• Home Page
  • Examples Of Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein

Examples Of Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein

Great Essays
Show More
Nature or Nurture: What Determines the Creature’s Behavior The argument between nature and nurture has been a huge debate over the centuries. People debate whether a person’s character is the result of nature or nurture. Nature includes characteristics that a person is born with, while nurturing is how a person is raised. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley makes an impression that evidently supports the fact that one’s surroundings and experiences help shape a person’s character. Frankenstein is a story about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who is passionate in exploring humanity and biology. Victor creates a living creature and then later abandons him. What happens when Victor abandons his creation? Victor’s abandonment has a …show more content…
He wanders in the woods alone. Victor and the creature come across each other while Victor is traveling in Mont Blanc. The creature asks Victor to listen to his side of the story. The creature tells Victor, “Be calm! I entreat you to hear me before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head” (114). Victor follows the creature while he leads the way across the ice, and the creature starts telling Victor his tale. The creature has a rational and calm nature. In David Soyka’s article, “Frankenstein and the Miltonic Creation of Evil,” he explains the creature’s attitude and the way he behaves towards Victor. Soyka says, “While Victor curses the monster as a demon, the monster responds to Victor’s coarseness with surprising eloquence and sensitivity, proving himself an educated, emotional, exquisitely human being” (np). The creature should be mad and hate Victor when he meets him, but instead he is calm and asks Victor in a nice way to listen to his side of …show more content…
According to Wayne Chandler, who has written extensively about Frankenstein, notes that “As Felix is mercilessly beating him, the creature is unable to lift his hand against him: in this way, the reader sees the creature's innate humanity” (np). He cannot afford to hurt Felix, in fact, Felix’s story on how he tries to help Safie’s father gives the creature hope that one day Victor will change his mind and eventually care for him. The creature leaves the cottage and heads to his hovel. The next day, the creature learns that the family abandons the cottage for good. Revenge and hatred fills his mind when he burns the de Lacey’s hut. While traveling to Geneva, he spots a young girl who slips into the stream and drowns. The creature, without thinking, rushes to the stream and saves the girl. Suddenly, a man accompanying the girl snatches her away from him and shoots the creature. This only proves that despite his bitterness and hatred towards humanity, he still has a pure heart to rescue the girl without hesitation. After saving the girl, the creature realizes that he is still recognized as evil, not as a savior. In Jonathan Padley’s article, “Frankenstein and Sublime Creation,” he explains how the creature hates humanity and his creator. He says that “He curses all men and, ‘inflamed by pain,’ he vows eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind’ (np). In all his rejection, he swears that he will

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Cruelty Quotes In Frankenstein
    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cruelty Quotes In Frankenstein

    By the halfway point of the novel, Victor has become the antagonist and the monster the victim- which then, reverses. As Victor makes the monster, he abandons it- calling it on page 59, “the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life.” Victor’s abandonment of the creature reflects his mother’s death early in his childhood, and the cruelty displayed by life there reflects in his own actions of abandonment- his shift from victim to perpetrator complete. After the abandonment of the creature, Victor shows other cruelties to him as well, such as refusing to reason with him, or make him a mate of any sort. By his cruel actions, Victor pushes the creature to commit his own atrocities, such as the murder of WIlliam, which the creature describes as, “... I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet. I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph.. ” The creature becomes a perpetrator of cruelty, and through his intentional actions causes harm to the Frankenstein family- cruelty in turn inspiring…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Importance Of Childhood In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Importance Of Childhood In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    After Victor creates the Creature, he is frightened. “I traversed the streets, without any clear conception of where I was, or what I was doing. My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear, and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about in me--” (Shelley 45). Victor is not as loving and caring to the Creature as his parents were to him. With Victor acting afraid to even lay eyes on the Creature, he does not feel loved or cared about. The author of the critical article “Parent-Child Tensions in Frankenstein”, Laura P. Claridge explains Victor’s abusive actions towards his Creature which displays the kind of treatment that the Creature endured during his childhood. “Frankenstein's abuse of his monster; strangely enough, however, they have tended to ignore the precedent within his own family for Victor's later actions, as well as the familial tensions that Walton, Victor's shadow self, implies. Such critical shortsightedness has inevitably resulted in textual analyses that fail to account for the complexity of this novel” (Claridge). This kind of conduct toward the Creature is what shapes his childhood. Claridge explains that they have ignored the model within their own family which also displays that the Creature’s childhood is completely and utterly ruined with his constant downgrading feelings about himself. Laura P. Claridge explains in…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Frankenstein Wrong Quotes
    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Frankenstein Wrong Quotes

