Defense of the Creature: Frankenstien
Uploaded by tgoldner on Apr 26, 2008
Defense of the Creature
Justice is a universal concept instilled in every human being at a young age. The fundamental laws of society are shown to us and we become aware of the consequences for breaking those laws. The idea of Justice is a human creation, but is it based on the laws of nature. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, many of these fundamental laws of not just human society but of nature, are broken. Creation is the most basic of all laws found in nature. In the Christian faith, creation is a marvel that only one being has the right to control. However, Victor Frankenstein decides to play the role of creator and bring an unnatural life into the world, the Creature. This life would bring misery and despair to its creator. It would burn down a house, set up an innocent person for murder and kill three others. The obvious opinion of the Creature seems to be that he is wrong and should be condemned considering what he has done. We can judge this Creature; see him as either innocent or guilty, but this would be similar to judging a child or even a dog. I believe it can be proven that Frankenstein’s creature is not guilty. He was brought into this world with a child-like innocence, never progressed past the emotional state of a child and was rejected throughout his whole life causing him to take the lives of innocent people.
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room…” (Shelley 58). A creator has the duty to teach his creation about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do either of these; he did not take responsibility for what he had brought into the world. One of the first things that the Creature speaks of is that he is a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept,” (Shelley 106). The Creature knew nothing when he was born. He could not distinguish right from wrong....