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Examples Of Belonging In Frankenstein

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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Frankenstein is in utter disrepair, his limbs nearly frozen and was surely fatigued and sick. Frankenstein was suffering greatly. Not only physically, but Frankenstein appears to be a somber and melancholy person. Despite Frankenstein’s sullen demeanor, Walton is greatly intrigued by Frankenstein’s story and past.

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Shelley shows that Victor’s abandonment of the creature contributes to many feelings the creature goes through. Shelley writes that: “I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me.” (Shelley 103).

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At first glance, the gothic novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley appears to be a simple monster story, where a man creates a monster, and the monster goes on a rampage. However, there is more to it than meets the eye. As you delve deeper, you can see that Shelley uses the narratives of Walton, Frankenstein, and the monster himself to show how people desire friends, how they want to be accepted by society, and what happens if they are not. These ideas are present in all three characters, but Shelley primarily focuses on the monster in this story, as an epitome of the tragedy of not belonging and having no friends. Victor Frankenstein and Walton feel the need to have friends.

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The Creature is faced with two choices: ask his creator for another female version of himself or seek revenge. He first meets with his creator and claims, "One as deformed and horrible as myself, could not deny herself to me" implying that he needs another being with the "same defects" in order to feel accepted and find comfort. The Creature comes to the conclusion that remaining within a "species" with similar traits is the only way for him to feel fulfilled and have a sense of belonging. (136). Following Victor's rejection to bring another unnatural monster into this world, The Creature is filled with rage and the conviction that if he is condemned to be alone, then so should his creator.

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From the moment he is created, the creature knows he is not wanted by Victor. Shelly writes, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being

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„I desire the company of a man who could sympathize 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” (Shelley 163-164). This is the wish of the scientist Robert Walton whose letters start Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Unlike the first thoughts coming to mind when hearing the title, friendship is one of the main topics in the story and the wish Walton expresses in the beginning stands for the desires of all the main characters. Not only Walton feels to be in need of companionship, the central character Victor Frankenstein does so too and even the Creature he brings into being expresses its strong wish to belong to someone.

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The monster searches for love and acceptance, as it realizes a companion is missing in its life. It asks for a companion, one who would share their life with him, since he has been rejected by his creator and society. The creature implores Victor to give him access to the love it was denied at “birth,” and relates to Victor, in short, that love is the answer. He threatens Victor by telling him that he will continue to hurt others if he does not receive love. He relates to Victor, “If I can inspire love, I will cause fear” (Shelley 173).

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He is aware of his otherness and knows that he is “shut out from intercourse” (84) with the people he holds so dear. It can be argued that this is the point where the creature’s humanity is the strongest throughout the course of story. He has a basic understanding of human societies, he speaks and reads their language, shows compassion and, most importantly, seeks their company and friendship. In his knowledge that social belonging is the missing component to his own happiness, he confronts the people he secretly observed only to, once again, be met with fear and anger (94-95). He comes to realise that he

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The creatures first encounter with a human being only proves how humane it is, despite his horrid appearance as the old man is delighted with him "I am blind, and cannot judge of your countenance but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere". However, the younger citizens of the cottage enter and the creature is back to square one as they immediately react defensively against it- conveying how the creature will never be accepted with such distorted appearance since it is immediately identified as inhumane and

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The creature realizes society will not accept him, whether he is good or evil and hides himself and hides. Watching the Delaceys is the closest he had ever been to being part of a group, while his deeds of good go noticed but not reciprocated he feels a bond forming between them while it is truly one

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This family unintentionally aides the monster in learning english, french, and developing his understanding of human nature. Though they are thought to be low class, the monster, from observation of their physical appearance and treatment towards their father, often views Felix and Agatha as superior beings, and having a good disposition. For this reason, the monster expects their lives to be at peace, and yet is surprised when he sees them weeping, “I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but i was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect solitary being, should be wretched” (Shelley 127). The monster is quick to judge, that based on physical appearance, the Delacey family should have the perfect life with little to no reason for being sad, compared to his life of imperfection and solitude.

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The creature builds up the courage to go talk to Mr. Delacey and convince him to help him out, so that he would have a relationship with the Delacey’s. He talks about his experience and his feelings of neglect, loneliness, and misery. “I am an unfortunate and deserted creature; I look around and I have no relation or friend upon this earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me and know little of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world forever”

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Being abandoned by his creator, the monster has no one to guide him, no one to teach him right from wrong and good from evil. When the creature is first abandoned by Victor, he’s confused and doesn’t understand that he has been abandoned. The creature explains how he felt when he woke up, “A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses” (Shelley 99). The creature won’t fully realize the impact of being abandoned until later in the story. Victor also suffers from isolation from his

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”(Millhauser). This violent rejection is a repetition of Victor’s lack of acceptance for the monster and attention to his family. Victor knows that the monster will never be able to live within society and that his ability to create life is the only hope the monster has of achieving companionship. Victor's own aversion to companionship surfaces as he, “ fails to give him the human companionship, the Eve, the female creature, that he needs to achieve some sort of a normal life.” (Mellor).

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