Mary Shelley wrote the book Frankenstein at the age of nineteen in the mountains with her husband and Lord Byron. She was inspired by French ghost stories and her own nightmares to create the original story, and then encouraged by her husband to finish the tale. Throughout the book the reader is given a window into the mind of Victor Frankenstein and that of his creature. The book uses the juxtaposition of Victor's childhood and how the monster, or creature, was "raised" to create the idea that nurturing cannot always override human nature and those who are never nurtured seek out affection and can be pushed to desperate measures.Shelley creates an important commentary on nature versus nurture throughout the book. Shelley develops the motif of abandonment in order to create a commentary on the idea of nature versus nurture. The reader can see the importance of nature in the debate by looking at Victor himself. Victor had an extremely happy and fulfilled childhood, "No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to …show more content…
Victor considers how he spurned his creature after it begged for recognition, "For the first time, also, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I complained of his wickedness." (98) Victor abandons his creature after it first awakes, taking flight when he sees it try and smile at him. When he returns to monster is gone and he feels relief, only taking a moment for second thought. He realizes how this might have been a mistake when he tries to return home after the death of his younger brother and finds the monster in the woods. Victor is then forced to realize what he has released into the world through his