Frankenstein: The Natural Goodness Of Man

One of the principles of Romanticism that Shelley critiques in Frankenstein is the natural goodness of man. Jean Rousseau, a notorious French philosopher during the eighteenth century, advocated the notion that man, in a free state of nature, were good and innocent while those who live within civilization are corrupted. Pursuing this further, Rousseau believed that those who are in a state of isolation are content and wise. However, Rousseau’s notion in the ‘goodness of man’ contradicts with Shelley’s character Victor. While Rousseau may praise Victor’s admiration for nature and his pursuits for crafting a creature for the greater good, an indication of his individualism, it is that moment of extreme isolation that is beginning of his collapse.
In a sense, this is a contradiction to Rousseau’s idea in the goodness of man and demonstrates how any individual can be corrupted in any situation no matter the location.