The Pursuit Of Happiness In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

We constantly see it on the news, hear about it on the radio, and read about it as we scroll through timelines on our smartphones; shootings, bombings, and other similar acts of terror have taken over the media. It makes me wonder sometimes what kind of human being would do such horrific things, which leads me to the question, what exactly does it mean to be human? Conveying emotions, being self aware, and pursuing happiness is what make us human. It’s interesting how sometimes, we tend to act a lot more like animals and animals tend to act a lot more like us. Take the creature from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for example. Although he may not be human, he shows a lot more human-like characteristics than his creator who is actually human.

An example of this pursuit of happiness can be found in Frankenstein, when the creature gets sick and tired of everyone else treating him like an animal and having no one else of his kind, or just anyone that wouldn’t run away if he unveiled himself to them. He asked Victor to make yet another creature, but this time in a female version. He deeply wants a companion so that he can finally sit down and talk, feel comfortable, and maybe even feel loved for first time. "You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede” (Shelley XVII). Victor agrees after initially saying no, but in the end, he does not ever create another companion for the sorry creature. It’s sad how selfish and careless Victor is. He creates life, abandons it, lets it wreak havoc, and when he finally has a chance to fix things, he doesn’t do anything. Victor to me is like no other human. He seems to show little to no emotion, is unable to be fully aware of what negative effects his actions really cause, and seems to let happiness slip right out of his hands when he basically invites the creature to murder his love, Elizabeth. The creature on the other hand, seems to be much more human despite not physically looking like one. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes says, “In addition to being exclusively self-interested, humans have in them the rational capacity to pursue their desires as efficiently and maximally as possible”(Friend 4). This means that humans will try to do anything if it means getting what they want, and this is where the problems and conflicts start to