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Frankenstein by mary shelley critical analysis
Analysis of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Analysis of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
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Thesis: Nature versus nurture plays an important role in Frankenstein from the way the monster portrays his complicated character. This characterization may have been a result of the way he was abandoned and not educated, looking from the nurture perspective. Or it could have an indirect result of nature, which would be from environment he had to endure.
The monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a being created entirely out of old body parts and brought to life by the ingenious use of electricity. As the monster comes to life, his creator, Henry Frankenstein, flees his house in horror of what he accomplished, thus, abandoning his creation. The ugly, incompetent, and uneducated man- made creature is now left on his own to face a world
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“The nature vs. nurture debate is concerned with the relative contribution of both [nature and nurture] influences make to human behavior.”(McLeod). The debate discusses whether the environment, which may include, where a person lives and the people they interact with; or the way their caregivers nurture them by providing the necessities they need in order to sustain life, including a positive environment. “What is clear, however, is that neither genes nor environment alone can account for how we live our lives.”( Franzoi 76).While most people focus on determining whether nature or nurture is the most influential, researchers state that the two cannot function without each …show more content…
“... factors other than genetic and biochemical ones, including poverty, job and family stability, stress, and social isolation are influential.”(Raingruber). A person’s physical makeup is not the only factor of their nature , life stressors are also included. In Frankenstein’s monster’s situation he didn’t really have genes that were passed to him; therefore, some examples of the “nature” that impacted him would be social isolation and lack of education. "...we appear to inherit the building blocks of personality from our parents; and then our interactions with our social environment create the personality that we develop."(Franzoi 483). While children are young they start learning how to make since of their emotions and turn them into their personality. How people interact with others and situations as they get older, further creates and changes their personality. The monster never learned how to interact with people. So at first, he interpreted the reactions toward him as hateful and rude. This in turn, made him angry, because he realized he would never be able to fit in, and he sought to find a way to change people’s minds by educating himself and even raising a child to understand and like
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein describes a mad scientist by the name of Victor Frankenstein and the initially amiable creature assembled by him. Through questionable means of experimentation, this monster is constructed through the reattachment of several cadavers and a bolt of lightning. Upon achieving the magnificent feat of reanimation, Victor, rather than revelling in his creation, is appalled, abandoning the creature. The physical appearance of the monster terrorizes everyone he meets and is unfortunately shunned from the world. The newborn monster develops a nomadic lifestyle after being ostracized by nearly every community he travels to, but eventually finds refuge near a secluded cottage. While returning from a nearby forest, the creature
Are nature and nurture required when creating a person? In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the nature vs. nurture discussion is put to the test by the actions of the main character Dr. Frankenstein's creation: a monster. In the novel Dr. Frankenstein is enthralled with the scientific creation of life and creates what he thinks will be a human but actually turns out to have the makings of a monster. Dr. Frankenstein is terrified by his creation and abandons it by running away and leaving it locked up. The monster breaks out of Dr. Frankenstein's confines and goes into the world to explore in his surroundings and hates his creator for not caring for him. By looking at environmental effects on a child's intellectual ability to learn, and a child's inherent sense of direction it is apparent that at birth the human mind is a blank slate.
Victor Frankenstein is an obsessed scientist who is trying to make a living human being out of dead body parts. He uses dead body parts because he had to get body parts from somewhere where nobody would find out because it was illegal. Therefore he got his body parts from criminals that had been hung. However not everything goes to plan, the Monster comes to life and tries to fit in with everybody else. He is kind to them and all he wants to do is make friends. Consequently when people see him, they see him to be a vicious monster that is going to hurt them, they don’t realise that all he wants to do is fit in. For example he lived in the woods in some stables for a while, he watched a family through a crack in the wall and learnt how to read, write and live like a human. One night the Monster went outside and spent all night picking all the potatoes for them. In the morning the family rushed outside and saw all the potatoes sitting in their wagon. Their first instinct was that it was a spirit that lived in the woods. They then left gifts for him outside to say thank you.
Nature versus Nurture is the name of a long running debate on whether an individual’s behavior is determined by their genes or by how they were raised. John Locke famously held the view that humans had a “blank slate”, which means that human’s personality and character traits are determined by a person’s environment and what they experience. But, many argue against this: for instance, twins are raised similarly, but can have completely different personalities. The real question is this: are people born monsters, or do they become monsters? In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, both authors provide a clear warning of what makes a monster: society’s superficial nature creates monsters, and
In the novel, Frankenstein, a doctor named Victor Frankenstein created a monster. Victor’s monster was created using old human parts, chemicals, and a “spark.” Victor wanted to create this monster in order to benefit mankind, and for the purpose of playing God. Victor thought his creation would turn out great, but in all actuality, his monster ended up terribly wrong (Shelley, 145). The monster was a deformed man, standing eight feet tall, with yellow eyes, black hair, black lips, and skin that did not conceal his internal features (Shelley, 144-145). Even though the monster was very grown, he had the mind of a newborn child, and he was very kind and gentle (Shelley, 327). The monster’s appearance terrified Victor, and he immediately abandoned it. Dr. Victor Frankenstein also never named his creation because he disliked it that much. The monster was longing for love, and since no one loved him, he became very violent. He ended up killing Victor’s brother and best friend out of pure revenge (Shelley, 193). Anytime the monster tried to help people, he was bea...