    Frankenstein was a really smart individual and from his same smartness he started to isolate himself and later becomes lonely. He decides to create a human and succeeds. He was selfish and thought he was doing the right thing by creating himself a friend. The only thing is that once he creates it he abandons him. Mary Shelley quotes, “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 58). His long time goal was finally accomplished. He created life and the moral significance is that he committed an act of arrogance. In other words he did a God-like job to create a human. Once he created it, he walked away from it without offering nurturing and guidance. We are responsible for our children and it is our job to raise them and care for them until they are ready to live independently (Frankenstein Notes). Victor simply walked away from his creature, which was not only unfair to the…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein
    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay On Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein

    Nurture experts widely accept that “heredity and the environment do not act independently.” Saul McLeod notes that it is “impossible to separate the two influences.” It seems more likely that in order for a person to act on feelings of evil from a nature standpoint, there must be something lacking in nurture in order to carry out such heinous crimes. The creature learns proper behavior from watching society but choses murder to act his revenge on his creator. He knows he is doing evil, but the anger and betrayal of his maker feeds his rage. The creature meets Victor’s brother William and cannot control himself when he learns the boy’s name. “Frankenstein! You belong to my enemy – tom him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge: you shall be my first victim”, he exclaims. (16.30) The creature is unhappy and rejected by all. He sets out to make sure Victor knows first- hand how this miserable he feels. When Victor breaks him promise of creating a mate for the creature, he can no longer contain himself. Filled with rage and resentment he murders Victor’s best friend and his new wife since he is not able to have any of those things…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing Frankenstein And Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
    • 1461 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Comparing Frankenstein And Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

    The Creature is attacked instinctively by villagers and repudiated by the De Lacey's (an especially hurtful event since the Creature became so acquainted with the De Lacey's and developed sentiment for them). The violence and rejection the Creature feels leads to his evil nature later on in the novel. Additionally, the Creature begins to feel loneliness and despondency—this leads to his plot of blackmailing Victor Frankenstein for a female companion. For example, at the end of the novel when talking to Walton, the Creature explains his wrongdoings with, “For while I destroyed [Frankenstein's] hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned”; the Creature never hated anything when he was created; right out of the “womb” he was not the violent and torturing creature he later became (231). Alternatively, the Creature gains hate as life progresses and the ugly sides of society begin to leave an imprint on his impressionable mind. In Mary Crockford's analysis of Frankenstein and loneliness, Crockford finds herself agreeing with the fact that Frankenstein's hate was caused by loneliness. She states, “he becomes what psychiatrist Selma Fraiberg predicts for the…

    • 1461 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Frankenstein Revenge Quotes
    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Frankenstein Revenge Quotes

