The Nature Of Humanity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

1029 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The creature of Frankenstein

The Nature of Humanity People can be swayed by their emotions, and due to this, people will sometimes not see what they need to see until it’s too late. Frankenstein is a novel by Mary Shelley that describes the story of Victor Frankenstein’s experience with his creation. In this novel, Shelley uses intertext and includes the poem “Mutability” by her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. This poem is:
“We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep.
We rise; one wand’ring thought pollutes the day.
We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep,
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away;
It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free.
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but mutability!”
The inclusion …show more content…

When the creature starts out, he is similar to a newborn baby, where he’s figuring out how to use his senses and survive, while also paying attention to his surroundings to learn. However, while this helps him live, it also allows him to understand how the world of humans really sees him. He encounters many hardships during his travels, each of which seem to hurt him more and more, not only physically, but mentally as well. One circumstance in particular was when he saves a drowning girl, only to be rewarded with a bullet to his body, and left alone full of pain and suffering. However, this one interaction causes him to become fully induced with rage, and he “vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (169). Even though he has been hurt many times before, the creature has not killed once, regardless of the fact he’s had the ability to do so. But, after this encounter with the girl and his attacker, he meets William, who he finds out to be part of the Frankenstein family. Fueled by his rage at what his creator caused him to become, he kills the boy and hopes for the suffering of Victor. The creature tried his best to be benevolent, was eventually overcome by his anger at Victor’s seemingly obliviousness to his feelings. In the end, this leads to how Victor is the reason his creation is doing what he’s doing, showing how his actions make him more monstrous than what the creature has

Show More
Related

  • The Values Of Society In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, values of society are clearly expressed. In this particular society and culture, a great value is placed on ideologies of individuals and their contribution to society. In order to highlight these values, Shelley utilizes the character of Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein is the main character of the novel, and with his alienation, he plays a significant role that reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions and moral values of individualism and use in society. This is done through Victor’s actions of self-inflicted isolation.

    Read More

  • Potiki And The Art Of Telling Stories

    965 Words  | 2 Pages

    “It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)

    Read More

  • Mutability In Frankenstein

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shelley 98) . Shelley’s usage of the last two stanzas of “Mutability” provide a key interpretation of the key ideas present in chapter 10 of Frankenstein. The first line in stanza three of “Mutability”, “We rest – a dream has power to poison sleep,” provides an inference to the creation of the monster (M. Shelley 94). Victor has righteous intentions while he is working on the creation of his creature, however, the creature’s hideous appearance and the creature’s misdoings forever tarnishes and poisons his sleep, making Victor feel worried and miserable. Further, in chapter 10, when Victor is feeling relaxed, but his dream, the creature, appears making him feel worried and miserable. The second line in stanza three of “Mutability”, “ We rise—one wandering thought pollutes the day”, furnishes the fact of the creature’s creation. Victor’s creation began as a sudden inspiration or a “wandering thought” (M. Shelley 94). It is only when the dream attains to reality does Victor realize the immense mistake he has committed by creating the creature as his creature is responsible for deaths of Justine and William converts

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Human Connections In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the author’s view concerning the role that human connections play is that humans need others in their lives in order to function correctly. As conveyed by Shelley, isolation and separation from any other beings leads to misery. Not having companions around also leads to a lack of the ability to behave constructively. Shelley’s views are conveyed throughout the novel through the decaying well being of certain characters.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Out of Class Essay

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...

    Read More

  • Frankensteins Innocence

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...

    Read More

  • Loss Of Humanity In Frankenstein

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rage and vengeance are very familiar emotions that are expressed by the creature. Because these feelings are human flaws in character, the creature allows these hurtful emotions to hurt his character of “kindness and gentleness”. Deeply hurt by such an attack for his good deed, his ire is provoked and like a human would, he reacts impulsively. A spectrum of

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: Humanity's Curiosity: Frankenstein

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Frankenstein defied human boundaries when he created the monster and because of this not only his life, but the lives of others have also shifted, this has caused their lives to spiral into an unjustified conclusion. Curiosity was the main cause of him learning how to create such a thing, his lack of caring for the thing that he created led to his undoing. His motivation for creating life, comes from the fact that he lost someone dear to him. Although Victor was young when his mother died, it had serious effects on the way he viewed life and maybe even himself. Once you take on the father role you have to stick to it, otherwise creating life

    Read More

  • Humanity In Frankenstein Essay

    2530 Words  | 6 Pages

    “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly explores the concept of the body, life, ‘the self’ and most of importantly humanity, which is repeatedly questioned throughout the novel. The definition of humanity is the quality of being humane or in other words someone that can feel or possess compassion. Despite all the facts against the “monster” in “Frankenstein” he is indeed what one would consider being human. Humanity isn’t just about ones physical appearance but also includes intellect and emotion. Some people argue that the “monster” is not a human for he was not a creature that was born from “God” or from a human body. That being said, the “monster” is not only able to speak different languages, he can also show empathy - one of many distinct traits that set humans apart from the animals. Both the “monster” and his creator, Victor, hold anger and feel a sense of suffering throughout the novel. Victor is a good person with good intentions just like most individuals, but makes the mistake of getting swept up into his passion of science and without thinking of the consequences he creates a “monster”. After completing his science project, he attempts to move forward with his life, however his past – i.e., the “monster” continues to follow and someone haunt him. While one shouldn’t fault or place blame on Frankenstein for his mistakes, you also can’t help but feel somewhat sympathetic for the creature. Frankenstein just wants to feel accepted and loved, he can’t help the way he treats people for he’s only mimicking how people have treated him, which in most cases solely based on his appearance. Unlike most of the monsters we are exposed to in films past and present, the character of the “monster” ...

