Malicious Behavior in Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein

1110 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Focus on the individual in Frankenstein

Frankenstein and His Terrible Choices

Emotion is a sharp double-sided blade. It has the ability to do either good or harm. Humans have been known to start wars because of spite or anger. They can also be very delicate and fragile emotionally. Therefore, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the lack of companionship and love can lead to malicious behavior.

All people need love or support in order to thrive. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the creature that Frankenstein creates is extremely lonely and states:

If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundredfold; for that one creature’s sake I would make peace with the whole kind... I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself... Oh creator, make me happy... Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing... .(Shelley 148)

This ties into a certain sense that many take for granted, the sense of touch. The creature has been living alone for at least a year with only the family of De Lacey for pseudo company. However, he never really makes contact with them, meaning that he is deprived of an important aspect for feeling love and comfort: the sense of touch.

Research by Darlene Francis and Michael Meaney has shown that rats that were groomed by their mother in infancy were more calm and had a stronger immune system when they grew up (Keltner). Humans have pressure receptors called Pacinian corpuscles under their skin (Trudeau). When the pressure receptors are stimulated, it sends signals to the vagus nerve, which is responsible for lowering blood pressure and slowing the heart beat (Trudeau). The vagus nerve then releases oxytocin (Trudeau). Oxytocin is defined by Merriam-Webster dict...

... middle of paper ...

...Facts On File, 1818. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. .

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. N.p.: Tom Doherty Associates, 1988. Print.

Szalavitz, Maia. “Measure of a Mother’s Love: How Early Neglect Derails Child Development.” Time. Time, 24 May 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. .

Trudeau, Michelle. “Human Connections Start with a Friendly Touch.” NPR: National Public Radio. NPR, 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. .

Show More
Related

  • How Does Mary Shelley Create Sympathy For The Monster In Frankenstein

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, Before the monster is created Victor says that he hopes this creation would bless him as his creator, and that the creature would be excellent nature and would be beautiful. After the creature is created Shelley creates sympathy for him by Victor’s description of him in a unique yet horrific way, “he’s ‘gigantic,” “deformed,” “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” this makes the creature abhorrent to typical humans. When thinking of the descriptions together, Shelley has created a vivid, unnatural image of the monster in the mind’s eyes. The language Shelley uses is powerful and emotive “shall I create another like yourself, whose joints wickedness

    Read More

  • Impulsive Behavior In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    Did you ever notice that human nature revolves around needs, desires, and wants? There are different types of needs, such as safety, social, basic needs. These desires and impulses gives us our survival and the ability to function in the environment we live in. Our subconscious mind is responsible for the decisions we make, and such impulses makes us commit actions we have no control of. In literature, we are able to understand and judge the character’s behavior more so than our own.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Insecurity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein '

    1078 Words  | 3 Pages

    One in the Same The creature, a creation by the selfish and glory seeking scientist, Victor notes, “Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames”( Shelley 186). Before vanishing, the creature expresses these last words to communicate his frustration toward all of the circumstances in his life. He describes all the challenges in his life as “burning miseries” because they have been with him his entire life, and they force him to live his life in ways he did not imagine.

    Read More

  • The Morally Ambiguity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1901 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's Ability to Create Sympathy for the Monster

    1840 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is ‘one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction’, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the ‘mysterious fears of our nature’. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of “playing God”, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus’ gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creature’s first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different. We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think.

    Read More

  • Betrayals And Betrays In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Literature often works as depicted act of betrayal. Many people, friends, and family may portray a protagonist, but they will likewise be guilty of treachery or betrayal to their own values. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, there is acts of betrayal between Victor Frankenstein and the monster. In the Novel Victor Frankenstein is a betrayal of life itself because it should be given naturally and not created by a scientist man. The monster is actually the one who is majorly betrayed, he may look like a hideous dangerous monster on the outside but, not one within himself. From the beginning of the novel, Victor betrays the monster, and this betrayal is seen on many levels throughout the novel. The tragic figure in Mary Shelley’s horror novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, is truly the instrument of betrayal to his creation of the monster because life should be given naturally not by creation of suffering and horrific which is made by man.

