In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Shelley explores John Locke's theory of being born as a blank slate by introducing a character who is born with a blank slate. When the creature is brought to life, the creature is immediately called a “wretch” (Shelley 68) and is left alone to fend for himself. The creature is like a child with no parents without any idea what to do. In John Locke’s blank slate theory or, tabulae rasa, knowledge and moral sense arise solely from experience. He therefore placed enormous importance on the development of education. John Locke promoted the role of sensory awareness and experiences in the formation of human notion. This theory shows that the simple things, such as colors and shapes, are gathered passively, while more complex thoughts, such as the relationship between cause and effect and individual identities, are actively assembled. (World History in Context) “Most critics agree that Locke strongly influenced Shelley's characterization of the creature. She wanted her readers to understand how important the creature's social conditioning is to his development as a conscious being.” (Gale Reference Library) Jean Jacque Rousseau created the social contact theory, which is quite similar to John Locke’s theory. In the social contract theory, people’s moral or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live. He is enormously influenced by John Locke, which has made the theory of being born with a “blank slate” (Gale Reference Library) one of the most well-known theories. Like John Locke, Jean Jacque Rousseau also believed in the fact that humans are born with a blank slate and learn from their experiences. Mary Shelley was inspired by Rouss...
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...all human kind sinned against me?" (Shelley 160) The creature also believes that society treated him poorly and he blames all of his mistakes on society. Though what happens in the book is a fantasy, Mary Shelley’s message applies to the real world. For example, if a child is abused by his parents, he might have a harder time connecting to people. People who are abused are more likely to abuse their own children. The creature is never treated well by any humans so it is hard for him to treat them well back. John Locke and Jean Jacque Rousseau explain that if humans are treated well than there is a higher chance that they will turn out to be good, and if treated poorly then there is a chance for evil. (Gale Reference Library) Mary Shelley wants people to give people who might seem evil a chance because the people around them changed them to make them who they are.
To begin with, Victor Frankenstein's creature thinks, reacts and acts like a human. For example, When the creature was in the woods he noticed that a girl was drowning in the lake. When he went in the lake to go save her from dying a man comes and thinks that the creature was doing harm to the girl. When all the creature was trying to do was to save the girl from drowning. In this case the creature reacted and acted just like a human would. To add on, the creature also made some horrid mistakes in which he regrets in doing. The creature regrets and admits that he did wrong ''But now vice has degraded me beneath the meanest animal''(192). In this quote it states that the creature calls himself an "animal'' because of all his wrong doing. The creature
Mary Shelley uses tone and diction to show the creatures hatred towards society. At the start of his birth, the creature was denied and abandoned by his creator. He wanders around desperately trying to fit in and interact with others but, their difference in appearance
In the beginning of the novel the monster is an infant, incapable of understanding the way humans act. As an infant, the wretch commits numerous misdeeds, showing his initial lack of maturity. The argument can be made that the monster was created with a sense virtue, a benevolent and gentle creature. “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy and I again shall be virtuous” (Shelley 100). This is Perhaps Godwin’s philosophy of “man’s innate goodness”, considering much of the ideas in this novel are inspired by him (qtd. in Swingle 51). Marshall Brown notes:
Mary Shelley put a new outlook on nature versus nurture in human development. By making the monster’s being a blank slate, and morphing his personality based on the different events that shape his life, Shelley clearly states her support for the nurture side.
The question “What makes us who we are?” has perplexed many scholars, scientists, and theorists over the years. This is a question that we still may have not found an answer to. There are theories that people are born “good”, “evil”, and as “blank slates”, but it is hard to prove any of these theories consistently. There have been countless cases of people who have grown up in “good” homes with loving parents, yet their destiny was to inflict destruction on others. On the other hand, there have been just as many cases of people who grew up on the streets without the guidance of a parental figure, but they chose to make a bad situation into a good one by growing up to do something worthwhile for mankind. For this reason, it is nearly impossible to determine what makes a human being choose the way he/she behaves. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) published a novel in 1818 to voice her opinions about determining personality and the consequences and repercussions of alienation. Shelley uses the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to make her point. Rousseau proposed the idea that man is essentially "good" in the beginning of life, but civilization and education can corrupt and warp a human mind and soul. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (hereafter referred to as Frankenstein), Victor Frankenstein’s creature with human characteristics shows us that people are born with loving, caring, and moral feelings, but the creature demonstrates how the influence of society can change one’s outlook of others and life itself by his reactions to adversity at “birth”, and his actions after being alienated and rejected by humans several times.
Also the The natural world is rejecting him because he is the complete opposite to everything in the natural world, he is a fabrication, freak “evil”. creature against the natural “good” order of life. I think that Mary Shelley wanted the Monster to be seen in many different ways, for example his evil side that enjoys killing and destroying things, his loving side that is just waiting for somebody. to listen to him and learn to love him, his childish side that just craves the love of a father.
When each of these characteristics are viewed together, a unique individual is formed. However, in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein's creation is not identified by all of these characteristics. He is not defined by many of them because they do not exist in his life. The domestic void in the creature’s life creates a barrier between him and the rest of civilization. Victor’s creation continually asks, "Who am I?"
