Iida Post #3

Although the two main characters in Frankenstein are severely messed up and do horrific things, Shelley does make the point that people are inherently good. Frankenstein and his creation both began their lives as happy, idealistic, good people, and only ended up in their present horrible state because of the events that took place in their lives. Frankenstein’s creature says this explicitly at the end of the book. “Once my fancy was soothed with dreams of virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment. Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding. I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal” (p165). Frankenstein’s creation was not born angry or with a powerful desire for revenge and murder in his heart. He became that way because of the misunderstanding and mistreatment of a world where people are judged first by appearances and only afterwards by the content of their souls. He only became angry and only started to do terrible deeds after the world rejected him, only after he had a reason to. Frankenstein himself is very similar. He becomes angry, distressed, and full of revenge only after the death of his friends, his family, and all of his loved ones. His anger came from the events that his destiny threw at him, but, even at the end of his life, when he is chasing his creation deep into the ice and snow, he remembers a time when he was good and his life was happy. “…in sleep I saw my friends, my wife, and my beloved country; again I saw the benevolent countenance of my father, heard the silver tones of my Elizabeth’s voice, and beheld Clerval enjoying health and youth” (p151). Frankenstein is no more inherently evil as his creation and, were the world a different and more accepting place, both might have lived in peace and happiness. However, that is an unrealistic and idealistic dream.

Unlike Mary Shelley, I do not believe that people are inherently good, but I don’t think that people are inherently evil either. Everybody has the capacity to perform both good and evil, and the best intentions can lead to pain and suffering while the worst intentions can have good outcomes as well. Mary Shelley paints the world as an unforgiving place and every tortured and angry person as an ill-treated, misunderstood individual. However, I believe that the world is more complicated than that, and while there are surely misunderstood people, there are also people who commit evil acts who do so because they don’t know any better, or because they haven’t thought it through enough, or because they cannot control their temper. Even children are not inherently good, and I remember and have seen many times where children with loving families, who have had no time to be mistreated, have hurt or bullied other people. The world is not as black and white as Shelley paints it, and humans are not one-sided and cannot be classified  as inherently good or inherently evil.