Theme Of Nurture In Frankenstein

There still remains the possibility that these actions, these predisposed beliefs, may be the product of nurture, the offspring of being raised in a society that loves beauty more than anything else. If that is the case, then young children, those that have yet to be molded by the world and its views, should be the most easily accepting of all. However, once again, we are shown otherwise. Upon his encounter with the youngest Frankenstein, William, the Creature has just this exact thought. “Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me,” he says, “that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity.” (Shelley 130) However, the following screams of terror and insults of the Creature’s

Despite our disabilities, our faults and ugliness, our parents still love us. Yet, this is unfortunately not a universal truth, as there are those poor souls who do not experience even this basic of love and nourishment, as depicted by the character of Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein, the man who created the Creature, feels no love towards him, only hatred and disgust. Upon seeing the creature, his initial reaction is not one of pity, but of disgust. “Devil,” he exclaimed, “…vile insect!…Abhorred monster! fiend that thou art!…Wretched devil! you reproach me with your creation…” (Shelley 86) His creator, the one that is closest to being his father, despises him because of his ugliness, because of his disfigurement. Parents should love their children unconditionally, yet Frankenstein does no such thing. Due to the Creature’s hideousness, This act of abandonment by parental figures is not one of fiction, but one that rears its ugly head just as much in modern society as well. In China, the rate of abandoned children with disabilities is tremendous, a fact that is as horrible as it is tragic. In May of 2013, a newborn boy was found “buried in the wilderness for ten days in southern China’s Guangxi province,” due to being born with a cleft lip, a minor physical disability that has no major implications. (Ripley) Parents of these children,

However, there is a glimmer of hope. Children that are abandoned by their parents can find love from adopted ones, those that are bullied and hated by their peers find shelter in new programs and agencies teaching acceptance. Slowly, ever so slightly, we are improving, moving away from this archaic point of view. Should we continue on this path, then those children will never have to face the horrors of being alone, of being unloved. If we continue, then there will never be a Creature outside of the grim fiction of Shelley’s