The Tragic Creature In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the character of the creature is a problematic one, but what makes him so problematic? The reason that the creature is problematic, that this paper is going to argue, is that the creature is problematic as a character is because of his education, and just as importantly the creature’s devolution of his education. In this paper I’m going to talk about the creature’s education, the devolution of this education, and his overall role in the novel as a way for Shelley to make a point about knowledge. [FIX IT] The creature can easily be said to be somewhat of an auto-didactic. He never has any direct education from a mentor figure instead he what knowledge – apart from the senses – that he garners must be taken. The beginning of his education (other than sensory) happens with the DeLacey’s. At the cottage he learns the more human aspects of society such as language, empathy, and some morals. Despite the creature’s frightening interactions with humans before he finds the hovel attached to the DeLacey’s cottage, he actively decides to stay and observe the family, and find out

He states this pride by recounting that, “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood very little, and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken,” (89). Safie becomes the ruler by which the creature measures his academic performance by because she is the only one he has found so far that is on equal footing with him in being an outsider to a culture that they don’t understand. The creature’s knowledge continues to grow in this manner, but the more you learn, the more you begin to recognize yourself and your position in the