Theme Of Moral Corruption In Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, the Monster, is created by Victor Frankenstein. Victor creates the Monster and hates him, because of this the Monster only sees hate and learns to hate. Victor has moral corruption as well because he has a very mundane outlook on life and this dictates how he reacts to the Monsters plot for revenge. Both characters in Frankenstein are infected by moral corruption and are controlled by there moral values. In this paper I will use Aristotle and Augustine to explain how moral corruption is corrupted by a persons environment and how they are treated in their environment. Aristotle teaching of moral virtue and vise directly ties into the moral corruption of the Monster. Virtue as defined by Aristotle is “A state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it ”(NE 2.6). This is basically saying that the mean “is the intermediate position between two extremes or vices”(Lawhead 83). Now vice as

Augustine has many diffenrt definitions of what is evil but “evil must always be understood as a defect, a corruption, or a perversion of what was created good”(Lawhead 132). One of Augustine’s problems of evil is that of moral evil. Moral evil is “human perversity” or “genuine evil”(Lawhead 132) because all other evil is apparently evil but “moral evil is the product of the human will”(Lawhead 132). The Monster has been deprived true goodness and love ever since his creation because his creator hated him from the moment he saw him. The Monster according to Augustine would be part of moral evil. Because moral evil is part of human free will the Monster could have done whatever he wanted but he decided to do wrong because he believed what he was doing was