Nature Vs. Nurture In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Does one enter the world evil or does one become malicious gradually because of life experiences? Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a fiction story about the scientist Victor Frankenstein and his destructive creation of a monster that ruins his life. The monster that Victor creates is born good but corrupted by the world. As the world, in fear, continually rejects the monster, he quickly transitions from a being who was good to an evil one. Reading the novel, the science of human behavior comes into question. In the novel Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley uses the monster’s constant rejection from society to show that a person’s traits are effected more by his environment than by his nature. The idea of nature vs. nurture comes into

As we know, he already had begun to see himself as an outcast from early on. But, if the world had not run in fear of him, he might not have questioned his differences. He talks o the bible and compares himself by stating, “Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.”(Frankenstein VII, Ch.VII Pg. 90 Para. 2) The creature begins to see himself in a negative light as he looks upon the De Lacey family, his protectors, in a high regard. He gains insight on human history, the war filled, bloody and revengeful civilization. After learning about war and revenge, it was not surprising to see him transition to a malicious being later on. His true corruption finally comes from his harsh social treatment. He goes into the cottage hoping to be accepted by the family he so strongly admires Everything changes after he reveals himself to the cottagers and they react with fear and rejection. According to the article, Revisiting Nature Vs. Nurture: Implications for the Teaching/Learning Process, author and psychologist Fred French states, “The importance of family, community and schooling as factors affecting the teaching/learning process are critical to intellectual growth and capacity, particularly during childhood and in the early adult years”. If all someone knows is hate and

The Nature-nurture Controversy. New York: King's Crown, 1949. Print.) The importance of nurturing a human being is that all circumstances has such an immense impact on what the child will become. In the case of the monster in Frankenstein, his rejection from Victor is the center of the events that take place in the novel. Every event that the monster experienced was negative. As we already know, the more the monster had learned, the more he disliked the world. For instance, his first experience with love was the book, Sorrows of Werther, a negative story about it. If a child's understanding and encounters of humanity are all detrimental, how can they be expected to be anything but evil? The monster was not inherently evil, his harsh social treatment lead him to become that way. He was never accepted by mankind not because of his hideousness but because he never was taught to