Nature in Frankenstein Essay Example

Everything spins. All of life rotates, the ebb and flow uncontrollable and unfeasible, riders simply doing their best to hang on. This tumultuous reality frees and traps, true reality a dizzy blur. However, pursuit grounds the unknown. Whether chasing intellect, people, or social status, the quest gives purpose, allowing the exploration of passions and pushing life forward. Yet despite all of the machinery, innovation, and technology, individual souls are miserable, their hearts trapped under what was designed to liberate. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reasoning behind actions illustrates that knowledge harms those who pursue it, the natural world cleansing minds and restoring tranquillity. 

History maintains a common denominator; the more man advances, the more melancholy he becomes. Frankenstein, serving as the protagonist of the novel that shares his name, originally pursues science, wholeheartedly believing that his intellectual power can propel him forward, boost his societal standard, and fulfill his desires. However, he fails to nurture his creation, allowing it to follow the instability of his desires. The creation lacking love, he, in turn, refuses to love, inflicting pain and unspeakable suffering upon Victor and his community as a whole. The monster created stronger, faster, and smarter, he turns on Victor, commanding that “You [Frankenstein] are my creator, but I am your master; - obey!” (Shelley 122). Because his inception was truly a power grab, that power warps compassion and overtakes the natural world. Because of this, Frankenstein is desolate, “miserable in feeling, [...] clinging love we have of life the excess of misery” (Shelley 126). Hurt, Frankenstein can no longer participate in society, his self-centered decisions forever banning him from returning to the natural world. Despite this, the result of his creation fulfills everything that Frankenstein desired. To elaborate, the monster is free-thinking, powerful, and cannot be tamed by man. Not only this, but he is feared, and if technology reigns over terror, then Victor has created the pinnacle of what mankind can do, the relentless chase after knowledge reaches its acme. In light of this, technology has made Victor cold and lonely, separating him from that which he loves. In this, it becomes increasingly clear that Frankenstein’s hunt for a better land was nothing but a reach towards his best self, yet if that higher persona isn’t found in technology, then where will humans feel fulfilled? 

The sweet sound percolates the air, filling senses and arousing strong emotion, the laughter of children ignites feelings of joy, purity, and wonder, but never evil. The world’s shortcomings don't truly yield until the later years: when society and technology grip onto the soul. To expand, “society, [...] gives us no positive pleasure, but absolute and entire solitude, [...] is as great as a positive pain as can almost be conceived” (Burke). The collection of people promising advancement, that same advancement traps, the world cold and barbaric. Yet why is this so? The fusing of people requires laws and morals, and these things lessen pain, hurting and suffering to be avoided. However, nature hates gaps, and to balance the loss of affliction, it uncontrollably thrusts agony, improvement perpetually yielding downfall. To overcome this, it’s vital to not set eyes on avoiding pain but to feel it. Suffering part of life, the creation’s greatest strength lies in what mankind perceives as a weakness, raised to be “fearless and therefore powerful” (Shelley 126). Utilizing suffering for personal domination, the monster is unafraid of pain, willingly accepting it. By skipping vital stages of development and living apart of community, the creation is not trapped by common knowledge and societal rules, but instead living in reverted freedom, unknowing of standard human fears and the stigma surrounding pain. 

Though fear becomes unfeasible for the monster, living in the unknown is impossible for humans, the burden of knowledge deeply ingrained. Though immersion in solitude serves as the only way to completely liberate a mind from knowledge, that’s not always possible, and nature finds another way. The natural world serves as a superior parent, “the very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal nature bade me [Frankenstein] weep no more” (Shelley 65). Nature comforting, it calms hearts and clears minds, softening what the world has made barbaric. Frankenstein committing a rippling crime, his creation was made out of hurt and therefore hurts, kills, and destroys. On the other hand, nature was made out of love, thereby refreshing, strengthening, and comforting. However, even nature cannot restore how much Victor lost, his mind perpetually heavy from his crime. Continuing his cycle of being hurt and hurting, he realizes that his heart is no better than the monster, melancholy solitude his only option. To appease his guilt he decides that “we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account, we should be more attached to one another” (Shelley 105). Having no option but to give in to his guilt, Frankenstein must live out his life alone, only able to attempt to appease his inner desire. Having to choose either all in or all out, his knowledge and intellect imprison, only the remnants of the natural world able to pull him out.

Solitude freeing, ignorance eludes the pain of suffering, knowledge capturing prisoners. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the nature of the characters illustrates how intellect enslaves, leading to suffering, while nature liberates. When humans are not exposed to the evil that comes with competition, their pride cannot get in the way and power cannot yield. Therefore, nature enables creatures to live per with their highest self, the result beautiful.