nature vs nurture

NATURE VS NURTURE

NATURE: A persons acts or personality can be defined through his/her genetic material. Nobody is at fault for his/hers actions but themselves.

NURTURE: A person’s acts or personality can be defined through the way they are brought up. For example his/hers actions are imitated by the actions of their parents.

FRANKENSTEIN: The Monster

NATURE: The debate has shown that the monster downfall was because of the nature of it. Shelley may have wanted to show that the monster was always going to be evil because of its genetic material. The monster was abandoned by Victor meaning Victor had no affect on the monsters personality or thoughts, this means that the monster was the only one to have had an effect on its own thoughts, Victor was not of an influence to the monster.

NURTURE: Because Victor is the creator of the monster, the man should of shown responsibility towards the monster and instead of looking after it he decided to abandon it, maybe the monsters decision to kill was through the actions of Victor. Because Victor abandoned it the monster was taught by it’s creator not to care for others and because of Victor selfish actions, the monster decides to be selfish too.

MY OPINION

Although you could say that the monster was of its own independence, I believe that the monster was nurtured wrongly by Victor. Because of Victor’s negligence towards the creature, this had an impact on the way the monster formed it’s thoughts around as it not had to comprehend these thoughts before and instead followed what his creator had done and become selfish and evil. The monster could be seen at fault however I believe that Shelley makes it out as if the monster is like a new born baby, it has not experienced anything before meaning it is easily persuaded, the monster after it’s creation had not yet witnessed what being affectionate looks like however had been shown by Victors action what being neglected which is what I believe the monster picked up on and acted like that, meaning he was nurtured by Victor to kill instead of nature.