Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a horror story revolving around Victor Frankenstein’s obsession for success and science. Born out of great scientific knowledge and months of ardent dedication, the Creature should have been the pride of his creator, Frankenstein. However, Frankenstein is blinded by a scientific education; his ignorance of moral implications allows him to pursuit a god-like figure carelessly creating life. Unable to face his consequences, Frankenstein rushes away horrified from his “wretched monster” and parental responsibilities, so happiness is absent from the Creature’s creation.
Deprived of a ather, the Creature’s life is defined by his exposure to literature as well as his observations of the De Lacey family. His education provides an understanding of mankind in his exile from society. Even in his revenge against Frankenstein, the Creature’s intellect and desire for kindness garners the readers’ sympathy for his request for a female partner, showing a stark contrast from Frankenstein’s scientific education that promotes an egoistic view.
Although the Creature murders to ruin Frankenstein’s life, he is a pupil of a universal education dedicated to understanding a moral approach to life and is primarily driven o madness by the isolation enforced by Frankenstein’s shallow pursuit of a radical education. By placing blame on the Creature’s actions on his isolation rather than his education, Shelley is undermining the importance of learned character and is instead arguing for the significance of a healthy environment for proper moral growth. Frankenstein and the Creature are both consumed by their education.
Even at an early age, Frankenstein is thirsty for knowledge, claiming that the catalyst, the work of Cornelius Agrippa, a magician, sealed his fate of “utter and terrible destruction” (Shelley 40). At university, he ursues an education composing of natural philosophy and chemistry and quickly becomes fascinated with the notion of creating life. Although his education is very thorough in describing scientific theories, it lacks an important historical and humanitarian aspect that explains the moral implication of his work.
Instead of asking why no other scientists dared to create life from inanimate objects before, he assumes a superior tone, questioning how his intelligence is so superior to others. At the eve of creating his masterpiece, he takes on a god-like responsibility of creating life without any proper precautions. He is soon to suffer, however, as he physically becomes ill from the toils of work. His shallow, intensive education is too much to sustain. Even when given a chance for a universal education of languages with Clevral, his childhood friend, Frankenstein regards the humanitarian studies as inferior to his greater scientific knowledge.
As Matthew Arnold, an 1880’s humanitarian scholar, asserts, “scientific knowledge alone does not satisfy ‘the need of relating what we have learnt . to the sense which we have in us for conduct” (MCAllister 13). Frankenstein’s impartial knowledge allows him to remain gnorant of the consequences of his actions, such as the Creature’s birth and Elizabeth’s death on their marriage night. Like other humanitarian scholars, the Creature begs Frankenstein to understand the implications of his sins and his disregard for moral and human view.
He referrers to his right to happiness, a notion introduced in his literature, and Frankenstein’s obligation as his creator to request a female partner and collect sympathy from the readers (Shelley 148). Although Frankenstein momentary concedes, his later refusal to adopt a moral character angers the Creature to revenge. The Creature is the victim of Frankenstein’s drastic actions. From his conception, Frankenstein perceives him as a “wretched monster” reaching out to murder him when it may easily be that the Creature was welcoming his father.
The embedded narrative reveals an important change of his characterization. When they are reunited, Frankenstein only regards him as an “unearthly ugly” daemon that breaks the transcending beauty of the mountains. However, when the Creature begins his narration, the readers are shocked at the eloquence and intelligence that transpires through his voice. He alludes to Paradise Lost, Sorrows of Weather, and Plutarch’s Life as an important aspect in his upbringing and education (Shelley 131). These books w carefully chosen to magnify how the Creature identity is intertwined with the fictional plot and characters.
Plutarch’s Life taught him of societal “high thoughts” while Sorrows of Weather heightened his understanding of his emotions. He sympathizes with the hero’s despair and happiness as it were his own destiny. In Paradise Lost, he found himself. Similar to Paradise Lost, Victor, who already has assumed a god figure, rejects his Satan, the Creature, into exile. As a bystander in society, the Creature cultivates a unique perspective from his literature about important subjects of morality in mankind.
The distinction between Frankenstein and the Creature’s education is not new – at least as McAllister claims (8). Just as Frankenstein’s radical scientific thinking clashes with the Creature’s humanitarian beliefs, Guy Ortolano claims that both arguments have “opposing views on progress, history, and society. ” Similar to how Charles Percy Snow, a Cambridge physicist, claims “material wealth as a benchmark of success” (MCAllister 12), Frankenstein does not consider his tudies worthy unless they produce viable wealth and fame among the scientific community.
When his creation is not an apparent success, there is a clear shift in his narration, from self- entitlement to self-pity for his “infinite pains and cares” (Shelley 58). Though Frankenstein and the Creature both were isolated from society, the difference for the cause of their isolation is significant. Frankenstein, blinded by his obsession at his university, avoids his family and friends in favor for small advances toward his scientific work.
His only acknowledgment of his family and friend is forced because he falls into an illness fter the exhausting labor of his creation and requires their help to be nursed to health. He not only creates suffering for his loved ones, but also inflicts isolation onto the Creature because he neglects to care for him and exiles him into the world. Similar to a child who requires love and tenderness to develop kind strong attributes, the Creature is born an innocent being that is only beginning to understand pleasure and pain and only craves for kindness and love.
Sadly, he is only met with disgust and fear, even from his ‘friends’ of the De Lacey family, who he secretly observes to learn about friendship and bravery. Because of this harsh isolation, he pleads with Frankenstein for a female companion to relieve his loneliness. Ironically, Frankenstein is undiplomatic compared to the Creature’s tranquil arguments because he regards the Creature with a harsh tone and short telegraphic sentences, such as “Begone, vile insect! His isolation from love and society, while did not justify the Creature’s revenge towards Frankenstein, explains why the Creature was consumed with anger for Frankenstein, who failed provide love and instead gave hatred. Regardless of Creature’s motivations for murder, he is heavy with guilt for very death he has done and commits suicide after his vengeance for Frankenstein, showing that his humanitarian education still holds influence over his morals.
Frankenstein is a stark contrast because he never takes responsibility for his actions nor feels guilty for his hand in the death of loved ones by creating the Creature and neglecting him basic rights. Shelley’s emphasis on the result of education and isolation on the moral character demonstrates how the Creature, born innocent and naive for love, murders and avenges his creator while Frankenstein is destined for a sad death chasing the Mor ter.