Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein challenges the readers to question the meaning of humanity. The Oxford English Dictionary defines humanity as “human affairs” and “human nature”, and also as “the quality of being humane,” (humanity, n). The affairs in life gather and form the nature of people, and the characteristics of nature makes it possible to define the quality of mankind. If so, what differentiates humans from other living beings, and makes it possible for people to name such quality as “humanity”? According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, when differentiating men and animals, there exists “one further highly specific, distinctive, and indisputable feature of man, and that is his faculty of self-improvement” (33). With self-improvement, human beings
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Until his death, Frankenstein remembered the creature as a hateful attacker, ignoring his responsibility as the creator (Shelly 215). The creature on the other hand states, “thou wouldst not desire against me a vengeance greater than that which I feel” (Shelly 225), saying that his agony and anger is far greater than what Victor can feel. Both character views their situation as the most tragic situation and is unwilling to concede. If egocentrism is a dominant quality of humanity, why is humanity more associated with kindness and benevolence? It is because the dominant group or quality does not get paid attention in a perception of a word. For example, when people mention race, images of Black people are predominant, although it is the White people who have the most racial power. The word “gender” is also frequently used in a feministic settings, even though man are more dominant. How about sexual orientations? It is mostly associated with homosexuality despite their minority in number. Likewise, humanity, although has its basis on egocentrism, is perceived as something benevolent and
Until his death, Frankenstein remembered the creature as a hateful attacker, ignoring his responsibility as the creator (Shelly 215). The creature on the other hand states, “thou wouldst not desire against me a vengeance greater than that which I feel” (Shelly 225), saying that his agony and anger is far greater than what Victor can feel. Both character views their situation as the most tragic situation and is unwilling to concede. If egocentrism is a dominant quality of humanity, why is humanity more associated with kindness and benevolence? It is because the dominant group or quality does not get paid attention in a perception of a word. For example, when people mention race, images of Black people are predominant, although it is the White people who have the most racial power. The word “gender” is also frequently used in a feministic settings, even though man are more dominant. How about sexual orientations? It is mostly associated with homosexuality despite their minority in number. Likewise, humanity, although has its basis on egocentrism, is perceived as something benevolent and