A child goes through many experiences in their moments of adolescence. It is stereotyped that everyone grows to become their own individual. But most children become a product of the environment that they were raised in and the events that took place in that individual 's childhood, leaving them to still be a unique individual but never truly their own person. John locke’s theory about a human changing due to events that occur in life are shown in Mary Shelley’s frankenstein, The Huffington Post, The Global Post, and Livestrong. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein proves John Locke’s theory through many instances where the creature tries to come in contact with humanity. The creature created by Victor Frankenstein, especially in the event …show more content…
His personality and self grew into knowing that he was ugly and hated by humans making him a hateful individual due to a life event. He went from being a caring individual towards more hateful and cautious around man because of this event, it crafted his adolescent mind to know to be fearful and to avoid normal human individuals and later another life event would change him even further into being a completely hateful monster of a person. Later in the story after having yet another bad encounter with humans, he goes and finds a child hoping to be able to sway the naive child into liking him and being his companion believing if young enough the child would ignore the looks of himself and trust only the loving caring nature of the being. The creature finds a child and captures him but the child does not look past physical features and then screams, …show more content…
The article was titled 5 Life-Changing Events That Can Shake Us To Our Core. This article not only proves Locke’s theory, but also gives five relevant examples that happen to most people in their lifetime. The article goes on to state “If a spouse dies, your life is irrevocably changed…”(Grufferman). A loved one dying changes anyone, not just the young. It truly does rock our emotions and change a person forever, if a child were to put so much love and trust into a family member who happened to pass that child would be undeniably devastated and suffer from trust issues for the rest of his/her life having put all trust into someone they lost and can never have back. An event as tragic as death can even do the same thing and effect a full grown adult in the same way. In another article a writer goes on to state the effects of traumatic events in a child 's life to further prove Locke’s theory. The writer goes on to state how traumatic events can not only change behavior of a child but fully effect the brain to the point of learning difficulty “Trauma can take a toll on a young child 's developing brain…”(Morin). A child can not only grow to be a different person, but can all together shift entirely from an honor roll student to a student needing assisted learning, if that doesn 't in itself proves Locke’s theory than nothing will. The argument can be made to also present the idea that a
The creature seek acceptance from humans, but when he tries to sympathize with one they aren't able to look past his appearance and are incapable of seeing his qualities. When the creature tells Victor his tale we learn how Victor's irresponsibility affects the creature. The first human to reject the creature is Victor, his own creator. Victor first states that the creature horrifies him, and left the creature to fend for himself. The creature seems like a kid because he has to learn how to survive, talk, write, read etc. When the creature continues telling Victor his tale he describes how he saves a girl from drowning, and the man that is
...almost like AN abused animal, the creature lashes out at those around him, killing and harming fellow teams of individuals as a results of he is constantly met with anger and violence himself. perhaps the creature would have shown compassion to others if he had been schooled compassion himself.
These parallels between the creature and a developing child help to explain many of the mysteries of the book. As we see, the creature goes on a terrible killing spree. There are two reasons for this. First, the creature desires revenge for its isolation. But it seems that the creature is also not aware of its own strength - it is easy for the creature to accidentally commit a murder. What two-year-old would not dream of this power? The creature's identification with mythological figures has some fantastic aspects - children fantasize incessantly. This makes sense. The creature, being new to the living world, is chronologically a child - physically strange as it might be, we can only expect it to act its age.
The Enlightenment age encouraged everyone to use reason and science in order to rid the world of barbarism and superstition. In fact, Kant argued that the "public use of one's reason must always be free, and it alone can bring about enlightenment among men" (Kant 3). Enlightenment thinking not only influenced philosophy and the sciences, but also literature (especially in Pope's Essay on Man). In reaction to Enlightenment's strict empiricism, Romanticism was born. In Frankenstein, Shelley argues (1) that Victor Frankenstein's role as an Enlightenment hero, not only pulled him out of nature, but made him a slave to his creation; (2) that Frankenstein's role as a revolting romantic failed, because he didn't take responsibility for his creation; and (3) mankind must find a balance between the Enlightenment and Romantic ideologies.
Left on his own to strike out in the world the monster soon experienced the prejudices of those he came meet. Prejudices based upon his frightful, or unusual, appearance and his inability to communicate initially. I quickly had empathy for the abandoned creature, despite the descriptions of his gruesome appearance, and felt mixed emotions about his actions towards others in the story. Were the violent actions of the monster towards others spawned from their violent rejection of ...
Philosophers and scientists alike have debated for centuries whether a person’s character is the result of nature or nurture. In the writings of Thomas Hobbes, it is expressed that humans are endowed with character from birth, and that they are innately evil in nature. John Locke’s response to this theory is that everyone is born with a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and then develops character after a series of formative experiences. The idea that true character is the result of experiences and societal interaction is a theme deeply explored throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Through different interactions with the monster, Shelley attempts to express that it is because of Victor’s failings as a parent and creator, because of the monster’s isolation, and because of society’s reaction to the monster that the monster has become evil. The monster’s character is a direct result of how he was nurtured, based on his experiences and circumstances, rather than his being innately evil from “birth.”
