The Creature’s Lack of Needs

The Creature’s Lack of Needs Every being is born as a clean slate. No knowledge of how to feel, act, or live without someone to teach them. People gain this knowledge through their own experiences and watching other people experience the same things. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the creature is brought to the world by Victor Frankenstein, and is immediately abandoned. The creature is born as a blank slate and needs a figure to learn from. The creature right off the bat is deprived of acceptance and a sense of belonging, which is a need for beings. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, one has to meet the requirement of each level before advancing to the next. The bottom level is physiological needs, the second is safety and security, the third is social needs, the fourth is self esteem, and at the top there is self actualization (Maslow, Abraham). Throughout Frankenstein, we see the creature meeting each level but becomes stuck from moving on from the third level, social needs, because he can never receive the social acceptance that he craves, which turns him cold. The creature’s lack of social relationships turns him into a monster because every experience he has with other beings are negative. Everything he did in the novel was learned from someone or something. He noticed the way everyone treated him and he began treating the things he despised the same way the humans treated him. Nobody is born a monster. Appearance aside, the creature has no experiences that would make him a monster. After Victor brings the creature to life, he calls it “…the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created” (Shelley, 59). Before the creature can do anything, he receives a title that will follow him throughout the novel, and he already is lacking acceptance from his own creator. The creature describes his first moments after being brought to life and says, “It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct” (Shelley, 105). The creature resembles a blank slate and everything he experienced was confusing and he did not recognize anything he saw. Victor who could be seen as the creature’s parental figure, leaves him to learn everything by himself. The growth of the creature is seen throughout the novel and the ways in which he fills his blank slate is shown. After the creature is abandoned, he begins walking through a forest. He has a child-like curiosity about everything and seems eager to know what things are. He begins to be accustomed to the new world he has entered, and he slowly starts to become aware of himself, and he says “…here I lay by the side of a brook resting from my fatigue, until I felt tormented by hunger and thirst” (Shelley, 105). The creature starts to recognize his physiological needs and desires. He starts to feel hungry, so he learns to forage, and he learns that he must sleep. The creature experiences feeling cold and finds a fire to warm himself, he says “…[I] was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain” (Shelley, 107). The creature learns how to provide warmth when cold and out of curiosity touched the flames. He learned what pain was by doing this and realized that some things are not safe to touch. During this time, the creature is seen learning the basic physiological needs that must be met. He soaked in everything he had learned like a sponge, resembling a child’s mindset towards the big world. The creature now has learned of food and warmth, and now desires safety. After walking through the forest for three days, he comes across a hut. He says, “… I longed to obtain food and shelter; at length I perceived a small hut…This was a new sight to me; and I examined the structure; with great curiosity” (Shelley, 108). The creature realizes that he desires shelter. He had never seen a house before and he learned quickly what it meant. The creature enters the hut and sees that there is a man inside. The man runs away after seeing the creature’s appearance. He was confused and shocked to why the man ran away (Shelley, 108). This is his first experience seeing a person other than Victor. This first negative human encounter for the creature starts the continental exclusion that he will experience throughout the novel. The creature is not yet concerned about relationships because he is more concerned with receiving safety first. He is unable to understand why the man ran away because he has not learned of his appearance or of social relationships. At this point, he has not observed any social relationships, so they do not exist in his eyes. The creature recognized that environmental forces could not penetrate the hut, and he felt safe there. He says, “I greedily devoured the remnants of the shepherd’s breakfast… Then, overcome by fatigue, I lay down among some straw, and fell asleep” (Shelley, 108). The creature has now met the needs of food, water, warmth, and security. He may be warm now, but he will soon become cold after realizing he will never receive social support. The creature started having more experiences with other beings. He found himself at a village. Once people saw him, they all ran away and some attacked him (Shelley, 108). With every negative experience that hits him, he becomes more grown and less child-like, and he slowly starts adapting to the ways that the other beings are acting like. He made his way to a cottage, where he began to observe the inhabitants through a hole in the wall. He describes, “If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched. Yet why were these gentle beings