Describe it:
- My subject is about how in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is abandoned by his creator, Victor. He is left to survive by himself in the harsh cruel world with no knowledge of how society operates and solely through sensations and reflections. My topic is comparing John Locke’s An Essay concerning Human Understanding” to Shelly’s Frankenstein through Locke’s ideology that there are no innate principals in the mind. (All ideas come from sensation or reflection). Our mind is born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and we are educated from experience.
Trace it:
2. The moment Frankenstein was created, his mind was a blank slate as he was filled with many different sensations; “I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me” (Shelley 57). Frankenstein learned that fire solved the cold as he experienced sensation of joy after building a warm toasty fire. He also learned about the feeling of revenge and anger because of his hatred towards his creator. Victor was the one who brought him into this world isolated and shunned from society because of his monstrous appearance. Over time, Frankenstein learns that rather than hurting Victor directly, he could cause him more harm by hurting Victor’s loved ones. He achieves this by ultimately killing Victor’s brother, William, Justine, and Victor’s wife, Elizabeth. Therefore we can see Frankenstein’s transformation as he is lost and innocent in the beginning, to revengeful and malicious at the end.
Map it:
3. Frankenstein’s experiences were influenced primarily because of Victor’s abandonment which caused him to experience the outside world by himself. One instance which solidified Frankenstein’s understanding of what society thought of him was when he saved a little girl from drowning in the river. The man immediately assumed that Frankenstein was harmful and shot him. After this instance, Frankenstein lost faith in humanity and “vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelley 76).