Component F: Humanity

The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly raises an important question: What does it mean to be human? Scientifically speaking, it means to have 23 double-stranded chromosomes per body cell, but humanity is much more than just that. I think that a better definition for human involves having logic, reasoning, and some sense of morality. Based on this definition, who, now, is the most human of the characters, in the novel? The monster no doubt has logic and reasoning, as he was able to effectively make sense of the world, which was completely new to him, on his own. He also appeared to have a fairly well developed moral code. Although he committed immoral acts, such as the murders of William, Henry, and Elizabeth, he expressed remorse and guilt on the subject, and was clearly aware that what he had don was wrong. Victor, on the other and, also possessed logic and reason, being a scientist. His morals, however, were lacking in comparison to the monster’s. He was unaware that his treatment of the monster was wrong. He constantly judged others, and treated them unfairly, without the slightest clue that it was immoral. Though physically speaking we cannot discern whether the monster was truly “human”, the monster is more human than Frankenstein due to the previously stated reasons.

I think that Shelly believe morality to be both the best and most important qualities of humanity. She gives the monster a stronger moral compass than Victor, and then sets it up so that we sympathize with the monster. We feel bad for the monster because he was constantly treated unfairly, despite not doing anything wrong. Victor, on the other hand, treats the monster very poorly, which is why the reader tends to to sympathize with him, and which is why morality is such an important quality in humans.

I believe that humans are fundamentally shallow and judgmental. Victor in particular constantly judges others, and bases his oppinion of them of appearance and first impressions. He, however, is not the lone example; Justine’s judges also unfairly judged her, as well as Victor’s mother, and the witnesses of Henry’s murder. The judging of others is a consistently repeated pattern in the novel, humans, according to Shelly, are therefore fundamentally shallow creatures.

Pattern of quote selection

The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly contains many themes, ideas, and messages, from what it means to be human, to lessons about parenting. One of the most prominent messages, I noticed, seemed to be one about human nature. Shelly appeared to be saying that humans are naturally shallow, judgmental, beings, who base too much of their opinion on appearance, and their first impression of something, and that the implications of this can be quite extreme. I elected to illustrate this message in my quote selection. The quotes I chose mostly exemplify the premature judging of someone, whether it turn out positive or negative for that person. For example, in my chapter one quote, everyone seemed to like Elizabeth because she was so beautiful, and Victor’s mother even decided to take her in. On the contrary, Victor was appalled, and judged the monster several times (Chapter 5, chapter 7, chapter 10, etc.) completely based on his hideous appearance. Other quotes show similarities between Henry, Elizabeth, and the monster (Chapter 2, chapter 6, chapter 11, chapter 18). They all seem to be peaceful individuals, with a taste for the arts, and a love for humanity, but Victor loves Henry and Elizabeth, while despising the monster simply based on his looks, despite any similarities between the three. At other times, members of the judicial system prematurely judged Victor and Justine (Chapter 8, chapter 21), whether there was evidence or not, and in both cases, they were wrongly arrested. In the case of Justine, it led to her death. The lack of acceptance that the monster experienced (Chapter 5, chapter 10, chapter 15, chapter 16, chapter 17) led the monster into a state of constant fury towards mankind. While he was previously a peaceful, kind, thoughtful, and patient individual (Chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 16, chapter 17), he quickly turned into the murderous fiend that kills Henry and Elizabeth, and wrecks havoc on the life of Victor (Chapter 21, chapter 22, chapter 23, chapter 24). Victor’s excitement in the chapter 4 quote was quickly turned around by his judgmental nature upon seeing the monster in chapter 5. He never gave the monster a chance, which cost him dearly in the end. He even judged the his second monster based on inaccurate impressions of he first one, before he had created it, causing him to tear it to pieces, effectively along with his life. The tendency of humans to prematurely judge others caused many problems in Shelly’s novel, which goes to show that we need to be more accepting, and give people a chance before we shun them.

Chapter 24

“Scoffing devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I devote thee, miserable fiend, to torture and death. Never will I give up my search until he or I perish; and then with what ecstasy shall I join my Elizabeth and my departed friends, who even now prepare for me the reward of my tedious toil and horrible pilgrimage!”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 23

“I rushed towards her, and embraced her with ardour; but the deadly languor and coldness of the limbs told me that what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend's grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips.”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 22

“Great God! if for one instant I had thought what might be the hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have banished myself for ever from my native country, and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth, than have consented to this miserable marriage. But, as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim.”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 21

“The first part of this deposition did not in the least interest me; but when the mark of the fingers was mentioned, I remembered the murder of my brother, and felt myself extremely agitated; my limbs trembled, and a mist came over my eyes, which obliged me to lean on a chair for support. The magistrate observed me with a keen eye, and of course drew an unfavourable augury from my manner.

The son confirmed his father's account: but when Daniel Nugent was called, he swore positively that, just before the fall of his companion, he saw a boat, with a single man in it, at a short distance from the shore; and, as far as he could judge by the light of a few stars, it was the same boat in which I had just landed.

