The Concepts of Creation and Nurture in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818 she had lost her own
mother and three children. It is against this background of loss that
many chose to explore the possibility of bringing the dead back to
life. As the daughter of William Galdwin, Mary would have known about
many of the major scientific developments during her days. In
particular she would have known Galvini and his experiment with frogs'
legs, and is likely this motion of electricity was one of the factors
that influenced her choice of the subject. Frankenstein is an
examination of scientific success, but also brings up the question
parental responsibilities, and how important nature and nurture is in
bringing up a child. What Shelley asks are the consequences of taking
a god like role? To answer this we must examine Frankenstein.
In the very first chapter of Frankenstein it begins with an account of
his parents' courtship and marriage and the first views of Victor.
'Broken in spirit'
Mary Shelley's very first description of Victor is described as
discontented. Therefore Mary Shelley uses this very opening to prepare
the reader for the horror to follow in her description of Victors'
despair. Nurturing could also be considered in this chapter where as
Victors' feelings are not taken into account by his parents where then
this is turning point in his life.
As Victor grew older he receives less attention and was not nurtured
as much. He is left to his own devices without much direction from his
parents. When he recalls the moment the event at the age of thirteen
he finds an Agrippa alchemist bo...
... middle of paper ...
...ole.
In Frankenstein Mary Shelley strongly shows that nothing is born bad,
but is the lack of nurture that decides whether a child is brought up
to become either good or evil. This is shown when the creature
discovers how to produce a fire, then nurtures it self that it can be
used to warm itself. However due to the lack of nurturing he uses this
fire for the wrong reasons such as using it to light the cottage. But
the prime example of the concept of creation and nurture Frankenstein
creating an monster, not realising the out come of this ambition to
bring the dead back to life, then also to failing to nurture this
creature and as a result brings unhappiness to this world. Mary
Shelley proves that even though Frankenstein was a scientific success,
he didn't nurture its child hence it is claimed as a parental failure.
“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.
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, has captured people’s attention since it was first written. People often wonder how much of Mary Shelley’s life is documented in her novel. From the theme of parental abandonment, to the theme of life and death in the novel, literary scholars have been able to find similarities between Frankenstein and Shelley’s life. The Journal of Religion and Health, the Journal of Analytical Psychology, and the Modern Psychoanalysis discuss the different connections between Shelley’s life and Frankenstein. Badalamenti, the author of “ Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein?” in the Journal of Religion and Health, primarily discusses the connection between Victor
With the different trips that Victor endures individually, it hints a sense of individuality as he seeks isolation from the world. He is also a very emotional man, who loves his family. As death of his family members occurs, he becomes emotionally unstable and seeks revenge against his creation. Ultimately trying to end the life he so vigorously wanted to create. This reflects both the passion and individualism theme from the Romantic
...ntion he longed for, both of their lives would have turned out better than they did. The monster looked at Victor as his father, and Victor left him desolate, only causing the monster suffering (Nardo 32). He exposed the creature to cruelty (Nardo 33). Victor gave the monster only a pinch of happiness by agreeing to make him a female companion, but that happy moment faded once Victor discarded the parts of the second creation. This only made the poor wretch’s life more despondent than it already previously was (Britton 8). The depravity of love and affection caused by Victor caused the monster’s life to be dreadful.
...her – the superior excellence – was instrumental in the development of the mind of Victor. Victor’s primary companion, his father, retained power over him until the end. Alphonse made sure that Victor was educated and taught him the ways of society. Although he showed Victor unconditional love and cared about his well-being until his death, his parenting can be seen as overbearing and lacking in true caring—the kind of parenting that isolates instead of embraces. It was this faulty fathering that ultimately led Victor to become the “mad scientist,” capable of creating life but with no capacity to love what he had created.
...ions toward one another. However, Frankenstein’s uncaring, negligent-parent approach to his creation who emotionally resembles a lost child, allows Shelley to establish the conflict between scientific discovery and moral consequence, as well as the greater conflict between right and wrong. She allows the audience to question who the true villain is in the story, and allow each reader to determine for themselves if the “parent” Frankenstein or the “childlike” monster is truly to blame for all the evil deeds that occur. Today, our society should view Frankenstein as a cautionary tale of the possibilities and consequences of scientific discovery mixed with greed.