Frankenstein, a novel written by Mary Shelley that tells the tale of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, and Wuthering Heights, a book authored by Emily Brontë that tells the story of a character named Heathcliff, both include the concept of nature vs. nurture. The pair of works include death, a passion-driven villain, and madness, which are all elements present in Gothic literature. The two novels both exhibit the prevailing theme of nature vs. nurture through the usage of these Gothic elements.
American psychologist and well renowned author Jerome Kagan states “Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form.” The topic of nature vs. nurture is highly known to the English literature community and is classified as a major aspect of gothic works. In the novel Frankenstein the author Mary Shelley uses the monster’s constant rejection from society to demonstrate that an individual’s traits are affected more by their environment and their surroundings than by nature.
In Frankenstein, various themes are introduced. There are dangerous knowledge, sublime nature, nature versus nurture, monstrosity, and secrecy and guilt. I chose a main theme as nature versus nurture. Nature is some traits that a person is born with, and nurture is an environment that surrounds a person. The novel indirectly debates whether the development of individual is affected more by nature or by nurture through Victor and the Monster.
Many people believe that psychopaths are creations. People have genetics that make them, though people also have home lives that shape their mentality. The hate that humans receive from their guardians is their first look at life. Throughout existence, different circumstances add attributes to human character. Life is a toss up of Nature vs Nurture; people are born one way, but peer influence makes a person’s well-being. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley creates Victor to be a non-nurturing creator in order to suggest that care in the early stages is fundamental to the development of character.
Nature vs. Nurture is one of the world's oldest psychological debates that questions whether your environment or how you were raised or treated impact on someone's development, like how someone behaves, their intelligence and personality. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein were going to look at which nature or nurture had more effect on the characters in this novel. I believe that nurture had the strongest impact on the characters. You should always think about how your actions are going to have an impact on those around you. ” The fatal impulse that has lead to my ruin” (Shelley 21).Victor became so obsessed with creating this creature that he didn’t think about the outcome of how he was going to feel once the monster was created.
had engulfed. Page 18 of Mary Shelley's book proves this when the creature spoke “This
“I now hasten to the more moving part of my story. I shall relate events that impressed me with feelings which, from what I was, have made me what I am” (Shelley 92). Frankenstein’s Creature presents these lines as it transitions from a being that merely observes its surroundings to something that gains knowledge from the occurrences around it. The Creature learns about humanity from “the perfect forms of [his] cottagers” (90). Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein offers compelling insights into the everlasting nature versus nurture argument. Her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked.” Shelley believes that the nurture of someone, or something, in the Creature’s case, forms them into who they become and what actions they take. While this is true for Frankenstein’s Creature, the same cannot be said about Victor Frankenstein.
A child’s development plays a big role in who they become later in life. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it becomes obvious very quickly that nature versus nurture shows up in the creature’s development. He is abandoned by Victor Frankenstein, his creator, and is forced to fend for himself, in order to live as a normal human. He learns nearly everything from nature and is very amused at all it has to offer. But as much as he wants to be like everyone else, the creature is far from normal. He was created from a plethora of body parts that Victor stitched together and was then placed into a bath. Using electricity from lightning, the creature was brought to life. Scared and disgusted with
... was not in the creatures nature to act how he acted. For example on chapter 16 The creature retells how he saved a girl but got shot for helping another human being he states “I rushed from my hiding-place and with extreme labour, from the force of the current, saved her and dragged her to shore.” This is important since this is proof that the monster was born with good emotions like everyone else but only developed his hatred because of neglect from his creator and being shunned by mankind. Another quote would be on the same chapter he says “ Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind”. This proves that the creature has faced pain throughout his life and when he tries to be nice faces pain anyways. Therefore due to the many examples provided above one can conclude that nurture indeed influenced the creature.
The nature versus nurture debate is one of the oldest and most controversial issues in psychology. The debate is concerned with whether heredity or the environment most impacts human psychological development. So, which possesses a more substantial role in creating a villain? Some may state that a villain is born inherently evil in their nature. However, many studies in sociology and psychology suggest an opposing view; almost any of us can be nurtured into an evil being. People often find themselves being nurtured through the influence of social roles. Social Roles refer to the expectations, responsibilities, and behaviors we adopt in certain situations. The ideas for expected or “normal” behavior are reinforced both by the individual and