When the creature was brought back to life, it was like an infant. It only has the basic sensations, “I felt light, hunger, and thirst, and darkness” (74). The creature is not born evil. It was called monster simply because it has an awful appearance. Although the creature is monster outside, it has a benevolent heart inside. As the creature learns language from the cottagers, it starts to read. After it absorbs knowledge from the books, it despises killing. “When I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and loathing” (84). The creature’s attitude shows readers that it is not a slayer at the beginning. Also, the creature says, “I admired virtue and good feelings and loved the gentle manners and amiable quantities of my cottagers” (84). It is obvious that the books and kind cottagers shape the creature into a humanized being. Besides, the act of saving a drowning girl from a precipitous river indicates that the creature is actually a good being. However, people never try to look under its ugly appearance. When the creature proceeds to a village, where people attack it. Felix, one of the kind cottagers, drives the creature away immediately at the first sight of it. The man who plays with the drowning girl shoot the creature when it approaches to them. After all these rejections, the creature’s world falls
The creature was tormented because of his hideous appearance. It is unfair that they judged him so harshly because all the creature sought was to be loved. He just wanted to fit in with other people. He is pretty much left by himself to discover that he is ugly and what that actually means. Once the creature realizes that he is ugly and the townspeople treat him so badly, he becomes the monster that everyone assumed he was in the first place. This once so kind-hearted creation is molded into a repulsive monster by the way he is treated by society. The creature accidentally causes the townspeople poverty by stealing their food in secret, when he realizes the effect of his thievery he leaves wood on the doorsteps of the people to try to ease their scarcity. All he wants is to be accepted, yet because of his ugly looks the townspeople still deny him of acceptance. “As a society, we build our own monsters” this is a statement that is describing so much (Connection 1). The town’s people are making him everything that he is. “He was merely provoked into acting out” (Rose
Fate vs free will is an overwhelming topic, and is a subject that is covered by numerous texts throughout history. It is often hard to determine where fate ends and free will is allowed to begin. Paradise Lost tries to tackle this area between fate and free will between creation and the creator. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein also deals with similar issues by delving into the relationship between Victor Frankenstein the creator and his monster. I believe these texts setup interesting scenarios to make the reader question whether or not creations have free will especially when it comes to their relationships with their creator.
When Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is analyzed, critics comes to a conclusion about Victor Frankenstein's creation. The creature invokes the most sympathy from the readers than any other character in the novel. Because he is abandoned by society which manipulates the creature to do evil things despite his good heart. Therefore Shelley's message throughout the novel is that a person is not born evil, they are made evil.
Education is a tool to advance an individual and a society; however, education can become a means to gain power when knowledge is used to exercise control over another. In Frankenstein, knowledge becomes the downfall of both Victor Frankenstein and the Monster. The novel explores the consequent power struggle between Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the dichotomy of good and evil, and the contrast between intellectual and physical power. Finding themselves in mirroring journeys, Victor Frankenstein and the Monster are locked in a struggle for dominance. Through these two characters, Mary Shelley explores the consequences of an egotistical mindset and of using knowledge to exercise power over others.
In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external apperence and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is seaverly deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appereance which is grotesque. Human nature is to judge by external apperence. He is automatically ostracized and labeled as a monster because of his external apperence. He finnaly realized that no matter how elequintly he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust. The creature is treated as a monster, therefore he begins to internalize societies view of him and act the like a monster.
Throughout the year Professor Prudden has been teaching us the idea of the individual and when and how it came about. We have studied The French Revolution, Scientific Revolution, Colonialism, and Reformation, all stressing what made this time period important to the individual. We finished the class reading the novel Frankenstein with does a great job of demonstrating a man or “monster” creaking his own being. We have already determined that an individual is; the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant. Mary Shelley demonstrates individuality through Frankenstein and leads to his internal isolation and loneliness. She shows that uniqueness is the most important aspect of individualism not only through Frankenstein but Victor
The theme in a piece of literature is the main idea or insight on characters. Most pieces of literature do not limit itself to one but many other themes all collected into one. This is just like in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This horrifying story was produced in 1818 and has several themes that she portrays throughout. The theme of dangerous knowledge is unmistakably seen theme in Frankenstein. In Frankenstein we see this theme through three of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. We can see how their desire for knowledge can take them places and show them eventually what they are looking for. Sooner or later it will take them to dangerous and unwanted places. The desire for knowledge can eventually lead one to its grave. Victor Frankenstein’s scientific endeavor, Robert Walton’s search for the North Pole, and the creature’s kind heart but scary features creates this theme of dangerous knowledge.
Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).