Frankenstein Essay
Parenting is the most important part of raising a well-rounded child, without the proper values that a guarding or a parent bestows on their child determines the outcome of the child's behavior and the way they go about living their life. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley demonstrated many differences between Victor Frankenstein and his creation, while simultaneously creating parallels between the two. While Victor and the Monster have two completely different upbringings (one growing up in a loving supportive family and the other being left alone to fend for himself), both end up sharing the same fate. The consequences leading to their death is brought on by selfishness and lack of responsibility do to the upbringing that each character received as a child.As a result of each character's childhood circumstances, Victor becomes a selfish adult who does not understand consequences. Since Victor was never denied anything as a child, he received lessons of "patience, of charity, and of self-control, [he] was so guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to [him]"(33) and, as a result, he never made any mistakes and did not learn that there are in fact, consequences to his actions. The creation of the monster i
His parents presented Elizabeth to him as his "promised gift", and he had always known that "till death she was to be [his] only" (35), so he never felt the lonely emptiness that the creature constantly lived with. As he reads Victor's journal detailing his creation, he becomes infuriated and refers to the day he was created as the "hateful day when [he] received life" and bitterly curses his creator (127). tself is a selfish act that resulted from his pampered childhood, and as a result he never considered that there might be ramifications of some sort for the rest of humanity, or even for him. In doing so, he was only thinking of his own personal glory as a scientist and failed to recognize the possible problems that controlling nature to this extent could present a issue. Once Victor died and the creature no longer had a reason to live in his loveless, companionless state of existence, he vowed to put himself out of his misery and die. Shelley presents these two opposing experiences, but she sets both the "ideal" and the obvious horrific up to fail and lead to death and misery. These deaths occurred because Victor grew up without understanding of consequences and he, as a result, selfishly denied the creature of the necessities that would have prevented him from committing such abhorrent crimes. This causing the monster to become selfish because of the lack of companionship that he was missing and saw that everyone else had but him. His arrogance extends further when he bestowed life upon his creature and, instead of taking responsibility for his creation; he selfishly ran away and did not concern himself with the details of the creature's whereabouts for almost a year. Even after the monster had started to kill, and had expressed his bitter sentiments to Victor, Victor didn't realize that he had "drawn down a horrible curse upon [his] head," but still viewed himself as "guiltless" (157). Due to the fact that Victor developed a feeling of his own self-importance, he decided to "unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation" (47). The monster's final revenge on Victor, leading him through the arctic regions of the north, eventually leads to both of their deaths. Victor denied the creature everything from love and compassion to acceptance, and as a result the creature's anger deepened, and he was driven to kill Victor's brother William as punishment. Once the creature grew up and learned the origins of his creation, he had already experienced much rejection based on his hideous appearance and became miserable because of his lack of companionship. Shelley further uses the far-reaching effects of these extreme childhood's through the entirety of the characters' lives to imply the importance of a balanced upbringing to create a balanced adult.
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