Frankenstein: Evil By Nature

Evil by Nature?

Monster stories have surfaced in nearly every culture, language, and place throughout humankind?s history. The monster stories take the form of vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and evil beings, and they are all shared themes found throughout various cultures. The common factor between these monsters is that they are all arguably monstrous and evil by nature. Vampires want our blood, zombies ghosts want to terrorize us, zombies want our brains, and werewolves want to bite us, however, for the creature in Frankenstein that is not the case.

Some people might argue that Frankenstein?s creature was evil by nature, that he was the epitome of a monster, and that his actions were repugnant. I agree that many of the creature?s

Had Frankenstein provided nurture during his ?upbringing?, the monster would have been able to put aside any prejudice with victor?s help, and he might have had a shot at benevolence. However, instead of having that nurture, he was left to fend for himself and his nurture consisted of seclusion and confusion. He taught himself to eat and sustain himself, keep warm, speak, and read. If Frankenstein would have taught him those things and given him his company and interaction, a component to becoming a full functioning adult, the creature would not have been an evil and vile creature who directly and indirectly caused the deaths of three people. Furthermore, Victor Frankenstein would not have contributed to the death of the

with ?Sad Trash?: Domesticity and the Sciences in Frankenstein, Johanna M. Smith presents insight on the parallels between Frankenstein and the society its author lived in. Smith reveals the cumbersome oppression that Mary Shelly endured at the fault of her gender and she argues that this oppression made its way into the story. For example, the women in the novel never speak directly and ?everything we hear about them is filtered through male narrators? (J. Smith 360). I admire Smith?s assessment and agree that the oppression of women in the author?s life made its way into the novel, nevertheless, my focus is directed towards the idea that society nurtured Mary Shelly by oppressing her and the oppression directly influenced her personality and