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Good And Evil In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The nature of human beings has been questioned by many over the course of our existence. Mary Shelley’s most famous novel, Frankenstein (1818), introduces us to a creature that was brought to life by Victor Frankenstein, who had become obsessed with the idea of creating life. Due to his horrid physical appearance, society views him as a monstrous evil being. In fact, the creature commits several monstrous acts towards the end of the novel. This makes the reader question whether the humans that judged him were right or if they led to his wickedness. Human beings are born good and become evil only as a consequence of having been exposed to harsh and evil circumstances. The creature began his life completely good and innocent. However, he was …show more content…

This hovel contains a chink from where he can observe the family, the Delaceys, that resides in the cottage. Very quickly, he was captivated by the cottagers and the love they share for each other. Therefore, he decides to help them out. The creature says that “[he] cleared their path from the snow and performed those offices that [he] had seen done by Felix” (Shelley 122). Felix is the oldest son the cottager Mr. Delacey. The creature is clearly kind hearted, he does chores for the family because he wants to help them and make them happier since he has seen how their current state of poverty has affected them. This quote therefore, clearly proves that the creature was not evil at the beginning of his life. He started his life with good intentions and a thirst for love and making others happy. Felix and the cottagers taught Safie, Felix’s beloved, their language by reading to her Volney’s Ruins of Empires. The creature paid attention and, possessing a great thirst for knowledge, listened to each one of Felix’s explanations. Thus, learning about how society and government works. Upon learning the laws of man. The creature stated that “[he] could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow” (Shelley 128). The creature was unable to fathom how a human being would be capable of such atrocities. Once again demonstrating the pureness of his heart. However, his views on murder change

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847 Words | 4 Pages

The creature is no different than humans in the way that humans can kill, be kind or be violent and miserable, which the creature shows and experiences. As the creature learns more he encounters villagers with "gentle manners" and some barbarous villagers" who treat him like trash. If humans are so called humans because of their sympathy and compassion, then humans shouldn 't be considered humans if they kill or become violent. The men the creature meets are just as defective as he becomes. Just like any human around the creature 's "heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy", but he also experiences "misery" and "violence" he is "filled with an insatiable thirst for vengeance" (190).

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(Frankenstein, 101). As a matter of fact, the creature "looked upon crime as a distant evil" and believed that "generosity were ever present before me." (Frankenstein, 101). As time passed, the creature learns that not everyone is filled with kindness as the family he was with but that there were people like the "barbarous villagers" he encountered when he had first woken up (Frankenstein, 93).

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578 Words | 3 Pages

In Frankenstein, the creature is born with goodness and innocence. He is completely naive to the evils of the world in which he was made. He observed some cottagers for some time, curious as to how they lived. Eventually, he had this revalation: “‘I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained…” This demonstrates the creature great capacity for compassion.

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933 Words | 4 Pages

Initially, the Creature was pure and innocent, similarly to a naive child as it did not hate and did not apprehend many things. It tried to comprehend the world and explore it by interacting with the denizens of the area as the Creature mentions, “An old man sat [...] and, perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which he debilitated form hardly appeared capable” (98). This scene evinces the original state of the Creature’s mentality, which was non-hostile and agog to many things. However, the more interaction it had with humans, the more perceptive it became and realised people hated it because of its grotesque appearance.

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204 Words | 1 Pages

“I thought that I might be able to restore happiness to them,” he said. Another example of the creature been kind is when he saved the little girl form dying in the river. However, by the end of the novel things change. The creature became another person; when he kills his first victim he tasted evil.

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959 Words | 4 Pages

The Creature commences as “benevolent and good” (pg. 69) as he firstly observes the positive aspects of mankind. The positive nature of mankind is emphasized by the deeds of the two younger cottagers who “several times placed food before the old man when they reserved none for themselves.” (pg. 77) The deeds taken by the two cottagers deeply affected the Creature as it demonstrates the human ability of unselfishness and the effect of human kindness. The creature states that “this trait of kindness moved me sensibly”

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137 Words | 1 Pages

The creature holds the Romantic philosophy that beings are created to be innately good and that suffering and misfortune create vices within us. He holds out further hope that a better circumstance can set him right again. He explains, “My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor, and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal” (159). He metaphorically refers to his vices as children to show they are the direct result of loneliness. While his sins include violent anger inducing him to set a cottage on fire, strangle a little child, and frame a young woman, he argues that he can become good again if he is allowed meaningful fellowship.

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968 Words | 4 Pages

In addition, the creature had saved a woman from drowning but was punished. In other words, the creature had done yet another good deed by saving a woman from drowning in a pool of water. A man came by and thought the creature was the one who hurt the woman. This resulted in the creature getting shot. All in all, the creature has always been a monster in the eyes of a human, despite what he had done to be

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959 Words | 4 Pages

The creature starts to gain some human emotions when he first sees the cottagers, when he says, “The silver hair and benevolent countenance of the aged cottager won my reverence; while the gentle manner of the girl won my love” (Shelley 98). Mary Shelley uses the cottagers to act as a make-shift family to the creature since he doesn’t have a true family. This makeshift family that the creature has helps him become a kind and caring being, he starts to cut their wood for them and shovel the driveway if it snows and is like their guardian angel. As the novel progresses the creature starts to save and take care of humans when he, “Rushed from [his] hiding place, and, with extreme labor from the force of the current saved [the little girl] and dragged her to shore. She was senseless; and [he] endeavored, by every means in [his] power, to restore animation” ( Shelley 133).

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The monster distinguishes this feature in his actions, he recalls an incident where his sense of justice compels him to act heroically, “ I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. ”(shelly 139) This sense of justice, being able to save another person’s life, despite not being taught or shunned upon, highlights his morality. His ability to be able perform a selfless deed, especially one that is universally acknowledged as a heroic act, and then later be able to reflect over the crimes he committed before, highlights his moral ethics. This moral act of heroism and reflection upon his wrong doings is a reason behind his possession of human characteristics, suggesting that the creature’s way of being may not be as inhumane as it appears on the outside.

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1158 Words | 5 Pages

After his birth, the creature's genetically advanced survival instinct allowed him to gain a clear thought process almost spontaneously. This draws an insight that the monster was able to learn the morals of life himself. While one might believe that since he was independent with no parent figure, the monster was unable to learn what was morally correct. However, while living in close quarters with a cottage family in a rural area, the monster learns a sense of delight as “the trait of kindness moves [him] sensibly” after closely watching the every move of his new neighbors (99). This illustrates that using the absence of his father is not an excuse for the monster to commit heinous crimes as he was initially exposed to the warmhearted family.

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762 Words | 4 Pages

Also seen as a monster, the creature finally got the courage to befriend and show his face to the cottagers, the people he trusted, just to be seen as a monster based on his looks and not his character from the Delacy family. “At that instant the cottage door was opened [...] Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me? [...] Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung: in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground, and struck me violently with a stick” (Shelley 126).

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787 Words | 4 Pages

The creature's own “protector had departed and had broken the only link that held me to the world" (139), leaving him to fend for himself in a world that rejects him. The creature's evilness came not from birth, but he is “malicious because I am miserable; am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?" 147. These circumstances that he has faced have resulted in the monster that he has become now. The creature had no companion or a person to lead him on the right path, someone to teach him right from wrong.

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells the tale of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the aftermath of a scientific experiment gone awry. The novel follows Dr. Frankenstein on his quest for knowledge and his desire to conquer death by reanimating a corpse. Along the way, the reader is forced to contemplate the creature within themselves, just as much as the creature on the page. We are faced with many questions, including: “Are people born evil?” and “How can good and evil exist in the same person?”

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

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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