    Read More

  • Sympathy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Creature was born capable of thing such as love and sympathy though he lost these capabilities as a result of how he was treated. The creature’s heart was ‘fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy’ but wrenched with misery to ‘vice and hatred’. On a cold night in November, Victor Frankenstein brought his creation to life. This creation has thin black lips, inhuman eyes, and

    Read More

  • Victor Frankenstein as the True Monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein pursues, with a passion lacking in other aspects of his life, his individual quest for knowledge and glory. He accepts the friendships and affections given him without reciprocating. The "creature," on the other hand, seems willing to return affections, bringing wood and clearing snow for the DeLaceys and desiring the love of others, but is unable to form human attachments. Neither the creature nor Victor fully understands the complex relationships between people and the expectations and responsibilities that accompany any relationship. The two "monsters" in this book, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, are the only characters without strong family ties; the creature because Frankenstein runs from him, and Victor because he runs from his family.

    Read More

  • Abuse Of Power And Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    523 Words  | 2 Pages

    Monsters, in myths and legends, are ugly beasts with vicious tendencies and overbearing powers who bring suffering and agony to those who cross their paths, regardless of intention. However, the same cannot be said for Mary Shelley's monster, the Creation. Victor Frankenstein's lab experiment emphasizes the danger of not taking responsibility for one's own actions and knowledge, by being an instrument of Victor's suffering.

    Read More

  • Blind Ambition in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mary Shelley, the renowned author of Frankenstein, explores the consequences of man and monster chasing ambition blindly. Victor Frankenstein discovered the secret that allowed him to create life. His understanding of how bodies operated and the science of human anatomy enabled him to make this discovery and apply it to the creation of his monster. Walton wished to sail to the arctic because no sailor has ever reached it. The monster was created against his will, his ambition was to avenge his creation as a hideous outcast. These three characters were all driven by the same blind ambition.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: Less Human Than His Creation

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone?”

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    The human heart is simply forgiving and caring, except in the most extreme circumstances. Romanticism was a time of becoming "in tune with one's self as well as nature." (Rajan 3) They view simplistic happiness as the foundation of a happy life and Mary Shelley makes the reader feel as if the creature has been robbed of a chance of the experience while Victor has had it stripped away from him. This is the other subtle example of Romanticism in Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Dangerous Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1622 Words  | 4 Pages

    Albert Einstein once said, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.” Einstein believes that there is a point where the acquisition of knowledge becomes dangerous for humans. Mary Shelley extensively explores the effect dangerous knowledge has on the characters in her book Frankenstein. Throughout the book, Frankenstein and the creature are corrupted by knowledge that changes their outlooks on life. In both cases, the information that corrupts the characters was not meant for them to be discovered. When Frankenstein is discovered in the Arctic by a sailor named Walton, he is taken on board of Walton’s boat. Frankenstein then tells Walton about his quest for information, and it changes Walton’s perspective on the pursuit of

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary Shelley expresses various ethical issues by creating a mythical monster called Frankenstein. There is some controversy on how Mary Shelley defines human nature in the novel, there are many features of the way humans react in situations. Shelley uses a relationship between morality and science, she brings the two subjects together when writing Frankenstein, and she shows the amount of controversy with the advancement of science. There are said to be some limits to the scientific inquiry that could have restrained the quantity of scientific implications that Mary Shelley was able to make, along with the types of scientific restraints. Mary Shelley wrote this classic novel in such a way that it depicted some amounts foreshadowing of the world today. This paper will concentrate on the definition of human nature, the controversy of morality and science, the limits to scientific inquiry and how this novel ties in with today’s world.

    Read More

  • Passion And Responsibility In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.

    Read More

More about Malicious Behavior in Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein

Open Document