Nature Vs Nurture Frankenstein

The theory and philosophy of nature versus nurture have been debated and speculated upon for centuries and continue to be to this day. Those that stand on the argument of nature believe that our behaviors are only stewarded by our genetics and that the personality traits we are born with remain fixed and uninfluenced by outside forces. Those in opposition, that side with nurture, believe our behaviors are only governed by the environment in which we were raised. Finally, there are those that feel nature and nurture correlate together to shape who we are. Mary Shelley poetically illustrates the theme of nature versus nurture in her novel Frankenstein through her heartbreaking portrayal of the Creature. Throughout the novel, we see the Creature’s

It wasn’t merely a single act of abandonment, rejection, and violence but a multitude of them. Within those first moments when he was created, he reaches for Victor, but Victor runs. (Shelley 38). He abandons him which forces The Creature to fend for himself. The one that should have been a father to him, a teacher, a protector. This is a core wound that the Creature reflects on later as he builds his intelligence and awareness and laments “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance, I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.” (Shelley 88). After his initial abandonment, his first interactions with humans only lead to more pain and confusion (Shelley 76). Disturbed by his appearance, they reject and greet him with violence and disgust. From this, the Creature learns that he can’t trust humans and feels a lack of acceptance. Nevertheless, he begins to build faith in humans again while observing the family whose

Yet his violence is not indiscriminate. He only directs it towards Victor and the ones he loves to strongarm and obtain the love he feels he is owed. The Creature appeals to Victor that if he creates a companion for him, he will commit to his gentle nature, and cease violence, to which Victor complies. (Shelley 106). Consequently, Victor breaks his promise and the Creature, betrayed once again, plunges deeper into his path of revenge towards his creator who damned him with a disfigurement no one would accept. (Shelley 126). The Creature kills both Victor’s best friend, his wife, and inadvertently Victor’s father to which Victor answers by pursuing the Creature to kill him once and for all (Shelley 152). Mocking him along the way, the Creature leads him through a series of harsh terrain for the purpose of wearing Victor down. Through much dismay Victor never reaches him, and on his deathbed, he begs Robert Walton, a captain who found him in the Artic, to carry out his wish to kill the Creature (Shelley 163). Robert steps out for a moment, and when he returns, he sees the Creature standing over Victor. At this point in the novel, we are not given any context of the Creature’s emotional process. It can be easily assumed that his nurture destroyed his nature and that there is nothing left in him but violence and hate. Here, however, is where Mary Shelly