unhappy?” (Shelley, 113) The creature starts recognizing emotion but could not yet understand why the family was so sad. He explains that since this caring and loving family is unhappy, that it makes more sense that he should be unhappy. He saw that they had everything he had which was food, shelter, water, and warmth. He did not see why they should be unhappy when they had relationships with one another. He started learning from observing the family what was really causing their sadness and he had empathy towards them (Shelley, 114). The creature learned empathy from watching the family. He saw how kind they were to one another and he mirrored it. He began to help the family by bringing them wood and not taking their food (Shelley, 114). This shows how he learned kindness from the family. He seemed to enjoy observing them and I think that gave him an aspect of a relationship. The family resembled parental figures to the creature because as he observed them, they taught him of social class, reading, writing, and emotions. He thought that with how kind this family was they would accept him (Shelley, 115). It was at this point that the creature wanted social relationships. He decided to show himself to the family in hopes of them bringing him in, but he was scared they would be disgusted of his appearance. They quickly rejected him, the creature describes “…[Felix] struck me violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from limb…But my heart sunk within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained” (Shelley, 137). He opened himself to the family and they beat him because of his appearance. He realizes that he could inflict pain on them but doesn’t because he still feels connected to this family. The creature never gets a chance to come close to relationships because people are too quick to judge. The creature has not gotten any shred of kindness from anyone and all he receives is pain. He thought that humans were compassionate and caring, just like most children do, but everyone is so harsh to him. If you treat someone like a monster, they will eventually start acting like one. The creature is depressed that no one accepts him and he blames his creator. He starts to feel rage, which is the first time he shows monstrous emotions. The family was the closest he had ever gotten to a relationship. He says, “When I thought of my friends… these thoughts left me and a gush of tears somewhat soothed me. But again when I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned…I turned my fury towards inanimate objects” (Shelley, 140). He calls the family his friends, which really signifies how close they were to him. He thought the family was kind and when he was wrong, it threw him into a rampage. Out of rage, he lights the cottage on fire. He believes that Victor has hurt him by bringing him into this world. He declares revenge on Victor. He says, “You had endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind… and from you I determined to gain from any other being that wore the human form” (Shelley, 141). Victor left the creature and now no one accepts him. He is searching for a companion and someone to accept him. After the monster flees the cottage, he spots a girl who had fallen into the river. He saves her and someone mistakenly shoots him because they thought that he was harming the girl (Shelley, 143). The creature was doing the right thing by saving someone but due to his appearance, he gets hurt. Everyone has treated him like a monster and he learned from other humans that you should inflict pain onto others who hurt you. The creature was born so innocent and he cares about living things, but all he sees is monstrous things done to him and he learns those qualities. He has declared revenge on Victor for bringing him into this world and abandoning him. The creature, who was innocent and compassionate at first, has turned cold and has learned the ways of the humans. As he was traveling, he comes across William, who is Victor’s brother. The creature says, “Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy - to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim” (Shelley, 144). He kills William to spite Victor. The creature has so much anger built up that he acts out on his rage. He learns how to act out on his emotions, but if he had someone to teach him or even acceptance, he would have had more emotional control. At Victor’s deathbed, the creature recollects on everything he has done. He showed kindness to the cottage family and the girl he saved. No one saw the good he did and the humans showed no compassion towards him. The creature says, “…I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?” (Shelley, 224) The creature wanted acceptance and love. Everyone around him treated him like a monster before he could evolve into a full person. He never got to move on from the third level, and he never got to reach his full potential because he was raised wrong. He justifies his actions by saying that human kind was committing the same injustices. Which it is true, they neglected him and he turned cold from never getting an adequate childhood. The humans nurtured him into a monster. They all acted as parent figures and he learned that it was okay to hurt people. At the beginning of his life, he is content and compassionate. He desired love and he wanted to care for people. No one wanted to care for him, and the lack of relationships and the way they treated him, both had a strong affect on how his blank slate was filled. It was filled with hatred which ultimately led him to his downfall.