A book in which a character’s childhood negatively effects their future is “Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein is based around the life of Victor, who is overindulged as a child and who later creates a “monster”. He disowns the monster, who then goes on to kill several of Victor’s friends and family out of hate for Victor who left him. Victor then tries to create a friend for the monster so as to calm him, but rebels midway and then proceeds to chase the monster in attempt to put an end to him.
In this essay I will be looking at Victor Frankenstein and the monster, and considering what Mary Shelley may be trying to tell us about parenting, child development and education through experiences.
As a
…show more content…
Unless supervised, the autodidact is in danger of learning things from a very narrow field, for instance, Frankenstein’s knowledge seems to be solely based on science, without any education in morals, the arts, or social skills that would have helped him to develop and become a more socially compassionate person.
The creature’s “childhood” is condensed into just a few months. His first experience of Victor, his parent and maker, is one of rejection, and this sets the pattern for his life. We are told that, on being “born” the creature made his way to Victor’s bedside,
“He held up the curtain of the bed, and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear, one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me.” In all probability, the creature was stretching out, like a child does to their mother, but his ugly appearance only frightened Frankenstein into running away.
With no-one to love him or care for him, the creature spends his first days in a forest near Ingolstadt. Through his narrative, we learn that, at first he was like an abandoned baby, alone, and in his own
…show more content…
He never manages to interact positively with others or find friendship, and we can see his self esteem sink lower and lower, the more he is rejected, and becomes lonelier and more alienated from society. It is at this that eventually changes him from a kind, affectionate, and reasonable being, to a bitter murderer. He tells Frankenstein,
“I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph, remember that and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder, if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in an interchange of kindness, and, instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his
Mary Shelley put a new outlook on nature versus nurture in human development. By making the monster’s being a blank slate, and morphing his personality based on the different events that shape his life, Shelley clearly states her support for the nurture side.
Because of the strong examples each mother and father must set forth for their children, the parental figures in these roles must provide specific nurturing traits in order to ensure they grow into well-rounded adults. Without these traits, many children and adults much like those in Shelley’s Frankenstein and Kafka’s Metamorphosis find it hard to cope in everyday life. The lack of parental guidance for Frankenstein’s monster and Gregor in The Metamorphosis is the reason why both are unable to function in society. The way they are treated throughout their lives by their “parents” as well as the neglect and abandonment they suffer throughout their respective stories explain why a parent’s role is much needed and irreplaceable. Although the works are separated by some one hundred years, the importance of parenting is timeless.
Shelley 1st addresses Victor’s nature. He describes being born a Genevese with a family that is “one of the foremost distinguished of that republic” (Shelley 18). Frankenstein continues to explain his family with adjectives like, “honour,” and “integrity” (18). Shelley’s diction once addressing Victor’s nature describes his family as honorable and prestigious. Being no exception to this prestigious heritage Victor ultimately becomes a victim of his nature. Victor’s greed for power, a bit like the ability that had succeeded him, is simply too exuberant for him to handle. “I had worked…for the sole purpose of infusing life into academic degree inanimate body… I had desired it with ardor that approach exceeded moderation,” Victor states (39). Shelley’s use of powerful words like would like, ardor, and exceeded portray the thought of this overwhelming would like for power in Victor’s nature, and foreshadows Victor’s final downfall.
A way they showed it was through Elizabeth in which his mother presented to him as stated in the article, “my mother had said playfully,—"I have a pretty present for my Victor—to-morrow he shall have it." And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally, and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish. All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own. We called each other familiarly by the name of cousin. No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me—my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.” Victor attended Ingolstadt University where he studied modern science and was able master all of what his teachers had to offer within two years. Victor was at first fascinated by science and the “meaning of life” which lead to the creation of the creature but then soon realizes the ramification of his acts blowing out of proportion. The importance behind the name Frankenstein signifies humanity, without a name you are no
“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.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques. Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love. To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”. Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility. Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness. Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved. Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.
In this essay I am going to answer ‘how and why does Mary Shelley make the reader sympathise with the character of the monster in her novel Frankenstein’.