    In chapter 15, after learning to read, the creature reads Victor’s journal and learns how his creator truly viewed him. After gaining this information he exclaims, “‘Accursed creator! Why did you for a monster so hideous that even YOU turned from me in disgust?” (55). The creature feels betrayed by the one who brought him into this world. He didn't ask for this life, but now he has to endure it due to Frankenstein, who abandoned him out of disgust. The thought of living in loneliness enraged the monster and causes him to grow a hatred towards Frankenstein. Another conflict arises when the creature attempts to be helpful, but is punished for his act of kindness. While trying to save a young girl from drowning, he is shot by her father due to his terrifying figure (61). This event serves as a conflict in the creature's life since it causes him to reconsider if acceptance is in his reach. The monster has been tormented several times over and has grown wary of humanity. He feels that the human race is undeserving and should pay for the indecency committed. The last example proceeds Victor destroying the female creation. The creature was prepared to abandon all human life due to his agreement, but after seeing his creator destroy the one thing that could bring happiness into his life, revenge was all that remained. With a heart of hatred, he cursed Victor by…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing Frankenstein And Grendel's The Monster
    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing Frankenstein And Grendel's The Monster

    Towards the end of the novel Frankenstein, Victor finally comes face to face with the creature he has feared for so many years as it progressed on destroying his life. With the questions on why the monster did what he did to his life, he then forgets about what he has done to the monster when created. With the dream of bringing life into something far gone, once approached, the dream vanished turning it into a nightmare in which he wanted to banish for good. Leaving the monster with so many questions unanswered, he was left with nothing but the curiosity on what he is and why he is feared by people. "All men hate the wretched;…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On The True Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay On The True Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    The creature has always been innocent from the very beginning because it has no knowledge of the world he is in. Because Victor abandon the creature, it is alone and depressed because he is living a life without a companionship. The creature observes the world with confusion. He comes across cottagers which he uses as his observations “to create his own ideals of humanity” (Morality without God, 2). “I learned, from the views of social life which his developed, to admire their virtues and to deprecate the vices of mankind” (Shelley, 124). The creatures’ desires is to be part of the cottagers’ lives and for them to love him. This represents a connection that the create felt between him and the rest of humanity. However, the creature is rejected by society because of his disturbing appearance. He feels “emotional and psychological reactions” because of “stress and fear” (Morality without God, 2). “He is a being that has been misguided and rejected by society” (Frankenstein: The True Monster, 3). It is through the constant rejection and environmental interactions that the creature seeks revenge against his…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Nature Vs Nurture Frankenstein Analysis
    • 2248 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Nature Vs Nurture Frankenstein Analysis

    Shelly’s acclaimed novel “Frankenstein” tells the story of a man who tries to create a new species, or master species without any female involvement. Through the creation of this character, Victor realizes that he has created a monster, and works throughout the novel to try to extinguish this being, but is ultimately unsuccessful in his goal. Throughout the story, the character of the monster parallels the character of his creator as they are related to each other in terms of their thirst for knowledge and their inability to love and learn at the same time. They are both hurt by the force of nature, as Victor is hurt by nature and bad luck throughout the novel, as it is realized that nature plays an extremely important part in the creation…

    • 2248 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Victor's Relationship In Frankenstein
    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Victor's Relationship In Frankenstein

    However, the closer Victor became to completing the creature, he is more enclosed, darker, misguided. He unconsciously proves that that it’s no longer a quest to Frankenstein anymore; it’s an obsession. One would initially assume the monster is the evil, yet it is Dr. Frankenstein who creates the monster and then hides from the responsibility. His cowardice not only leads to the death of his younger brother, but also to that of the young girl accused of his murder. The monster has moments of great intellect and rationality and simply requests another creation so that he may not be so lonely in the world, only because his own creator has abandoned him in the first place. When the creature confronts Victor in the glaciers he says, “I expected this reception… All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein
    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Nature Vs Nurture In Frankenstein

    Two of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature that he creates, both have an inborn nature that is part of their personality and way of life; however, both Frankenstein and the creature have different types of environmental styles. Even though nature and nurture play an important role in this novel, the nature part is mostly shown in the fall of Victor Frankenstein, while the nurture part is mostly shown in the fall of the creature. The author, Mary Shelley, makes this idea of nature vs nurture very clear in this story by describing the personalities of both of these characters. Not just this, but the author uses the symbol of light and fire to support the nature vs nurture debate in the…

