Jean Jacques Rousseau's Influence on Mary Shelley's Creature

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Manufactured Monster®

Who or what decides what makes one person better than another? Why should anyone or anything decide in the first place? The only thing that differentiates people is society. Whether it’s sports, school, or even getting hired for a job, someone is always the best. The most athletic, the smartest, the most qualified. Society puts these classifications on people. Things were not always this way though. Before humans were so “advanced” and before any society, there was a time when nothing mattered except self preservation. But things have changed; things always change and evolve. Throughout humanity society was developed into what it is today. Jean-Jacques Rousseau describes these steps in detail. He describes how society came about and how it has created evil. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, shows the evolution of human society through the Creature according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s beliefs.

Mary Shelley learned about Rousseau before she wrote the book Frankenstein, which influenced her writing throughout the book.. Throughout the her book, Shelley makes many subtle connections to Rousseau. One of the obvious references is that, “Jean Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in the year 1712” (Beacon), the same city Frankenstein takes place. Shelley is making a direct gesture to Rousseau through Geneva. Since Mary Shelley lived after Rousseau, many of his ideas would have already been know by society because, “the success and popularity of Rousseau was seen to coincide with a rise in similar tastes in much of Europe” (Sherwin). Shelley grew up and was educated in a time when Rousseau’s ideas were known, and this influenced her writing in Frankenstein.

The Creature, in Frankenstein,started off as a noble savage, fr...

... middle of paper ...

...m and become the best. After all of the evil acts of violence and twisted thoughts, the Creature becomes the monster he was never meant to be.

Work Cited

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive, Foundation. "Jean Jacques Rousseau: 1712-1778. Socialism And Education." Beacon Lights Of History, Vol. 13 (2006): 9-21. History Reference Center. Web. 29 May 2014.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, and Maurice Cranston. A Discourse on Inequality. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1984. Print.

Sherwin, Paul. "Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe." PMLA 96.5 (October 1981): 883–903. Quoted as "Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe" in Bloom, Harold, ed. The Sublime, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 29 May 2014

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. N.p.: Bantam Dell, 1818. Web. 30 May 2014.

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