The Path Of Innocent Maturity In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley

In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a book about a monster created by Victor frankenstein who falls off his path of innocent purity due to various factors. Victor Frankenstein’s creature was propelled toward the path of destruction considering his continuous cycle of fallen hopes, the fact he never had a role model to teach him right from wrong, and the abuse he endures as a result of his pure intentions. If we were born into the same situation to which the monster was born into, we too would fall off the path of kindness as soon as we would see the treatment that would result from always giving and never receiving.

A common theme in Frankenstein is Victor’s creature’s raised and fallen expectations. For example, Mary Shelley writes,

“Presently I heard the sound of footsteps along the passage; the door opened, and the wretch whom I dreaded appeared. Shutting the door, he approached me and said in a smothered voice, "You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare to break your promise? I have endured toil and misery;” This quote shows how the monster was looking forward to having a partner in the prejudice world. Victor teases the monster by starting on his mate in front of him, and then destroying his expectations having the normal happy life, Victor failed to provide. At this point of the book Victor becomes negatively associated by the monster for his source of unhappiness. After all, Victor did bring him into a world where he is hated and constantly being called, a “Monster” merely off his physical appearance.
The monster was also persuaded to the path of immorality and destruction considering he had no one to nurture him or teach him to be a moral figure. The monster had to learn about the effects of prejudice in the world alone by looking at how people would react to something as simple as his present.”On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms, hastened towards the deeper parts of the wood. I followed speedily, I hardly knew why; but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body and fired.” Having insinuations of who you are based on appearance can be the turning point for a creature like Victor’s monster. This part of the book is the most important because it is when he finally gives up on the possibility of having faith for a relationship with human beings. Before this the monster swears revenge on all human beings. Then he tries to save a drowning girl and is rewarded with a bullet to the leg. This is the point where the monster embraces the name that everyone has given him. With a strong role model, or any presence of a stable figure in the monster’s life, he would be able to better, manage his emotions evoked from the circumstance he had been wrongfully born into.
Another factor that contributed to Victor’s creature falling off the path of morality is the abuse he endures.

Not only does frankenstein endure abandonment abuse, but he also endures verbal abuse from many of the characters of the book. For example, Victor’s brother says, “Monster! Ugly wretch! You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces. You are an ogre.” When people constantly tell someone that they are evil, a mistake, or “a monster”, they slowly start believing and evolving into the hate that other project towards him. The monster also experiences physical abuse. Shelley writes, "At that instant the cottage door was opened, and Felix, Safie, and Agatha entered...Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung, in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick.” This quote expresses how the monster’s innocent plead for acceptance and affection are not enough to overpower people’s prejudices. In the end, the monster is betrayed by the people he has come to know and love. He is once again denied a human relationship because of the way Victor has created him. Being mistreated and abused, can cause anyone to resort to a path of revengeful

destruction
In conclusion, Victor’s monster was propelled toward the path of destruction. After his continuous cycle of fallen hopes, the fact he never had a role model to teach him right from wrong, and the abuse he endures as a result of his pure intentions, the monster changes. Each event in the story pushes the monster off a righteous path. Although the monster has the will to make his own decisions, once he realizes that embodying a moral individual was not good enough for the village people or Victor, he resorted to an alternative disposition where he was able to yield power and use it to his advantage which he had never experienced before. After being in a vulnerable state of life, gaining the opportunity to yield power and revenge over another can be the tipping point to where the virtuous become unvirtuous.