The Existence Of Good And Evil In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
The Existence of Good and Evil
Since the time of The Bible and the creation of Adam and Eve, good and evil has existed in man. For example, in Mary Shelly novel, Frankenstein, the creature tells us that “is man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appears at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike.” He is questioning the existence of good and evil in all men. How can a person be good and bad at the same time? In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, the creature experience and proves how both good and evil exists in man.
The creature represents evil because of the unequal treatment from other people and from the rejection …show more content…
of his creator. He tries to talk to people but things go wrong. For example, at first he was treated badly by the people, they were throwing rocks, sticks, or anything they could find at him. His second experience was with the cottagers, at first the creature observes that they seem nice, and how kind they are, so he tries to get close to the family, but when Felix sees him, Felix beats him up with a stick. All their rejection makes the monster feel alone and fills him up with anger and all he looks for is revenge. “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.”(pg.188). The creature doesn’t have anyone, so all the people run away from him. Everyone is scared of him because of the way he looks, and all the creature wants is a friend. He can’t understand why after every good action he does for someone, the person isn’t thankful. This displays the evilness or unkindness in people because they are judging him only on his physical appearance and never giving a chance to actually get to know him better.
Victor wants to come up with something great that will benefit mankind.
He becomes obsess with the idea of bringing people back to life. He works on that for months and finally it is done. He has done it, his creature lives. But after that he gets scare and runs away, so he abandons his creation. Then he refuses to help Justine, who was charged with killing William. He doesn’t confess the truth because he is afraid of what others will think of him for creating the monster. Victor wants revenge; he wants to kill the creature for killing his little brother. It was Victor’s fault because at first he was a good person, trying to make life better for others by coming up with a solution of bringing dead people back to life, but at the end everything went wrong. Victor, instead of abandoning the creature, he should of stay with him to teach him morals and help him adjust to society. Because of all these rejections the creature was fully justified in his feelings. “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.”(pg.86). The monster tells Victor that he didn’t chose to be created, that why, if he was his creator, did he abandon him when he needed him the most? Now the creature is full of anger, hate and all he wants is revenge. Even though Victor created the monster with good intentions, Victor
shows his evilness by abandoning the monster and then by trying to get revenge at him for killing his little brother.
.
Anger, hate and revenge are also seen in people during the Holocaust, a time where people were evil and treated people differently because of their beliefs, race and where they came from. It is a period of time where nothing else mattered but your race. It is similar to the novel because in both instances, people are rejected and hurt just because of their appearances. Also, people can be kind and be a great person, but they might treat people with disabilities different or even laugh at them. For example, the creature says “Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?”(pg.211) He feels alone and no one should feel like that; people should realize that by acting evil they hurt others. No one should be left out just because of the way they look. Everyone is a good person on the inside, so why not show it instead of the evil side?
In the novel, the creature is rejected in so many ways, that he ends up full of anger and hate. He experiences bad treatment from different people. First, from his creator that just abandoned him, then from the people in the village and then from the cottagers, the family he said were his protectors. He does prove that in some ways people were nice and they did nice things for each other, but when it came up to him, everyone would reject him and beat him up. This only causes the creature to become evil and to seek revenge because everyone treated him badly. Good and evil does exist in a person, but people should always be treated equal no matter what they look like or where they came from.
Since the time of The Bible and the creation of Adam and Eve, good and evil has existed in man. For example, in Mary Shelly novel, Frankenstein, the creature tells us that “is man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appears at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike.” He is questioning the existence of good and evil in all men. How can a person be good and bad at the same time? In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, the creature experience and proves how both good and evil exists in man.
The creature represents evil because of the unequal treatment from other people and from the rejection …show more content…
of his creator. He tries to talk to people but things go wrong. For example, at first he was treated badly by the people, they were throwing rocks, sticks, or anything they could find at him. His second experience was with the cottagers, at first the creature observes that they seem nice, and how kind they are, so he tries to get close to the family, but when Felix sees him, Felix beats him up with a stick. All their rejection makes the monster feel alone and fills him up with anger and all he looks for is revenge. “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.”(pg.188). The creature doesn’t have anyone, so all the people run away from him. Everyone is scared of him because of the way he looks, and all the creature wants is a friend. He can’t understand why after every good action he does for someone, the person isn’t thankful. This displays the evilness or unkindness in people because they are judging him only on his physical appearance and never giving a chance to actually get to know him better.
Victor wants to come up with something great that will benefit mankind.
He becomes obsess with the idea of bringing people back to life. He works on that for months and finally it is done. He has done it, his creature lives. But after that he gets scare and runs away, so he abandons his creation. Then he refuses to help Justine, who was charged with killing William. He doesn’t confess the truth because he is afraid of what others will think of him for creating the monster. Victor wants revenge; he wants to kill the creature for killing his little brother. It was Victor’s fault because at first he was a good person, trying to make life better for others by coming up with a solution of bringing dead people back to life, but at the end everything went wrong. Victor, instead of abandoning the creature, he should of stay with him to teach him morals and help him adjust to society. Because of all these rejections the creature was fully justified in his feelings. “All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.”(pg.86). The monster tells Victor that he didn’t chose to be created, that why, if he was his creator, did he abandon him when he needed him the most? Now the creature is full of anger, hate and all he wants is revenge. Even though Victor created the monster with good intentions, Victor
shows his evilness by abandoning the monster and then by trying to get revenge at him for killing his little brother.
.
Anger, hate and revenge are also seen in people during the Holocaust, a time where people were evil and treated people differently because of their beliefs, race and where they came from. It is a period of time where nothing else mattered but your race. It is similar to the novel because in both instances, people are rejected and hurt just because of their appearances. Also, people can be kind and be a great person, but they might treat people with disabilities different or even laugh at them. For example, the creature says “Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?”(pg.211) He feels alone and no one should feel like that; people should realize that by acting evil they hurt others. No one should be left out just because of the way they look. Everyone is a good person on the inside, so why not show it instead of the evil side?
In the novel, the creature is rejected in so many ways, that he ends up full of anger and hate. He experiences bad treatment from different people. First, from his creator that just abandoned him, then from the people in the village and then from the cottagers, the family he said were his protectors. He does prove that in some ways people were nice and they did nice things for each other, but when it came up to him, everyone would reject him and beat him up. This only causes the creature to become evil and to seek revenge because everyone treated him badly. Good and evil does exist in a person, but people should always be treated equal no matter what they look like or where they came from.