A woman deposed that she lived near the beach, and was standing at the door of her cottage, waiting for the return of the fishermen, about an hour before she heard of the discovery of the body, when she saw a boat, with only one man in it, push off from that part of the shore where the corpse was afterwards found.

Another woman confirmed the account of the fishermen having brought the body into her house; it was not cold. They put it into a bed, and rubbed it; and Daniel went to the town for an apothecary, but life was quite gone.

Several other men were examined concerning my landing; and they agreed that, with the strong north wind that had arisen during the night, it was very probable that I had beaten about for many hours, and had been obliged to return nearly to the same spot from which I had departed. Besides, they observed that it appeared that I had brought the body from another place, and it was likely that, as I did not appear to know the shore, I might have put into the harbour ignorant of the distance of the town of ---- from the place where I had deposited the corpse.”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 20

“As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew."

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 19

“I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was to me like the torture of single drops of water continually falling on the head. Every thought that was devoted to it was an extreme anguish, and every word that I spoke in allusion to it caused my lips to quiver, and my heart to palpitate.”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 18

“And if these were my sensations, who can describe those of Henry? He felt as if he had been transported to Fairyland, and enjoyed a happiness seldom tasted by man. "I have seen," he said, "the most beautiful scenes of my own country; I have visited the lakes of Lucerne and Uri, where the snowy mountains descend almost perpendicularly to the water, casting black and impenetrable shades, which would cause a gloomy and mournful appearance, were it not for the most verdant islands that relieve the eye by their gay appearance; I have seen this lake agitated by a tempest, when the wind tore up whirlwinds of water, and gave you an idea of what the waterspout must be on the great ocean; and the waves dash with fury the base of the mountain, where the priest and his mistress were overwhelmed by an avalanche, and where their dying voices are still said to be heard amid the pauses of the nightly wind; I have seen the mountains of La Valais, and the Pays de Vaud: but this country, Victor, pleases me more than all those wonders.”

-Victor Frankenstein, and Henry Clerval

Chapter 17

"You are in the wrong," replied the fiend; "and, instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?”

-Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 16

“I rushed from my hiding place; and, with extreme labour from the force of the current, saved her, and dragged her to shore. She was senseless; and I endeavoured by every means in my power to restore animation, when I was suddenly interrupted by the approach of a rustic, who was probably the person from whom she had playfully fled. On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms, hastened towards the deeper parts of the wood. I followed speedily, I hardly knew why; but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired. I sunk to the ground, and my injurer, with increased swiftness, escaped into the wood.

"This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and, as a recompense, I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound, which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth”

-Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 15

“Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me? Agatha fainted; and Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung: in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sunk within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained.”

-Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 14

“He loathed the idea that his daughter should be united to a Christian; but he feared the resentment of Felix”

=Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 13

“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing”

-Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 12

“This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.”

-Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 11

“I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes.”

-Frankenstein's monster

Chapter 10

"Perceived, as the shape came nearer (sight tremendous and abhorred!) that it was the wretch whom I had created. I trembled with rage and horror, resolving to wait his approach, and then close with him in mortal combat. He approached; his countenance bespoke bitter anguish, combined with disdain and malignity, while its unearthly ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes. But I scarcely observed this; rage and hatred had at first deprived me of utterance, and I recovered only to overwhelm him with words expressive of furious detestation and contempt."

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 9

"For the sake of a few jewels, to have murdered the son of her benefactor and friend, a child whom she had nursed from its birth, and appeared to love as if it had been her own! I could not consent to the death of any human being; but certainly I should have thought such a creature unfit to remain in the society of men"

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 8

“And on the morrow Justine died. Elizabeth's heartrending eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer. My passionate and indignant appeals were lost upon them. And when I received their cold answers, and heard the harsh unfeeling reasoning of these men, my purposed avowal died away on my lips”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 7

“A flash of lightning illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had given life. What did he there? Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother? No sooner did that idea cross my imagination, than I became convinced of its truth; my teeth chattered, and I was forced to lean against a tree for support.”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 6

“Clerval had never sympathised in my tastes for natural science; and his literary pursuits differed wholly from those which had occupied me. He came to the university with the design of making himself complete master of the oriental languages, as thus he should open a field for the plan of life he had marked out for himself. Resolved to pursue no inglorious career, he turned his eyes toward the East, as affording scope for his spirit of enterprise. The Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit languages engaged his attention, and I was easily induced to enter on the same studies”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 5

“The beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 4

“Yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realise. One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?”

-Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 3

“The professor stared: "Have you," he said, "really spent your time in studying such nonsense?"

-M. Krempe

Chapter 2

“Elizabeth was of a calmer and more concentrated disposition…She busied herself with following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home--the sublime shapes of the mountains; the changes of the seasons; tempest and calm; the silence of winter, and the life and turbulence of our Alpine summers.”

- Victor Frankenstein

Chapter 1

“When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa a child fairer than pictured cherub--a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks, and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills. The apparition was soon explained. With his permission my mother prevailed on her rustic guardians to yield their charge to her.”

- Victor Frankenstein