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The Influence Of Nature Vs. Nurture In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Nature versus nurture is one of our society’s oldest philosophical debates. Famous intellectuals from John Locke to Renee Descartes have contested both sides of this debate for centuries. Some believe that personal development is determined by one’s DNA, while others deem that behavioral characteristics are the results of one’s overall environment and upbringing. In the novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley contributes to this debate by extensively exploring the notion that an individual’s character and actions are greatly influenced by their experiences within society. Shelley reasons that the monster’s character deficiencies are due to society’s inclination to judge individuals based on appearance and Victor’s shortcomings as a parent, rather than the monster itself being intrinsically evil. Victor’s lack of responsibility as a creator of life, and overall absence of foresight regarding his creation make him predominantly liable for the many heinous acts that the monster commits …show more content…

As opposed to tuning in to the misfortunes of the monster and tending to them Victor incessantly denounces the creature and hopes to remove its existence. As he nears his death, Victor claims that he, “(I) feel(s) justified in desiring the death of my (his) adversary…he ought to die.” (Shelley 161) Victor’s lack of sympathy for his creation is what dooms ultimately it. This becomes particularly evident when Walton, “call(s) on it (the monster) to stay. The creature paused, looking on me (Walton) with wonder.” (Shelley 163) In this scene, the monster validates that his only desire is to be wanted by someone, rather than to be shunned in fear. Although, Victor is not directly accountable for the deaths of his family, he is undoubtedly culpable for transforming a harmless creature that merely aspired to be loved, into a wicked

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The Monster believes and mentioned several times that the reason that he is so angry is because of Victor. Shelley writes,

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Parents need to love their children and show them right from wrong. Without care from a parent, children may feel lost or lonely like the monster did in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Shelley analyzes the psychology of parenting through Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the monster, by comparing their behavioral and psychological development as a result of the parenting they receive in their childhood. Because Victor was loved and had a great childhood, he was able to grow as a person, psychologically and emotionally. As though Victor had a good childhood,

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He uses the little that he knows to fuel his hatred towards humans and his creator. This shows the exponential growth of the problems that Victor has created as a result of his desire for knowledge. Not only did he create the destructive monster, but now the monster is using a hunger for knowledge, the very thing that created it, to do even more damage. This root cause is linked to everything that is causing Victor’s suffering. The monster also compares his relationship to Victor to that of God and Adam, wishing that he had the same supplication to his creator that Adam did, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his creator.

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Victor had to deal with all the guilt and take responsibility for all the bad things the creature had done because he created and left the creature. “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep”(Shelley 49). Victor realized what he created and could not even sleep knowing that he created a “monster”. His abandonment of the creature was even worse, because he let the creature out into the real world with no knowledge or morals. “The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.

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Nature is the predetermined traits that people are born with, while nurture is the influence that affects people after they’re born. The debate surrounding Nature V. Nurture is how much of a person’s traits is predetermined and how much is influenced by the environment. Mary Shelley's believes in nurture more than nature. Victor Frankenstein has certain traits that he’s born with. Frankenstein is born into a prestigious, wealthy family.

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Victor continues to push the monster out of his life and believes that the monster is pure evil and the monster just wants love and acceptance, the monster states, “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” (Shelley 105) This portrays the monster and Victor's complex relationship because the monster puts all the shame on Victor so that Victor will accept and love him. Victor still detest the monster as he has ruined Vitor's life.

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Conversely, when the monster imagines his creator, Victor, he curses “‘his crimes & malice”’ thoughts of hatred and revenge consume him (Shelley 96). This dichotomy highlights the incompetence of Victor as a parent. This helps to reassert that the monster’s “wickedness originates not with his soul but his treatment,” (Ferguson). Victor’s negligence as a parent, a trait caused by his poor upbringing, caused the corruption of his

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Victor is stirred by his work, but not in a positive manner. He goes on to explain his feelings towards the creature by saying, “… my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred” (136). Victor is so bewildered and repulsed by the creature that he misses key signs of violence, from the creature, that may have saved Victor’s family had he not been so

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Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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His appearance scares the people he encounters, and his only desire is love. Further in the novel, there are many situations where the Monster is the victim. Shelley uses words that provide imagery for her readers. Readers will think Victor is the antagonist. He realizes if he would show the Creature love, the Monster would not kill the people.

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Numerous research has concluded that several emotional bonds exist between humanity and nature that can impact everything from attitude to anxiety. Novels of the romanticism period, a significant literary era that encompassed most European works written in the early 1800’s, are most known for describing the impacts that nature has on people and implying that unexpected consequences can arise out of this relationship; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of such a novel. The prime conflict of this 1818 science-fiction story occurs between the titular character, Victor Frankenstein, and a monster he creates through his own scientific innovations. Because of Victor’s abandonment of the monster, it becomes intent on destroying the scientist’s

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There still remains the possibility that these actions, these predisposed beliefs, may be the product of nurture, the offspring of being raised in a society that loves beauty more than anything else. If that is the case, then young children, those that have yet to be molded by the world and its views, should be the most easily accepting of all. However, once again, we are shown otherwise. Upon his encounter with the youngest Frankenstein, William, the Creature has just this exact thought. “Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me,” he says, “that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity.”

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Nature V.S. Nurture in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein Mary Shelly's Frankenstein discusses the nature of human begins, whether it is simply one's natural instinct to act maliciously or if it's one's surroundings and environment that impact their behavior. Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist of this intricate novel, answers this question in two ways, as both the product and the perpetrator of how it is both in the nature of a person, and their nurturing that develops their behaviors, and in the case of this plot, malicious behaviors. Since a young age Frankenstein desired knowledge, constantly seeking for greater wisdom, while his father did not care for this. His passion for learning wasn't something that his parents conditioned him into, and

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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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Parents are everyone 's first role models. Regardless of biological relation, those who raise us have a profound influence on the way we perceive and interpret life. Parents lay the foundation of our first sense of morality and empathy, and usher us to the path of our development of social skills. No matter how consciously one may attempt to have no resemblance to their parents, it is an inevitability of life that we will harness aspects of their influence and carry them through our lifetime. In Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein”, the influence of parental figures is displayed by the morals and values instilled in the monster.

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