Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Frankenstein

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Humans have needs. They have basic needs like water, food and shelter, and they have more advanced needs like safety, belonging/love and self-esteem. However not all humans meet all of those needs. Some don’t even have the basic needs. So Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a theory created decades ago by Abraham Maslow, is a tool used to identify if the needs a person have been fulfilled, and based on those needs they are placed on a level of the pyramid. It starts with basic needs at the bottom like food, water, etc. and goes all the way to self-actualization which is pursuing inner talent. All human beings can be placed on a level of this pyramid and they range from the very bottom to the very top. The characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
My mother's tender caresses and my father's smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me are my first recollections. I was their plaything and their idol, and something better--their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me. With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life, added to the active spirit of tenderness that animated both, it may be imagined that while 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,
First came William Frankenstein, Victor’s brother, who was killed by the creature. Next Justine, a servant of the Frankenstein family, was accused of murdering William and she ended up being hung. After that came Victor’s closest friend, Henry Clerval, who was killed by the creature because Victor didn’t make another female creature for him. The creature was trying to move up the pyramid by getting Victor to create a female creature for him to love, but Victor ended up destroying the female creature, that he had almost created, knowing what the consequences could’ve been. By now the end of the novel is approaching and Victor has lost most of his loved ones. Furthermore, after Victor destroyed the she-monster, the creature promised Victor he will get revenge on him. So Victor had not only fallen below the belonging-love level of the pyramid, he also was not free from fear, so from the top of the pyramid he had fallen all the way to the second level, safety. It didn’t get better for Victor from there, he decided to marry his stepsister/cousin Elizabeth and on their wedding night the creature decided to take his revenge. He killed Elizabeth. Victor now had no one left. This is near the end of the story and like I said everyone, that is still alive, is near the bottom of the pyramid. Victor than decided his sole purpose of living was to get

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