Victor Frankenstein and his creation are very much alike. Both are abandoned by their creators at a young
He created a life, and then spontaneously he quickly decided to run away from his creation. Victor’s actions after creating what he created were really irresponsible, and did not correctly took care of the circumstance’s he put himself in. The creation was never actually evil, but he felt abandoned by what could had been called his father. Frankenstein, the monster, was only a seeker for companionship. He strongly desired to feel loved, rather than abandoned. Society’s evil behavior toward the monster is what altered the monster’s conduct and followed to how he acted.
Victor was born into an upper class family, and experienced a pleasant childhood. ...during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self control, I was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me. (Shelley, Frankenstein, P. 33). However, the Frankenstein's were mainly concerned with physical appearance. Victor's father married Caroline because of her exquisite beauty, and Elizabeth was adopted into the family, also because she was beautiful. Victor was also a product of idealistic education; the explicit goal of this form of education is to make a contribution to civilization. For Victor, the contribution would be the study of life sciences and the formation of the soul; however, he had no one on his side encouraging him and supporting his educational involvement. As a result of this childhood, Victor is left with no sense of inner beauty. His disillusionment with parenthood, especially mothering after he lost his mother to scarlet fever, led to post-partum depression and neglect. He experienced the burden of loneliness by living in a superficial society and did not have the character to cope with it. For Victor, parenting had become an issue ...
In Frankenstein, Shelley creates two very complex characters. They embody the moral dilemmas that arise from the corruption and disturbance of the natural order of the world. When Victor Frankenstein is attending school, he becomes infatuated with creating a living being and starts stealing body parts from morgues around the university. After many months of hard work, he finishes one stormy night bringing his creation to life. However, “now that [Victor] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Chambers). Right after Victor realizes what he has done, he falls into deep depression and must be nursed back to health by his friend. Victor spends the rest of the story facing consequences and moral problems from creating unnatural life. When he realizes that the ‘monster’ has killed his brother, even though no one believes him, he feels responsible for his brother’s murder because he was responsible for the existence of the ‘monster’. Also feeling responsible, Victor...
One of the most influential contributions in the formation of the monster’s character is Victor’s failure as a creator and a father. As a creator, Victor has the responsibility of providing for his creation, just as God provided for Adam and Eve. At the same time, Victor also falls under the role of a father, and should therefore seek to strengthen the familial bond between the two of them. However, Victor fails in both of these endeavors, because he cannot accept the monster in his deformity. “Frankenstein’s sole regret… is that he did not create an aesthetically pleasing being” (Bond). Victor, due to his skewed vision of humanity, believes outer beauty to be a reflection of inner character, and that because of the monster’s hideous appe...
The first part of the novel brings us into the life of Victor Frankenstein, who was born to a rich Geneva family, with two other siblings Victor and Ernest. Further into the book we also come to know Elizabeth, who was adopted by Victor’s parents, when Victor was four. As the story goes on Victor soon falls in love with Elizabeth and his mother’s dying wish is that he marries her someday. Victor spends the first part of the novel presenting his childhood and later years, up until the time he was to leave for college. While attending the University of Ingolstadt, Victor begins to exceed extremely well at chemistry and many of the other science classes that he attends. While attending the college and taking all the science classes he learns how to put dead tissue back together and bring something back to life. This new found knowledge that Victor has, brings us to our first effect, because he has learned how to bring things back to life. He begins to formulate a plan to build a body by using dead tissue. When he begins to take action on his plan, and ...
Many people know that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was part of a family of famed Romantic era writers. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was one of the first leaders of the feminist movement, her father, William Godwin, was a famous social philosopher, and her husband, Percy Shelley, was one of the leading Romantic poets of the time ("Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Biography."). What most people do not know, however, is that Mary Shelley dealt with issues of abandonment her whole life and fear of giving birth (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). When she wrote Frankenstein, she revealed her hidden fears and desires through the story of Victor Frankenstein’s creation, putting him symbolically in her place (Murfin, Ross. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Frankenstein.”). Her purpose, though possibly unconsciously, in writing the novel was to resolve both her feelings of abandonment by her parents, and fears of her own childbirth.