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The Negative Effects Of Nurture In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the author incorporates the idea of the negative impact a lack of a parental figure has on the nurturing of the creature’s life. From the moment the creature became animated, he experienced feelings of isolation as even his own creator, Frankenstein, alienated him and left him to grow up as an outsider. For this reason, the creature’s knowledge and nurturing was learnt through experience and therefore lead him to a miserable and vengeful life. From his experience, the creature learnt that humans were not accepting of him, and so he vowed to seek revenge on mankind and thus causing destruction in the lives of others. Due to the evident vindictive and miserable life of the creature, the reader is able to see the …show more content…
Also, the language used to describe the creature gives a prejudicial view that the creature is a monster. Finally, when Frankenstein reacted and then left suggests that he does not want to nurture an ugly beast and thus the creature grew up alone and isolated. The abandonment of the creature proves that Frankenstein is an incompetent father figure, which contributes to the creature’s development into a miserable life. Because of the ugly appearance of the creature, Frankenstein abandons his creation and disclaims all responsibility as a parent, leaving the creature to fend for himself in society. Similar to the creature being isolated from his creator, the creature was also isolated from society as he was growing up on his own and learning through experience, which leads him to live a miserable life. After spending months watching over the De Lacey family for months, the creature learns that to be happy he needs friends and family. However, the creature realizes he has no friends and family, and is all alone and miserable:
But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they has, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I have never yet seen a being …show more content…
The constant rejection from society and his creator, Frankenstein, he decides to take revenge on all mankind especially those close to Frankenstein. For example, after being rejected by the De Lacey’s the creature becomes enraged with anger and thus runs into the forest destroying anything in its path. While in the forest, the creature runs into a small boy named William. Upon learning he was the son of M. Frankenstein the creature took his revenge.
Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy – to whom towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge, you shall be my first victim… I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, ‘I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him (Shelley

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