Nature Vs Nurture Frankenstein Essay

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the author characterizes each female character as disposable and serving as a utilitarian function. The readers cannot help but notice that the female characters seem to have little substance compared to the male characters. There is an indirect debate in the novel, whether the development of individual is affected more by nature or by nurture through Victor and the Monster. Nature is a trait that a person inherits, and nurture is a process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something. The two themes, gender roles and nature versus nurture, play a major role in the novel Frankenstein.

The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is about a very intelligent scientist who creates

a monster. Victor Frankenstein, the main character, is obsessed about having control over life and death. When the monster he creates finally comes to life, Frankenstein is terrified from it. The monster ends up running away. The monster just wants to be accepted by everyone, but is not because of his non-human features. The monster is so mad at Victor for abandoning him and at humankind for not accepting him. He ends up killing Victor’s little brother, best friend, and wife. Victor devotes himself to finding the monster and getting revenge. Victor even goes northward into the ice. Victor grows ill and dies. Then the monster reappears crying over Victor. He tells Walton, Victor’s friend on the voyage, about his sufferings and hatred. Victor is dead, the monster can end his sufferings too. He then goes off to the north to die.
Feminism is a major theme in Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein from three different points of views, all of them were males. Justine is the first female character that the readers see as passive. She gets tossed back from home to home, and finally settles with the Frankenstein’s. She then gets framed for a murder. Justine states, “God knows how entirely I am innocent. But I do not pretend that my protestations should acquit me; I rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation of the facts…” (Shelley 65). Her speech shows passivity. She even states ““But I have no power of explaining it…I am only left to conjecture concerning the probabilities by which it might have been placed in my pocket’” (Shelley 66). Justine knows that she has no power. She becomes a submissive victim. Women in this novel are represented through the men’s perception. They are described with a small amount of detail, which reduces the importance of women in the novel. Victor Frankenstein says, “…Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house – my more than sister – the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures” “I have a pretty present for my Victor, … she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally, and looked upon Elizabeth as mine – mine to protect, love, and cherish” (Shelley 29). This line represents Elizabeth in Victor ’s point of view. This line shows how men see women as people they need to protect. It stereotypes women as weak and needing a man to assure their safety. Victor describes her as a submissive and gentle character from the beginning. She had a soft spot for Victor, but he viewed her as a possession. Elizabeth is a victim in this game the males play throughout the novel. She gets used for revenge, along with the other female characters.
Elizabeth is the next female character after Victors mother to get portrayed as the “perfect woman.” She takes on the role of being the mother figure in the house.

Victor’s character, along with the other male characters in the story, is described in detail as opposed to the women in the novel. When Victor’s best friend Henry dies, the readers feel sympathy toward Victor. They knew how close Victor and Henry were. When Elizabeth gets murdered, that connection with Victor is not there. Throughout the novel there is never a real connection between Victor and Elizabeth that’s stated. Elizabeth and the other female characters are there to just reflect the men in the novel. Johanna Smith states in her critical essay, "Women function not in their own right but rather as signals of and conduits for men's relations with other men" (Smith 283). One example of men using women for their fights is when the monster kills Elizabeth on their wedding night. The monster kills Elizabeth not because he’s angry with her, but because he is upset with Victor. Women in this novel are just used by the men. Elizabeth is used to measure the relationship between the monster and Victor. Diane Hoeveler argues, “Victor's inability to allow the female creature to live is, for feminist critics, more than narcissism; it is another instance of the misogyny and fear of female sexuality that Shelley exposes and condemns” (Hoeveler 46). The monster asks Victor to create a female companion for him. Victor first

starts to make her, and then he rips her apart half way through it. Hoeveler argues in her critique that Shelley creates submissive females in her novel because of fear of female sexuality.
Another main theme that is expressed throughout the novel is nature versus nurture. Both Victor and the monster have an inherited nature that affects their ways of life. They have very different nurturing styles. Nature is responsible for the fall of Victor. Nature and nurture is responsible for the fall of the monster. Shelley presents a normal man, who is good, but gets corrupted by society. She tries to prove that nurture is the leading factor, which forms the monsters behavior.
The monster was born without any knowledge of good or bad, just like a baby. Laura Claridge states in her criticism, “A neglected child will undoubtedly ask questions of its existence and seek answers. Victor‘s crusade for knowledge is a response to the lack of answers from his parents. Furthermore, the monster has similar feelings of emptiness and seeks enlightenment as well” (Claridge). Just like a baby, the monster does not know anything about the world and society. The way the monster got treated by Victor and society, made him become violent. Victors main responsibility was to love, protect, and nurture the monster. Society also does not accept the monster either. They are disgusted on his appearance, just like Victor. Victor was terrified of the monster when it came to life, so he ended up abandoning it. The monster then turns violent. This is just like children. Once parent abandon their child, they usually misbehave. The monster then goes off into the real world by himself. The monster explains, “I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, can done of the women fainted… some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country”(Shelley 132). The monster gets rejected by not only Victor, but by every other person around him too. The monsters wish was just for everyone to accept him. This leads him to violence. The DeLacey family he watches from the outside nurtures the monster. The nurturing care he receives while watching the family overcomes his animal like character. Only through nurture was this monster able to have this newfound knowledge. It is true that the only way the creature would have self-consciousness is through the experience he had felt through the observation of the DeLacey family. The monster ends up begs Victor to make him a female monster. He does not want to be alone in the world anymore. The monster tells Victor, “I am malicious because I am miserable.” All experiences shape perceptions of how the world is viewed.
Victor is just like the monster in many ways.

Claridge explains, “In early chapters, Victor‘s quest for knowledge is a difficult one, and when he finally discusses his learning with his father, he is told to not waste his time on "sad trash". Victor is then left on his own to pursue knowledge, much like his monster”(Claridge). The monster and Victor are both on their own in the world. Victor is obsessed with science because of his father. The readers get the sense that Victor does not stay close to his home for a reason. That reason would be his father talking down on his knowledge and creations. The only difference between the monster and victor is that Victor had a family and friends, unlike the monster. The monster had no one to turn to when he was left

alone.
Throughout Shelley’s novel, the effects of the nature vs. nurture argument are illustrated through Frankenstein and the monster he creates. Though a female author created all of the female characters mentioned, each of them has a very demeaning characterization. Shelley’s women are materialized, used, abused, and easily discarded. All of them live their fictional lives to serve a very specific function and impact a man’s life.