various themes are introduced. There are dangerous knowledge, sublime nature, nature versus nurture, monstrosity, and secrecy and guilt. I chose a main theme as nature versus nurture. Nature is some traits that a person is born with, and nurture is an environment that surrounds a person. The novel indirectly debates whether the development of individual is affected more by nature or by nurture through Victor and the Monster.
As a romantic, archetype and gothic novel, Victor is responsible for the monsters actions because Victor abandons his creation meaning the creature is dejected and ends up hideous and fiendish. It is unfair to create someone into this world and then just abandon it and not teach it how to survive. The quote from the creature “Why did you make such a hideous creature like me just to leave me in disgust” demonstrates how much agony the creature is in. He is neglected because of his creator. The monster says “The hateful day when I received life! I accurse my creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” Victor is wholly at fault for his actions, image and evil.
“I now hasten to the more moving part of my story. I shall relate events that impressed me with feelings which, from what I was, have made me what I am” (Shelley 92). Frankenstein’s Creature presents these lines as it transitions from a being that merely observes its surroundings to something that gains knowledge from the occurrences around it. The Creature learns about humanity from “the perfect forms of [his] cottagers” (90). Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein offers compelling insights into the everlasting nature versus nurture argument. Her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked.” Shelley believes that the nurture of someone, or something, in the Creature’s case, forms them into who they become and what actions they take. While this is true for Frankenstein’s Creature, the same cannot be said about Victor Frankenstein.
American psychologist and well renowned author Jerome Kagan states “Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form.” The topic of nature vs. nurture is highly known to the English literature community and is classified as a major aspect of gothic works. In the novel Frankenstein the author Mary Shelley uses the monster’s constant rejection from society to demonstrate that an individual’s traits are affected more by their environment and their surroundings than by nature.
When Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is analyzed, critics comes to a conclusion about Victor Frankenstein's creation. The creature invokes the most sympathy from the readers than any other character in the novel. Because he is abandoned by society which manipulates the creature to do evil things despite his good heart. Therefore Shelley's message throughout the novel is that a person is not born evil, they are made evil.
Victor’s thoughts of grander clouded his mind making him think “A new species would bless [him] as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to [him]”(Ch.4, p.39). But life never goes as planned and Victor dropped all his obligations when he realized what he had done. Victor never questioned if creating a new species was morally right because he imagined they’d be grateful for him more than anything. For Victor to full fill his dream he knew that there needed to be a mate for his creature but “[he] thought with a sensation of madness on [his] promise of creating another like him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged” (Ch.20, p.145). Instead of feeling like he owed his creature anything or thinking of the ethics of destroying his mate, Victor only cared for himself. On one hand it doesn’t seem like Victor desired to create pain and suffering when he created life. On the other hand it doesn’t seem like he should be free of all moral blame because he had good intentions even if it was difficult to be certain of those intentions. His lack of moral responsibility is only part of Victor but without the rest we wouldn’t have Doctor
The article “Moral Ignorance and Blameworthiness” states “There are less easily explained cases of ignorant wrongdoers: apparently ordinary people who knowingly cause suffering in pursuit of power or profit” (Mason). No one in their right mind would ever think that it is socially acceptable to create this creature, neglect it to the point where it runs away, and then not take responsibility for the actions of the creature that he created. There is a complete disconnect between Victor and the society that he lives in. For example, the reason that Victor neglects his creature is the fact that it is physically ugly.
After his creation, Frankenstein’s monster is left in isolation, cursed to endure people’s hatred towards him. This revulsion met by onlookers is merely based on the creature’s hideous looks. The monster is not actually a monster at all. He displays more humanity than many other characters in Frankenstein. The ultimate irony is that the prejudicial belief is what caused the reanimated human to become a monster. In the nature versus nurture debate, proponents of the nature theory believe that a person is unchanging and that one’s experiences do not affect that person’s behavior. If this were true, the monster would not change as a result of his interactions with humans. It is undeniable that the creature does immoral things, but when Frankenstein’s monster saves a little girl from drowning, Mary Shelley takes a clear stance that the creature was naturally noble but became monstrous as a result of interactions with humans.
Mary Shelley put a new outlook on nature versus nurture in human development. By making the monster’s being a blank slate, and morphing his personality based on the different events that shape his life, Shelley clearly states her support for the nurture side.
Society saw him as a repulsive monster that had no other intention that to harm people. This led them to shun him away from everyone. The creature himself also chose some decisions that were not the best options. Victor is responsible for taking care of hi creation. Most people in the world has one person that loves them, but if not one person does, mentally they can fall apart. People need to know that they may be contributing to the problem without even knowing it. All in all, everyone was at fault in some ways or another which led to the creature becoming a monster.
Despite the rash actions that Victor takes, he ultimately does assume complete responsibility for the creature that he brought into being. After the monster murders William, Justine is then tried for the murder. Victor accepts that it was his fault even though he was not the one that actually murdered him: "But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation" (74). Victor felt as if he had actually murdered both children because he had created the murderer. Even though in the end Justine took the official blame, Victor seized the responsibility so he took steps towards catching the monster and stopping him from killing anyone else. If he was not concerned with it being his fault one way or another he would not have continued to try to put the monster to rest. Later on, while Victor is creating a companion for the monster, he realizes the implications of a second creation: "Had I right, for my own benefit, t...
Andrew Lustig proposed a great question to the readers of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, “How far should we go in out efforts to alter nature, including human nature? As stewards of God’s creation what are our responsibilities?” (Lustig 1) This question results in theme of nature vs. nurture in the novel. The nature vs. nurture debate is an important topic in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. The two central characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature that he creates; both, characters were raised differently. The nature and the nurture of their upbringing can be a cause of why they are, the way they are. Victor and his creature are subject to very different nurturing styles. Shelley also incorporates the representations of light and fire. This representation is key to the nature vs. nurture discussion in the novel.
Man by nature, judges people and things by their appearance. If a person is pleasant looking then they will be given more of a chance to express their internal self. If they are ugly, or cosmetically deformed, they usually aren't given much of a chance to show who they really are. Grotesquely ugly people are sometimes thought of as monsters, and are ostracized. Many cosmetically inferior people are afraid to go out into society. Mankind seems to be fearful of the unfamiliar and unknown. People are afraid of what they do not understand. Deformaty is something that most people can not comprehend.
Fortunately, he is not completely soulless and devoid of sympathy for his fallen loved ones. He may not feel personally responsible for the deaths, but he does feel guilty about them. After the wrongful execution of the beloved Justine, Victor becomes “seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried [him] to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe” (Chp. 9). Here Victor genuinely does feel sorrowful over the deaths in his family, but he still doesn’t believe that he was directly responsible for the events that unfold. He even has the chance to help exonerate Justine because he knows that the murderer is the creature.