    Read More

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

    1800 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein originated as a ghost story told among her close friends. "It was a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils" (Shelley 34) is the first line Shelley conceived when she began composing her famous novel. In this sentence, the "accomplishment" to which Victor Frankenstein refers is the creation, which receives animation on this "dreary night." By calling the creation his "accomplishment," Victor unintentionally names the creation. However, by the end of this "dreary night," Victor names the creation no less than six times, each time getting progressively more derogatory, and more insulting. This evolution of Victor’s attitude about the creation occurs during the time immediately following the creation. In these few hours, Victor’s imagination creates an increasingly grotesque image of the creation. This developed condemnation that Victor imposes onto the creation is similar to all of the creation’s other encounters with human beings. This repeated rejection causes the creation to realize that "All men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things" (Shelley 65). Eventually, therefore, the creation accepts its role as a monster based solely on the reactions it receives from other human beings. However, these spiteful reactions are inspired by irrational fears that result from the human nature of the characters to form preconceptions about the creation based on their prior experiences.

    Read More

  • Mary Shelley Challenges Society in Frankenstein

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Romantic writer Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein does indeed do a lot more than simply tell story, and in this case, horrify and frighten the reader. Through her careful and deliberate construction of characters as representations of certain dominant beliefs, Shelley supports a value system and way of life that challenges those that prevailed in the late eighteenth century during the ‘Age of Reason’. Thus the novel can be said to be challenging prevailant ideologies, of which the dominant society was constructed, and endorsing many of the alternative views and thoughts of the society. Shelley can be said to be influenced by her mothers early feminist views, her father’s radical challenges to society’s structure and her own, and indeed her husband’s views as Romantics. By considering these vital influences on the text, we can see that in Shelley’s construction of the meaning in Frankenstein she encourages a life led as a challenge to dominant views.

    Read More

  • Human Nature in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external apperence and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is seaverly deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appereance which is grotesque. Human nature is to judge by external apperence. He is automatically ostracized and labeled as a monster because of his external apperence. He finnaly realized that no matter how elequintly he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust. The creature is treated as a monster, therefore he begins to internalize societies view of him and act the like a monster.

    Read More

  • Essay On Frankenstein Tragedy

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    Victor plays the role of God and creates his “Adam” but unlike the Adam from the bible, the creature is not designed in a perfect image or guarded by the care of his creator. The creature compares himself to Satan when he says “I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; …like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me” (228). The creature was forsaken his first days of living and learned about the society of humans through observation and reading. God introduced Adam to the world with everything provided and guided him his early days of life. He saw Adams loneliness and granted him a mate. The creature asks Frankenstein for a companion as a last chance to become happy and good hearted. Victor destroys his hope and brings more tragedy among him by doing so. God creates all things good, Victor took his Job as a creator and his creation became malignant because unlike God he was ashamed of his creation. From that point on the creatures’ heart becomes cold and makes sure to destroy his creator. When Victor dies the creature repents for the damage that he has done and would live with continuing pain till his death. “…My agony was still superior to thine; for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever” (380).

    Read More

  • The Judgmentation Of Society In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    597 Words  | 2 Pages

    Society is a concept found in all aspects of life; it is a slant which is impossible to avoid. For instance; sadly in life society labels things or people as good or bad, poor or rich, ugly or pretty. The literary piece of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley clearly reflects this act of society in which they classify all things. The novel reflects how society labels everything; by being judgmental from the way the family is seen, how people view Frankenstein as a monster, and how the monster is affected, his conduct gets altered by all of society judgmental actions.

    Read More

  • Work Based Learning

    2811 Words  | 6 Pages

    Work-based learning (WBL) as a method for learning is playing an increasing role in professional development and lifelong learning. There are lots of publications/articles available on Work-Based Learning, but the definitions and implementations vary from place to place. A Glass, K Higgins and A McGregor say that ‘Work based learning is any training that relates directly to the requirements of the jobs on offer in your organization’. This is one of the examples of WBL in the form of training. Work-based Learning is used as a terms in USA, for programs for school children to obtain experience from work (“Work-based Learning Guide 2002”). According to (Kathleen A. Paris and Sarah A. Mason) it gives a chance to young people to be prepared for the changeover from school to work and, to learn the realities of work and be prepared to make the right choice of work. In Europe (particularly in England, Scotland, Ireland) and in Australia available commendation is more focused on on-the-job preparation and on academic learning linked to work situations, Degree programs and negotiated learning programs.

    Read More

More about The Nature Of Humanity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Open Document