Nature Vs Nurture “Frankenstein”: the Genesis of Monstrosity

Introduction

People can be driven by a variety of things, some of which can lead to undesirable consequences. Monster, defined as “An inhumanly cruel or wicked person” or “A large, ugly, and frightening imaginary creature, was the name given to Dr Victor Frankenstein’s creation. A monster is not simply born but rather created. Human nature teaches us compassion, love, and nurture. When the basic necessities of life are stripped away from you, what choice do you have? A monster is created from neurological defects, acts of inhumanity, and the need for justice.

All of these factors combined create an individual looking for vengeance.

Body

Neurological Defects and Childhood Experiences

Monster is a term used generally to describe murderers, rapists, and psychopaths. When disgusting acts of violence occur in society, we tend to overlook how it came to that point in the first place. A combination of Neurological defects, brain abnormality, and a childhood experience creates a recipe for a monster. Brain Development occurs from birth to age five; a child’s brain develops more than at any other time in life, and the quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops. When children are molested, starved, or left to fend for themselves, this creates a deadly impact on how they will treat individuals when they are older.

In A Poverty of Attachments and Consequent Neurological Deficits, it stated that “In an ideal development in the first year of life, experience-dependent neural structures develop through the sequential build-up of progressive attachment experience between the mother and infant..” (Dougherty 190). In other words, Dougherty claims that a child’s most important moments depend on the mother in the early stages of life. The attachment experience activates neural connections between the brain stem, allowing the baby to learn connection and ultimately feel love in doing so. All living beings were brought up by a parent; generally speaking, most humans are not left to raise themself from childhood. If so, having no sense of family, protection, or teacher leaves miserable circumstances. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster says, “Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” (Shelley 89) The monster is expressing his despairing moment of realization that his “parent” abandoned him and the only sense of family he knew was the one who betrayed him the most.

The Paradox of Society’s Treatment

Frankenstein’s creation, who was labeled a “monster,” was born into a world that was not willing to accept him. The creation was given a blank and empty mind yearning to be filled with love and proper care. Also, having the same wants and needs as any human that is not being fulfilled. Dr. Frankenstein chose to abandon his creation and leave him to die and suffer. When the monster realizes the inherent destitution of the elementary components of human happiness he has been brought into the world with, his disposition is corrupted. The monster’s character was shunned from society because of his looks. He lacked the knowledge and understanding of who he actually was and why people were treating him this way; the monster did not discriminate because he did not know how to. He said, ‘Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.’ (Shelley 16). The author shows the reader that he blames the only man he knew for bringing him into the world and then rejecting him and making him isolated and cut off from everyone. The monster felt an emotion he had not felt before, an emotion caused by Victor’s inhumane actions. He wanted the man who did this to him to feel revenge, pain, and sorrow, all the emotions that he had to endure. Without knowing what he did, Victor created a true monster that would not stop until he sought justice.

Conclusion

As he describes, “The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before, gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth” (166). This was the last encounter between him and humans before he met with Victor. He saved a little girl from drowning, and in return, a man shot him out of fright due to the monster’s appearance. This is just one of many moments that define how the monster feels about humanity.

References

1. Shelley, Mary. “Frankenstein.” 1818.
2. Dougherty, Linda R. “A Poverty of Attachments and Consequent Neurological Deficits.” “Journal of Genetic Psychology”, vol. 147, no. 2, 1986, pp. 187-193.

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