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.
When Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is analyzed, critics comes to a conclusion about Victor Frankenstein's creation. The creature invokes the most sympathy from the readers than any other character in the novel. Because he is abandoned by society which manipulates the creature to do evil things despite his good heart. Therefore Shelley's message throughout the novel is that a person is not born evil, they are made evil.
One way in which society influences the Creature’s behavior is their disgust and hateful attitude towards him. For example, when the creature landed upon a village, he was attacked because of his looks, “…I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked and one of the woman fainted. The whole village was roused, some fled, some attacked me, until grievously bruised by stones and many others kinds of missile weapons” (93). Just the looks of the creature was enough to set off the village to attack him. People fear what they don’t understand and can act irrationally. After this, it is understandable that the creature would despise and seek revenge against humans. Another example of how poorly society treats him is shown when the creature finally manages to bring up courage and talks to the blind man. They are interrupted when his family come back home. “Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father… he dashed me to the ground and stuck me violently with a stick” (122). The creature managed to have a conversation with the blind father yet when others say him; he was beaten and chased out. The fact that the family he had observed for so long shunned him at the sight of his face shows the ignorance in society. Society affected the creature by punishing and...
After his creation, Frankenstein’s monster is left in isolation, cursed to endure people’s hatred towards him. This revulsion met by onlookers is merely based on the creature’s hideous looks. The monster is not actually a monster at all. He displays more humanity than many other characters in Frankenstein. The ultimate irony is that the prejudicial belief is what caused the reanimated human to become a monster. In the nature versus nurture debate, proponents of the nature theory believe that a person is unchanging and that one’s experiences do not affect that person’s behavior. If this were true, the monster would not change as a result of his interactions with humans. It is undeniable that the creature does immoral things, but when Frankenstein’s monster saves a little girl from drowning, Mary Shelley takes a clear stance that the creature was naturally noble but became monstrous as a result of interactions with humans.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley portrays an individual in a unique situation trying to overcome daily interactions while being faced with inconceivable misfortunes. Created by Victor Frankenstein, who set out on a journey to bring life to scrapped pieces of waste, he was then abandoned and left to fend for himself in a world he was abruptly brought into. After being abandoned by his creator for his less than appealing looks, this then sparked his inevitable desire for revenge. Eventually leading to the destruction of those associated with his creator. Knowing that he will never fit in, the monster began to act out in hopes of getting back at his creator for what he did. His vulnerability due to missing guidance and parental figures in his beginning stages of life contributed to his behavior. The books and article Family Crisis and Children’s Therapy Groups written by Gianetti, Audoin, and Uzé, Victim Of Romance: The Life And Death Of Fanny Godwin by Maurice Hindle, and Social Behavior and Personality by Lubomir Lamy, Jacques Fishcher-Lokou, and Nicolas Gueguen support why the monster acts the way he does. The monster’s behavior stems from Victor’s actions at the beginning of his life and therefore is not to blame. The creature in Frankenstein is deserving of sympathy even though he committed those murders because the lack of parental guidance, lack of family, and lack of someone to love led him to that. All in all his actions were not malicious, but only retaliation for what he had been put through.
Philosophers and scientists alike have debated for centuries whether a person’s character is the result of nature or nurture. In the writings of Thomas Hobbes, it is expressed that humans are endowed with character from birth, and that they are innately evil in nature. John Locke’s response to this theory is that everyone is born with a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and then develops character after a series of formative experiences. The idea that true character is the result of experiences and societal interaction is a theme deeply explored throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Through different interactions with the monster, Shelley attempts to express that it is because of Victor’s failings as a parent and creator, because of the monster’s isolation, and because of society’s reaction to the monster that the monster has become evil. The monster’s character is a direct result of how he was nurtured, based on his experiences and circumstances, rather than his being innately evil from “birth.”
It all began with John Locke “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.” These words of John Locke described who he was as a person, and what he pleaded for; making him one of America’s most imperative historical figure. John Locke, America’s most influential philosophe, was a man who significantly influenced America through his theory on Natural Rights. Locke’s theory of Natural Rights has led America to build a government, bearing heroic pioneers to change people 's view of the public, and his theory has established the foundation of American Culture and Society through the American Revolution. The legacy John Locke left behind made him deserving to be called
In Mary Shelly’s book, Frankenstein when the creature was first created, Victor spoke that, “His jaws opened, he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled on his cheeks”(Shelly 48). When the creature was created, he had no hatred to anyone, when he came to see his creator he tried to communicate with him and grinned as a sign of compassion but when Victor shuns him away he then begins to feel his animosity towards the human race. As he began to be rejected more and more he began to turn into an uneducated angry being, the argument could have been made that if Victor would have sat down and educated his creature and showed compassion that the creature may have turned out just a nice and slightly abnormal being. John Locke formed the idea of Tabula Rasa, which is the idea that at birth the mind is a blank slate, “Locke argued that people acquire knowledge from the information about the objects in the world that our senses bring. People begin with simple ideas and then combine them into more complex ones”(age-of-the-sage 1). The blank slate theory makes great sense, people often make the counter-argument that kids are always like their parents but that simply