Frankenstein, Blog 2

Shannon Ryan
May 2, 2009
New Millennium Studies
Frankenstein,Vol. 2 Essay

After reading the second volume of Frankenstein, I have concluded that the monster was not born a cold blooded murderer, but rather became one because he wasn’t accepted by his creator, nor by the rest of society because of his deformed appearance.
In basic sociology, there is an argument of whether one’s human nature is apart of their persona since their birth, or nurtured due to their experiences around them. I have personally always been in favor of the nurtured argument.
Thus, I believe that the monster was like all human beings, born to an innocent nature. As we learn later in the volume, he is capable of goodness when he saves a little girl from drowning.
However, because his creator and the rest of society scorned him judged him, and isolated him because of his looks, he believed that he was incapable of being
accepted. Frankenstein runs from him at his birth because of the horror of his looks. As do Felix, Agatha and Safie, three humans he observes during his stay at their estate when he reveals his presence to him. Finally, the monster is shot by the little girl’s guardian and wrongfully accused of attacking her when he rescues her. “This was the reward of my benevolence,” he reflects on page 95, “I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense, I now withered under the pain of a wound.” In fact it is this very moment when he vows, to take his anger and revenge for his mistreatment out on all humans, including Victor Frankenstein, his creator.
Before and after his vow in volume two, the monster shows his sensibility by mourning that his looks make him incapable of fitting in. “Like Adam,” he reflects on page 87, “I was created united by no link to any other being in existence. But many times, I considered Satin as a better emblem of my condition. For often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.”
If Dr. Victor Frankenstein had been more accepting towards the appearance of his creation and taught the monster to love himself for his heart, and treated him like a companion, then the monster would have chosen not to become a vengeful killer, but a good person. Expanding the nurture argument more, if the girl’s father hadn’t jumped to conclusions and had thanked the creation instead of shooting him, the creature would have found a reason to be proud of himself. Finally, if William, Safie, Agatha and Felix had taken time to get to know him before assuming that he was an ogre or a monster, he would have become a better man.
In conclusion, I don’t think that the monster would have became a killer had he not been judged for his appearance and nurtured by experiences of kindness, rather then cruelty.