Human Morality In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is written about a man Walton who goes on a journey to the North Pole. Walton’s ship becomes trapped in ice, and this is where Walton sees two men dog sledding. One man, who looks very frail, is invited onto Walton’s ship. The man, who goes by Frankenstein, shares Walton his story how he built this monster. This monster, angry at Frankenstein, kills all his loved ones in revenge for creating him. A main theme in this novel is the struggle between human morality and whether the monster is naturally evil or was it his decisions that caused him to act evil. This is a major concept discussed by two Enlightenment Philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Thomas Hobbes believes men are naturally evil and in this sense the monster was evil because he was made that way. This is illustrated in Hobbes quote, “there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth; navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is the worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (37). Despite the monsters misfortunes, such as killing all of Frankenstein’s loved ones, he
Two Enlightenment philosophers who believed the both men are naturally evil or men are naturally born with a blank slate expressed this concept. This problem is a major theme of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where the monster created by Victor Frankenstein behaved in such a way that can relate to John Locke and Thomas Hobbe’s