Could all of the tragedy in Frankenstein been avoided if the Creature was nurtured by his creator? Or are the Creature's actions inevitable?
15 Comments
Bailey Manor
12/8/2015 09:16:14 am
I believe that the murders could have been avoided if Victor would have given his creation the attention it deserved. The only reason the creature killed Victor's loved ones was to get back at Victor for not paying attention to him. How would you react if everyone was scared of you and ran away when they saw you? The creature had no one, so he never learned how to communicate properly. If he would have had some positive human interactions, he could have learned that the best way to get Victor's attention and affection was not to kill his loved ones.
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rachel coyne
12/8/2015 09:22:55 am
How do you know that the monster wouldn't have killed those people anyways? It is incredibly possible that the monster could not control his anger. If it was not toward Victor, it would have been towards the people that screamed when they saw him.
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Bailey Mnaor
12/9/2015 08:46:54 am
I think that Victor should have never created the monster if he wasn't going to be responsible and care for it.
Esther Gland
12/10/2015 08:53:04 am
See that's the thing, we have no idea how things would have turned out if Victor had kept his monster and been nice to him. All we know is that the creature went corrupt for one reason or another. He claimed that it was his lack of love, but I don't think even Frankensteve knew if it was nature or nurture. It could have been either.
Becky Fesenmaier
12/8/2015 09:18:41 am
The creature could of had hope to become a not so evil, destructive person. If Victor were to give him love and companionship, the creature would have been much better off. You know that the creature had a chance to be good because when he was first created and alone he wasn't destructive and harmful. He was just alone, clueless, and curious. If he would have had guidance in his early days and months, he could have turned out to be a much more positive person.
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Mrs. S
1/25/2016 08:53:55 am
I agree with you, Becky. It's more than just being clueless and curious to me, because he proves innate goodness when before he truly understands the world, he deduces the De Lacey family's poverty and stops stealing their food stores. He also acts as a "good spirit" by doing chores for them to ease their workload and allow Felix to work at a nearby farm to gain money. Once he gets his hands on books, he reads about the terrible things about humanity (acts of violence inflicted on each other) and is horrified. To me, this all adds up to a person who is good at the core.
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Nick Kalmes
12/8/2015 09:23:31 am
I think that the deaths could have been avoided if the Creature was nurtured by Victor. We could see that when the Creature was in the hovel creeping on the family, he was learning about the meaning of family. That family was the last straw for him. Right at the start Victor ran away from him just like everyone that he came in contact with did. This caused him to feel isolated and hated just because of the way he looked. If Victor would've shown him some compassion, he wouldn't have gone on his killing spree and all of Victor's loss could have been avoided.
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Bailey Manor
12/9/2015 08:48:14 am
I agree completely with you, Nick. The family really was the creature's "last straw" because they rejected him and they were his last hope for attention and companionship.
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Rachel Coyne
12/10/2015 08:50:08 am
How do you know that the monster wouldn't have just killed the people anyways? It seems as though the monster cannot be controlled, therefore he could have probably killed people anyways even with the nurturing.
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Becky Fesenmaier
1/15/2016 09:20:31 am
Was it just nurturing from Victor that the creature needed or did he need to be shown love and compassion from others in society? He had already felt a great deal of hurt from not only Victor, but all of the others in the towns he went to. I think the creature losing was sort of inevitable even when he had hope to be loved by the family. Even if the family would have accepted the creature, I still think any other little think of unkindness shown to him by others would have set him off.
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Jenn Hayes
12/8/2015 09:24:13 am
The Creature would have been a lot different if he would have been nurtured by his creator. Every living thing needs to be brought up by something. Maybe that is society. Yet society did not really do The Creature justice because well he is a monster can scared everyone away. The Creature did not understand that killing people was bad. He just did it for attention. If he knew he would be hurting people I do not think he would have done it as he only wanted attention from his creator. This would have been avoided if Victor was not a run away dad in this situation.
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Becky Fesenmaier
1/15/2016 09:15:50 am
I agree Jenn with the fact that the creature would have been a lot different. Although, I do agree the society has an impact on shaping and helping mold a person, I don't think it's their job. I think it was Victor's job like you said. Either way, society doesn't always have positive impacts on people and could hurt them even more if upbringing and teaching was left up to society alone. If every person was brought up by society, there would be a tremendous amount of problems.
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Jordan Walkky
1/19/2016 08:14:05 am
Nature versus Nurture has a very controversial topic for a very long time. If it is looked at a psychological point of view, the influence of nature should prevail. Studies have shown that behavior is determined biologically and that morals are determined by the influence of the parents or guardians. Even if the Creature's evil morals were determined by Victor's nurturing, or lack of, his behavior would determine if he goes through with his actions. Would a person of a shy, kind nature kill a person just because they felt strongly about something? Of course, Mary Shelley did not write this book thinking about psychology; she wrote it to make a horror story. For the sake of the story line, Shelley wanted to show how Victor's lack of nurturing towards the Creature made him a monster. If Victor would have actually showed kindness and love towards the Creature, the Creature would have not done his evil deeds.
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Jacqueline Dieckman
1/20/2016 06:33:46 pm
Well a point I'm going to bring up is that Victor's nurture in his childhood did not prevent him from becoming the psycho he was. The creature was for the most part "human" and he had a conscience and feelings so he can tell right from wrong. It's probably true that he would have turned out differently if he had been nurtured but being nurtured does not automatically free you of the ability to murder people.
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Mrs. S
1/25/2016 09:07:42 am
I see your point, Jacqueline, but I actually think that Victor's upbringing did influence him to take his later action. As a child, Victor is given everything he could want and basically made a god in the eyes of his parents. The lack of reality in Victor's world during his formative years may have given him the idea that the sky's the limit, and perhaps even given him the god-complex that seemingly inspires him to create a new race of men. Had Victor's parents treated him with love but given him more boundaries, I feel like he would've been healthier.
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