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The Need For Friendship In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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In Frankenstein, the creature shows the importance on the need for friendship. The creature feels lonely because he has no friends. The creature states, “…no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone,” (Shelley 93). The creature is clearly stating that he feels alone. Even Adam had Eve and his creator when Adam and Eve was on Earth to share conversations with (92). The creature has no one. The creature has no friends, and he cannot find anybody who is like him. The need for friendship has negatively impacted the creature because after being rejected by people several times, his emotions begin to fill with rage and bitterness. The creature states, “…when I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned, a rage of anger; and …show more content…

The creature was trying to help this girl, but he was punished because of his looks (101). This causes his fury to build into evil and bitterness: “Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind,” (101). The creature was in pain from being shot, and he vowed to get revenge against all humans (101). Without friends, the creature has felt no love or kindness from anyone, except from blind De Lacey (95-96). This need for friends has developed into him being evil; where as if he had friends, then he probably would not want to cause pain and misery upon everyone. Without friends, the creature’s hatred has developed against all mankind (101). The morale that can be taken from the creature’s need for friendship is that people cannot judge a book by its cover and listen to what people have to say. People judged and rejected the creature without listening to him. If they listened to the monster, then they could learn the true nature of the being, which would lead to friendship. If the creature had friendship, then he would have possibly been good and not turn into an evil monster that people thought he

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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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The creature learned what "bitter indignation" was and how to be "cruel" based on the way the villagers and his own creator treated him. The Creature is human because he has all the same emotional traits as we do, he may not look like us, but the thing that makes us human is making mistakes, " My feeling hurt. My heart aches. I cry. I feel sorry for myself.

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The old man didn 't judge him for having no friends or for being unable to see him, but instead said “Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate; but the hearts of men are full of brotherly love and charity."(105) This encouraged the creature to take more action by asking him and his family to be friends, but since the creature was only seen "monster" because of his appearance, the couple had begun to punch him, where he started to dash out of the cottage and was overcome with pain. This shows that the creature is only judge as not being a human, but if you stop to think and hear him, he is close enough to becoming a human being with his knowledge and

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The first event that angered the creature is when he was holding the girl in his arms, he is confronted by a man who grabs the girl out of his arms. This led to rage and he chases after the man who turns around and shot him. As you can image, the feeling of range and anger overtakes his thoughts saying “This was the reward for my benevolence! I saved a human being from destruction and as recompense I was now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness, which I had entertained but for a mere few moments before, gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth.

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After the creature is continuously rejected and turned away from he becomes violent and seeks revenge on mankind. The creature is nothing more than an outcast of society, in fear of everyone and anything. Perhaps with no one around to teach the purpose of life, there isn’t

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The creature wishes to live in peace, but because he does not look like a normal human, he can not live in peace. Additionally, Frankenstein does not help the creature or nurture him with love, thus, he causes the creature to develop a deep resentment towards Frankenstein. The creature, whom is optimistic until now, says, “ Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?” (161).

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All of the main characters fight for friendship even if they do so in different ways and for different reasons. All of them feel in need of someone to talk to if it is about science, about what horrible things one has done or about being different and alone. Another feature is the loss of friendship in all cases. Victor loses his friends to death, and so does Walton while the creature never really “fulfilled his dream of being anyone’s true friend” (Jeray 69). This way the novel not only shows the importance of friendship and having companions but also the possible consequences of either being rejected by everyone or of losing beloved people partly even due to own

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Whereas Frankenstein does not properly value the domestic affection he is given until it is violently taken from him, his creation learns that this is what values most in life and yet is not able to gain this affection from others. Francis Bacon says in his essay Of Friendship “I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage”. Shelley highlights the need for a sense of belonging and companionship by letting both her main figures suffer the pain of not having this need fulfilled and, in consequence, they both “quit the stage” (Bacon) and turn their backs on humanity. Social isolation, although through different circumstances, was the predominant cause for both Frankenstein and his creature’s demise. Even Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote in his preface to Frankenstein about the “amiableness of domestic affection” (Shelley 9).

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From the minute he was born to the minute he died he never had a friend he could talk to, all he could do was watch other people socialize, or read his book. One cannot learn how to socialize through a book, to learn how to socialize one needs to go through the steps of approaching a person and starting conversation with them which the monster was never able to do because of his looks. This was another hidden criticism that Shelley had towards The Enlightenment, she believed that people relied too much on formal education, and that people needed to go out and experience things for themselves (Willinksy ). The enlightenment that the monster experiences here is that he had to accept the understanding that he will never have a friend to talk to or share feeling with. Although he read in his book that he would not be accepted, it was not until the cottage rejection that he came to the realization that he would not actually be accepted in

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Childhood is a time in a person’s life where the most growing occurs, not only physically but also mentally. The human brain is nourished and maintained by the love and affection children receive from both parents and it continues to do so for the rest of their lives. The creature’s inability to build up courage and try to interact with society as well as his constant questioning of his existence is a direct result of an inexistent childhood as well as the absence of a loving family. Frankenstein’s mother and Elizabeth were both orphans so he was well aware of the importance of love and nurturing for people of all ages, yet he denied the creature the opportunity to receive affection of any sort. “No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles

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Frankenstein Literary Criticism Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, is filled with motifs of Nature and companionship. During the Romantic period or movement, when the novel Frankenstein was written, nature was a huge part of romanticism. Nature was perceived as pure, peaceful, and almost motherly. As we read the novel through Victor Frankenstein 's perspective, we the readers can see how romanticized-nature is perceived as by those who find comfort in nature. This novel also contains, in addition to romantic elements, heavy-filled gothic scenes and descriptions.

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The monster on the other hand had known only loneliness from the second he opened his eyes. The monster learns through painful rejection that he will never find companionship because humans are unable to see past his ghastly appearance and in anger tears away one of Frankenstein’s many companions. This begins the spiral of anger and loneliness that leads to the monster killing nearly everyone Frankenstein is close to. This, inadvertently, forces Frankenstein to have the same feelings of anguish and loneliness that he first instigated in the monster. Frankenstein never realises that all the monster wants is a companion, he cannot see his own emotions reflected in his creation.

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The creature becomes defensive. "Life...is dear to me, and I will defend it" (Shelley 96), this is ironic because not only does the creature kill others showing his selfishness, which he is mirroring Victor 's earlier selfish intentions for creating the creature, but earlier he was suicidal. Now the creature has to ask permission for a better life from a person that doesn 't even seem to value it. The creature also reminds

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Frankenstein: From Benevolent to Feind “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.” (Shelley 69) Said by Frankenstein’s monster, this quote truly defines him: initially an affectionate, love-seeking creature, he transformed into an enraged killer, angry at humanity for the undeservedly poor way he was treated. Victor Frankenstein is an unique, complex individual who encounters a similar change of nature for similar reasons. The quote—though spoken by the monster—encapsulates the evolution of Victor Frankenstein’s personality; misery—a product of isolation and loneliness—aroused a deterioration of temperament from an initially benevolent Frankenstein.

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The monster shows his sorrow after being rejected by the cottagers; “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom” (Shelley 97). The creature leaves where he was abandoned to a cottage of the Delacey’s there he learns about humanity. After learning he accidentally drives the Delacey’s apart from him, causing great depression and anger (Frasait).

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