In Rousseau’s Emile, or Education, a clear emphasis is placed upon a person’s ability to do certain things at a particular age. In addition to this, Rousseau indicates that humans are educated through three significant faculties which include from nature, men, and things (Rousseau 6). As such, Rousseau’s incorporation of Emile in the treatise enhances these ideals by emphasizing how each faculty affects us from birth to adulthood as well as our reactions to these experiences overtime. Accordingly, Rousseau states that, “Leave [Emile] to himself and watch his actions without speaking, consider what he is doing and how he sets about it. He does not require to convince himself that he is free, so he never acts thoughtlessly and merely to show that he can do what he likes…” (Rousseau 14). As a result of this, our reliance on others at birth is essentially fundamental to our development, but overtime as we get older, that reliance diminishes to the extent that we are able to reason and do things on our own accord, rather than simply accepting everything that is taught to us by others.

Similarly, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, the monster illustrates aspects of Emile through his interactions with humans and the environment. During the monster’s conversation with Frankenstein in the hut, he recalls the immediate sensations he experienced when he left Frankenstein’s apartment which included cold, darkness, hunger, and thirst (Shelley 11). These sensations resonate with Rousseau’s concept of learning through nature, being that the monster had to learn how to adapt to his surroundings. Additionally, the monster’s story continues when he finds a fire which had been abandoned by some wandering beggars. He was delighted with the warmth it produced and he thrusted his hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out with a cry of pain (Shelley 11). This interaction is an evidence of education through things being that though the monster discovered that though the fire can be used as a source of warmth, he has to be careful not to get too close to the flames as illustrated by the fact that he burned himself. Finally, during the monster’s endeavors in a hovel, he realizes that the cottagers are able to communicate with each other. As such, he desired to learn their language by stating, “I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers…” (Shelley 12). This is an example of education through man, though in an indirect sense, being that the monster learns the art of communication by observing his neighbors. As such, the monster overlaps Emile in the sense that both characters had to learn and distinguish things by themselves.