Mary Shellys Frankenstein Nature Vs. Nurture Theme Analysis - Research Paper Example

The discussion centers on the themes of nature versus nurture, of whether or not goodness or evil is created through the innate nature of an individual, or if it is developed through the treatment that individual receives. The creature made by Frankenstein states at one point that “Adam’s situation was far different from mine in every other respect. His God had made him happy and prosperous. His Creator guarded him and cared for him, He was allowed to talk with - and learn from - superior beings.

But I was wretched, helpless, alone.” (Shelley, 2008, p. 121). The creature saw himself as abandoned and not allowed to learn at the feet of his creator. This mirrored the relationship that Shelley had with her father as when he had remarried when she was eight she had felt he had left her, only to be more formally abandoned when she married Percy Shelley though her father disapproved (Mellor, 2007, p. 51). In many ways, the discourse of the novel is a conversation with her father, telling him all the ways in which he had disappointed her and how this had made her feel.

Shelley expresses her aggression towards her father, naming the first victim of the creature’s rage after him, but combining this visage with the strikingly similar features of the five year old child with those of her own child. In this she explores the dynamic of murder within the family, her aggression towards her father and the horrifying concept of being able to kill her own child. Her child was named for his grandfather, her father, both bearing the name William as does the child of Frankenstein, thus completing the dynamic in which relationships between parents and children are horrifically discussed (Mellor, 2007, p. 52). Mellor (2007), states that Shelley believed that nurture was crucial in the development of the nature of a child, that the way in which a child was embraced or denied by a parent and taught about the