Empathy In Frankenstein

Honors English Final The general argument made by Lee Siegal in “Should Literature Be Useful?” is that there is a definite need for all people to read fiction because it teaches empathy – something many believe is only attained through reading nonfiction. More specifically, Siegal argues that fictitious stories offer just as much of a societal benefit as nonfiction by stating, “Reading fiction is good…because it makes you a more effective social agent. Which is pretty much what being able to read a train schedule does for you, too.” Furthermore, empathy is more than just sympathy or compassion. To truly feel empathy for another person, one must see and understand the perspectives of a situation. In knowing the facets of the predicament, one …show more content…
A majority of the story is narrated in Victor’s perspective of the situation that he created by “creating life;” however, when the creature tells Victor all that he has seen and learned, Victor sees the origin of the creature’s vicious actions and the reader can empathize for the unnamed monster. He tells of how he read Victor’s journals about the day that he, the “abhorred devil…first saw light” and how he was beaten and rejected by the family he had observed for weeks (Shelley 70). The creature argues that he was innately innocent and full of humanity and just longed for “love and respect [like] the younger cottagers exhibited toward their venerable companion,” but these experiences of abandonment and rejection made him become the savage, cold-blooded murderer that Victor saw him as (77). Had Shelley’s novel lacked the monster’s point of view, readers would be ignorant to the experiences that the monster encountered – some of which many people have also experienced. Shelley humanizes the creature, which in turn invokes understanding and empathy within the …show more content…
Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth’s views of the world are so limited because they grew up so sheltered and isolated at Hailsham. They were seen as beings that were far less than human. Beings that would cause “real dread [if] one…would actually accidentally brush against [you] (Ishiguro 35). As they grew up and moved on from their secluded lives, they had to learn how to live in the real world. Not only do they learn that they are clones created for the sole purpose harvesting their organs, but when Kathy and Tommy talk to Madame seeking a deferral, their request cannot be honored. As she watches them leave she looks at Kathy and says, “You poor creatures” (272). Creatures. She still saw them as nothing more than bodies that cultivated vital organs. Readers can identify with her in that they cannot understand the magnitude of disappointment and the fleeting time they have; however, our lives are allegorically just like the clones. TIME magazine states, “[the novel is] a heartbreaker, a tour de force of knotted tension and buried anguish.” We, the readers are hindered from truly empathizing with the clones. We are frustrated because there is no way that we could understand the their situation– this is what makes the novel so heartbreaking. But, like Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, and all of the other donors, we will