His ambitions are what isolate him and bring to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated from everyone, including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge.
This challenge which brewed deep within Victor makes him forget about his own life and leads him into isolation and a complete concentration on project. Blinded by his quest, Victor is unable to measure the consequences of what he is trying to do. Victor returns home feeling frustrated and feeling as though all his hard work had ended in the utmost failure. In addition, Victor feels guilty, realizing that his creation is the cause of his little brother’s death. During this time, he also encounters that an innocent victim, Justine, is sentenced and condemned, a person of great significance, someone like a sister, to the love of his life, Elizabeth. In analyzing the following paragraph, the reader is able to see the difficulty that Victor has in expressing his emotions.
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.
Victor’s initial isolation as a child foreshadows the motif of detachment that occurs throughout the novel. As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that combined with insufficient parenting Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most
Frankenstein Essay With the same hands Frankenstein built the monster, he holds his dying wife. Throughout Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein and his creation fight against each other as ambition, abandonment and the lack of responsibility result in the downfall of both. Frankenstein represents a parental figure in his creation. Their conflict arises through the years leading up to Frankenstein’s creation and continues for years while taking the lives of multiple people. Frankenstein’s knowledge and ambition, the creature’s life in isolation, and the poor relationship between the two result in their conflict.
In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered to be a historical novel, based on scientific advancements. In this novel Shelley depicts her own definition of human nature, by showing the Creature and the ways that humans reacted to him. The novel also showed the differences between morality and science. The differences of science from when Shelley wrote the novel until today, including the foreshadowing of what would happen if we use science for the worse.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Creature educates and learns more about what he is through reading famous books of the past. One of the more important books The Creature reads in the novel is John Milton’s Paradise Lost. By having The Creature read Paradise Lost, Mary Shelley is able to contrast the very idea of creation, and what it means to be a “Creator” versus what it means to be a “Creation”. John Milton presents creation in Paradise Lost as a symbiotic relationship between creator and creation, as without one, the other will not thrive to full potential. On the other hand, Mary Shelley’s presentation of creation is completely opposite to John Milton’s. In Frankenstein, the entire novel focuses on an ongoing battle between creator
What is the creation of Frankenstein? Firstly, it is a creature artificially created by a person from parts of the body of deceased people and remotely resembling the person himself. Secondly, this being is self-conscious, learning, developing, and also able to feel. Thinking began to appear in him almost from the very moment of its creation, self-awareness, in the process of his acquaintance with nature and the surrounding world, which he perceived categorically enough, and language. The result of his observations of the inhabitants of the hut near which he founded his home. “ By degrees, I made a discovery of still greater moment. I gaunt that those people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by
To hear the miserable cry of an unfairly punished child weeping “I never asked to be born!” is a terrible sound. And In 1823, the first literary work to whimper those words was released; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in London, England. Although many people think they know the real story, they don’t. A young man by the name of Victor Frankenstein, unable to understand the intricacies of giving life, is spurred on by his lack of knowledge into an intense urge to produce it. But when his creation actually appears before him, he is overcome and unable to submit to the responsibilities of his child. So instead he backpedals and leaves the child to stand on it’s own two feet. Therefore it submits itself to the cruel bashing and beating of the world, and in turn conceiving a broken and banged up child due to it’s lack of care and no one to look after it. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victor to act as a symbolic mother who thoughtlessly bestowed life, but after seeing the severe repercussions it can have on his future – he aborts. In turn leaving the creature to be battered and beaten alone in the world: “a man left to himself from birth would be more of a monster than the rest” (Shelley 46). Thus showing how the state of a child relies on the responsibility of the parent, for if not given the proper means of growth in a stable environment, it can turn into a monster. Specifically, if Victor had acted as an ideal adult bound by the moral obligation of a creator, the creature would not have become a monster. This is important to Shelley because her mother died giving birth to her. After her death, her father never forgave her; he alienated her as if she was an orphan. Therefore Shelley makes an urgent request to her readers ...