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The Gray Area Of Human Nature In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The Gray Area of Human Nature
Intro:

A question debated by philosophers, scientists, and thinkers is if human beings are inherently evil. Some may argue that human beings are inherently flawed and prone to evil, others can argue that humanity is inherently good and evil is absorbed by behavior. The nature of man is not entirely evil or good. This is shown in the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, it explains how man is not inherently evil because people go through different experiences, humans are not born with a wicked nature, and good and evil coexist together as a balance.

#1: Man is not inherently evil because people go through different experiences to get to the way they are. If we look into the perspective of the monster, it …show more content…

Because of his experience with the DeLacey family, he grew hatred and revenge against all of humanity. While talking with the older man he claims,“‘At that instant the cottage door opened, and Felix, Safie, and Agatha entered. Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me? Agatha fainted, and Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung; in transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained.’” (Shelley, 115). This shows that the monster never had bad intentions or evil thoughts towards humans until he went through everything with the DeLacey family. He claims that he could have torn him limb by limb but chose not to because he doesn’t want to be seen as an evil being. The monster …show more content…

When Victor Frankenstiend decided to create a living being, he never intended for it to come out as an evil entity. While examining the different features of his creation he says,“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation” (Shelley, 42). Victor saw his creation and adored it as soon as he was created. The monster was not born with an evil conscience and neither was Victor. When creating the monster his intentions were never to have him kill people left and right. Victor wanted to create a great scientific experiment, he did not want to slowly destroy humanity based off of his creation. It could be argued that Victor created the monster for only glory and praise only being led to an evil outcome. Though Victor would enjoy being praised for his work, he did it because he wanted to do something great for not only himself but for the history of science. Not knowing what his creature could potentially be capable of is not Victor’s fault. The monster was not created from an evil mind or created to do

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885 Words | 4 Pages

An example that can identify Victor as being the true villain in the story is Victor's lack of thought and deposition when he sees the creature he had created. He states that he is “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep”(Shelley 59). This quote exemplifies how Victor immediately despises the creature based on its looks and abandons it rather than taking the creature under his wing to give it guidance and care. It also demonstrates the ambition of creating new life for scientific achievement, without considering the consequences. Another example that we see victor lack a sense of guidance and responsibility is his talk with the creature he states that he “consents” to the monster's request and will “deliver into your hands a female who will accompany you”(Shelley 159).

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A responsible scientist would have taken care of the creation, and would have made sure that it wasn’t exposed to the general public – Victor does the exact opposite. The creature then goes on to try to help a family of villagers, who reject the creature at first sight. From this event, the creature is corrupted: “I am malicious because I am miserable”(Shelley 147). If Victor did the responsible thing – nurture the creation, and guide it carefully -, the creature wouldn’t have caused so much destruction. The reason the creature gets “malicious” in the first place is because Victor let the creature be exposed to human society, which made it “miserable”.

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This quote explains how Victor ditched his creation without even acknowledging its mind, only his looks. This would eventually lead the creature to do his own adventure and eventually learn all about Victor leading to all the murders. If Victor just took accountability and confronted the monster during the creation process the murders would not have occurred. Some may say that the monster release was good in the situation because of how big and scary he was. But Victor shouldn’t be afraid to confront the creation he made.

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649 Words | 3 Pages

Victor was inspired to create the monster because of his isolation and love for science, and then when the monster was created he had no one to criticize him but him so he only noticed the bad things. Victor's creation, on the other hand, is innocent when he is born, like a baby. He needs to experience the world and figure out how to function in it on his own. He's isolated and only has his creator Victor to blame for not teaching him how to function in

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Keeping that in mind, why did Victor leave his creation, not knowing, if he could harm anyone or thing close by? Victor never thought about the repercussions of his act and acted in defence of himself, leaving the monster to defend for himself and experience things without the help of his creator. All Victor says is, “He might of spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs” (Shelley 36). He fled from his creation leaving the monster by itself before he knew what the monster was doing.

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He became obsessed with the idea of creating life out of inanimate objects. Victor wanted to manipulate the power of life and wanted to discover the secrets of life and death and how to renew life. He abandons his creation because of the creature's appearance. It is understandable why some people argue that Victor was actually a victim because the monster killed many of his loved ones. But in actuality, Victor's hypocritical attitude made him like that.

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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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William Shakespeare lived in England in the 1500s, living to witness the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and her successor King James I. His famous play Macbeth was written for the King in his early years of reign. King James I was a descendant of the real Banquo; an accomplice of Macbeth who aided in the murderous deeds, which led to speculation that Shakespeare had altered the facts about Macbeth 's reign and Banquo to please the King, as he was a patron of Shakespeare 's acting company. Macbeth himself was based on a real Scottish king of the same name that ruled in the 11th century, centuries before the development of the play.

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It is another liability that he brought onto himself. First, Victor, being a scientist, should have been aware of the precautions of creating a new life. He did not think of the aftermath that the monster might create. For example, it is stated, “The death of William, the execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife… my father… he died in my arms” (87). Additionally, everyone that Victor ever cared about or loved died because of the creature murdering them.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

Soon after he gets rejected from the De Lacey family, he exclaims to Victor, “Cursed, Cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge” (117). The monster explains that he had been truly overcome with anger because of the De Lacey family’s rejection of him.

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1238 Words | 5 Pages

Firstly, man is born evil because society shows him to be evil. An example of this is how parents must raise their child to be good. A parent never has to raise their child to do bad things. A young child might draw on the wall and believe that it is art, however the parent will stop the child and tell them that drawing on the wall is a bad thing to do.

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Victor believed that he was doing a greater good for humankind when created the monster. In the original book Victor

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The monster is said to be a replica of Frankenstein. The monster has no control over his aggression and continues to murder his master’s loved ones. Although, this aggression is spurred on from the rejection and sorrow that humanity has placed on him (Cantor 117). The creature’s ultimate sorrow is caused by the denial of a companion

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Evil is a simple word that we learn at a young age and that we understand is bad. However, our youth and innocence prevents us from knowing the weight the word holds. As our understanding of evil develops, we begin to see evil all around us. Although we hold common societal definitions of evil, each person is bound to view evil slightly different from others. Someone might consider alcoholism evil, while others consider it normal: someone might believe racism is evil, while others believe it is natural.

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