    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    The Importance Of Human Nature In Frankenstein
    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Importance Of Human Nature In Frankenstein

    “The name Frankenstein tends to evoke not the unfortunate over-reaching young scientist Victor Frankenstein but his hideous creation” (Brooks). The reason for this may lie in the fact that Victor is also considered to be a monster since he created a person who has feelings. It is a creature, but it is not insensitive and it never finds its place in life. Furthermore, it seeks help from Victor and cannot get it because Victor does not know what to do after this horrible incident which cost him the life of his brother and other dear people in his life. The first time that Frankenstein meets the monster, it is revealed that the monster has a sharp mind although he has a deformed body. Victor wants him out of his sight, but he thinks of Victor as his creator and he is miserable: “To this Monster, in a touching gesture, responds by placing his huge hands over Frankenstein’s eyes” (Brooks). The monster seems to have human characteristics and he wants Frankenstein to feel compassion towards him. The murders which the monster commits are the result of his powerlessness and resent he feels in life. The creature is miserable because it drives people away: “His first appearance with humanity, he tells us, already demonstrated the hopelessness of the spectacular relation: the shepherd he discovered in a hut fled shrieking from his sight, the villagers pelted him with stones” (Brooks). The monster also discovers the language as the means of communication and learns it by observing a family. This signifies that he is highly intelligent and does not deserve the life full of…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Alienation And Loneliness In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Alienation And Loneliness In Frankenstein By Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    The monster is inherently “benevolent and good,” but his lonesome journey transforms him into a “fiend” (Shelley 87). The monster describes himself saying, “ ‘My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy; and, when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture, such as you cannot even imagine’ ” (Shelley 209-210). Created with an instinctive need for nurture from his creator, the monster was not capable of living alone in his society. In Stephen Gould’s view, “Frankenstein 's creature… is, rather, born capable of goodness, even with an inclination toward kindness, should circumstances of his upbringing call forth this favored response.” Created with an altered mentality of a baby, the monster had an unbiased view of the world. Even though the monster seeks revenge, it is evident that he is a victim of humankind 's cruelty, which eventually leads him to his vengeful state. The monster expresses his feelings to Victor saying, “ ‘let [man] live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance’ ” (Shelley 135). It is evident that beneath the monsters’ hideous exterior lies a heart full of love and tranquility. This gentle heart was exposed when the monster said, "If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them an hundred and an hundred fold; for that one creature 's sake, I would make peace with the whole kind!" (Shelley 135). People see the external appearance and assume that what lies within must match what is observable. In the words of Stephen Gould, “Frankenstein 's monster was a good man in an appallingly ugly body. His countrymen could have been educated to accept him, but the person responsible for that instruction [Victor] ran away…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Nature In Frankenstein Essay
    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Nature In Frankenstein Essay

    Frankenstein, written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, follows Victor Frankenstein’s journey as he attains the necessary education and understanding of the human anatomy to be able to breath life back to an empty vessel. Inevitably creating the Frankenstein monster, an absolutely atrocious and terrifying abomination. Gradually Frankenstein learns of his peculiar inception and understands why his life is full of mistrust and misunderstanding, eventually leading him to seek revenge against Victor’s family. Through the use of the nature imagery, the natural order, and natures presence as a solace Shelly relates nature to the mood, health and life of Victor Frankenstein.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Similarities Between Frankenstein And Mr Hyde
    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Similarities Between Frankenstein And Mr Hyde

    The monster in Frankenstein is seen as Victor’s 'evil' counterpart. Victor sees in the monster what he does not like in himself and this may be why he neglects and completely shuts the monster out of his life after creating him. The monster is seen by society as an enemy or as an evil being so it is always assumed to be evil. Because of this, the monster must always be elusive and it has no opportunity to be good. Because of his lack of nurturing, the monster is left hated in a world which gives him no option but to be…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2023 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings