Examples Of Belonging In Frankenstein

Michael Stevens
Mrs. Spritzer
Honors English 12
(date of turn in)
Love and Belonging in Frankenstein
In 1943, Abraham Maslow revolutionized the behavioral sciences scene with his Hierarchy of Needs, a theory of human motivation. The theory comprises a five-tiered pyramid with physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization from the bottom to the top. Maslow believed that to obtain self-actualization one must complete the stages in order, fully fulfilling one before moving to the next stage. Mary Shelley’s gothic fiction, Frankenstein, exemplifies love and belonging from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a motivator for each character’s actions. Robert Walton has no one to sympathize with and therefore makes

In accordance with the Hierarchy of Needs, Walton feels lost as he has no guidance through friends until he satisfies his sense of love and belonging. Walton states that he “desire[s] the company of a man who could sympathise with me, whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans” (Shelley). Walton feels he cannot make rational decisions without someone understanding his struggles. Without this part in Maslow’s hierarchy, he is unable to move on to the stage of self-esteem where he respects and gains the respect of others. This is also seen through how the crew doesn’t care about Walton and just wants to get paid. Another example of this is when Victor boards the ship is the first time that Walton feels as though he can sympathize with another person besides his sister. Walton once again states, “Must I then lose this admirable being? I have longed for a friend; I have sought one who would sympathise with and love me. Behold, on these desert seas I have found such a

The first time the creature experiences sympathy is when he views the De Lacey family. He watches them and their situation, over time developing sympathy for them. “I thought (foolish wretch!) that it might be in my power to restore happiness to these deserving people” (Shelley). As one of the only emotions that The Creature is able to experience and is new to, he wants to further explore it and begins to want to help the DeLacey family. In fact, at this point, The Creature has fulfilled the stage of love and belonging. This fulfillment leads The Creature to try and fulfill a step in the path of the stage of self-esteem by obtaining acceptance from others, leading him to be rejected and fall back to an incomplete stage of love and belonging. Without sympathy for the DeLacey family after they rejected him, The Creature searches for someone to feel sympathy towards himself. He knows that no human would feel sympathetic towards him after his experiences so his only option is to get Victor to create a female companion for him. Victor states, “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (Shelley). The Creature is looking towards fulfilling his stage of love/belonging, causing him to do horrible acts in order to threaten Victor enough to do his