The nature vs. nurture debate is a philosophical, scientific, and cultural, debate about what causes an individual’s actions, personality, and most importantly their behavioral traits. Nature can be defined as someone’s influence from genetic behaviors, while nurture is caused by someones environment and experience. Nature is how a person acts based on their genetic inheritance and some other biological factors, they have been proven to be an important factor in the development of many mental health conditions such as depression and being bipolar. Whereas nurture affect those mental health conditions where a person develops that illness depending on their environment. Frankenstein can be seen as a prime example of the Nature versus Nurture …show more content…
Victor despises the creature the moment he made it come to life using electricity. Shelly gives a detailed explanation for the “demoniacal corpse to which had so miserably given life to” (). Shelley once again uses the symbol of light to show a spark in curiosity. The creature is “overcome with…the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers” (). Due to the pain the creature experiences with the fire he seeks out to learn human knowledge. As the creature goes on he finds a family who lives in a cottage. The family is horrified by his appearance and most of them flee except for one of the boys who “violently with a stick” strikes the creature (). The creatures curiosity leads him to abuse and cruelty and he instantly labels all humans as being that way. This experience allow the creature to realize his lack of a nurturing environment. When he meets Frankenstein’s younger brother he is called an “ogre” and a “hideous monster” (). Being constantly mistreated and not understanding why, causes the creatures to do such ill deeds. The creature begins killing and hurting others due to being faced with violence himself. The creature may have shown compassion to others if he had been taught compassion
Right when a baby is born, they immediately begin to seek for someone to trust and provide for their basic needs. As an individual grows, they develop their own personality and characteristics, but this begs the question if a human’s personality and characteristics are determined more on nature or nurture. Which leads to the question: what characteristics make a human really a human? In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster from the dead using body parts from the dead. Instantly, Victor abandons the monster who later turns to murder.
Hannah Naba Mrs. Schroder English IV Honors 2 December 2016 The Power in Frankenstein Within the work of Frankenstein, many different events took place. These events were full of conflicts and the desires for the need of power. Mostly every character wanted power in the book, but, Victor Frankenstein is willing to create things to make sure he achieves power and feels the effect of it.
The creature having accomplish his goal, " But soon, he cried, with sad and solemn enthusiasm, I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. ”(Shelley,270
The creature shows this perfectly, spending the early part of his life learning and absorbing knowledge from his surroundings. From the De Lacey’s he learns to be good and kind, and then attempts to make contact with them in an intelligent and kind fashion. He is rejected with violence, and then shot soon after for trying to save a drowning child. It is only after these negative events that his behavior begins to change, becoming more angry and full of rage. Before committing to becoming a true killer, he attempts one last time to solve his desire for companionship, and seeks out Victor.
The Creature 's mind still of a newborn begins to observe his human neighbors as through observations and interactions the family has demonstrates the positive and negative aspects of the Creature.
The Creature's demonic appearance forces him to retreat to the solitude of the woods, where he hides in a hut near the De Lacey’s cottage. He states, “…by my gentle demeanour and conciliating words, I should first when their favour, and afterwards their love” (Shelley 79). This is when the Creature is most happy because he has hope that others will welcome him.
The creature states that he was “grievously bruised by stones…” when encountering his second batch of human contact; furthermore, when finally approaching the cottagers, who he admired dearly, he proclaims, “[Felix] struck me violently with a stick.” Despite the countless times of rejection, the creature overall tone is still to persevere. The reader sees an innately good character being evolved into something negative due to an external stimulus. When he discovers that William, the boy who he wishes to befriend in an unnerving way, is related to Frankenstein his reaction was to “grasped his throat”. Overall the creature’s immoral actions were all formed from his underlying suffering that Victor first imposed; hence, when face to face with someone who has correlation to the creature’s initial suffer, his psyche was not rational and lead to his vengeful
(Shelly 69) What Victor endured in the past still fuelled his hate and anger towards the creature. This hate consumed his whole being leading him to parade such savagery to the creature. Through the cruelty he shows buth his own body and the creature we can see Victor's selfishness.
This makes the creature upset and storm away, When Victor returns to one of the islands. He gets brought in and blamed for a murder on the beach. Victor soon finds out that the man Henry Clerval his best friend, and the same hand marks are around his neck just like on his little brother William. This leading to the fact that the creature had striked again out of anger and killed his best friend. Victor's father comes and bails him out and proves his innocence, his father then gave him a letter from Elizabeth.
He is aware of his otherness and knows that he is “shut out from intercourse” (84) with the people he holds so dear. It can be argued that this is the point where the creature’s humanity is the strongest throughout the course of story. He has a basic understanding of human societies, he speaks and reads their language, shows compassion and, most importantly, seeks their company and friendship. In his knowledge that social belonging is the missing component to his own happiness, he confronts the people he secretly observed only to, once again, be met with fear and anger (94-95). He comes to realise that he
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.
The monstrosity of human nature is implied by Mary Shelley throughout the whole novel, which inspires us to think deeply about the meaning of ugliness, both external and internal. One major theme that pertains to the development of a being’s behavior and its relation to monstrosity is nature versus nurture. The two main characters of the novel, Victor Frankenstein and the creature, have an inborn nature that regulates their physical and behavioral traits; however, Frankenstein’s and the monster’s nurturing styles are completely different. How do nature and nurture affect their characters? Was it nature or nurture that made them monster vicious and ruthless and Victor greedy and selfish?
Nature is the predetermined traits that people are born with, while nurture is the influence that affects people after they’re born. The debate surrounding Nature V. Nurture is how much of a person’s traits is predetermined and how much is influenced by the environment. Mary Shelley's believes in nurture more than nature. Victor Frankenstein has certain traits that he’s born with. Frankenstein is born into a prestigious, wealthy family.
Beginning with Victor abandoning the creature at birth, the series of revenge and hatred-filled events begin to occur as both attempt to find justice and retribution. The creature stole the lives of everyone beloved by Victor, and Victor stole the monster’s chance at happiness by abandoning him. As the characters continuously harm each other, their isolation increases as well as their sanity. In the end, numerous family members perish, Victor Frankenstein dies of physical exhaustion, and the creature conveys his desire to
The question of whether humans develop according to nature or nurture is centuries old, with some of the earliest experiments carried out by King Frederick of Germany in the 13th century, when he rather crudely and cruelly attempted to establish what kind and manner of speech children would have if nobody spoke to them (Stone, 1973). Sadly, the children all died. It would seem unthinkable in modern times to expect a child to develop speech or language without being exposed to any, as we take it for granted that language and speech is learned from caregivers and that we are influenced by the environment in which we grow. Speech and language isn’t the only area humans learn from their caregivers and environment and in this essay I will outline some of the studies carried out that indicate clearly that how we develop is not simply a case of nature OR nurture, but the interaction between both.