Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
“‘I can hardly
describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of
new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more
frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection.’” (162)
--the creature
Frankenstein is one of my
favourite novels: beautifully written, a truly haunting tale that incites the
imagination. It is a cautionary tale on the pursuit of knowledge, as both
Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walden risk everything and endanger the lives of
many in the seeking of their desires.
The importance
of nurture in the “nature vs. nurture” debate comes through in the story of
Frankenstein’s creature. Rejected at birth, he insists that had he not been
faced with contempt and revulsion all his life, he would have become a better
man, and not a “fiend” as Frankenstein calls him. The creature self-educates
himself, partly through observing the De Lacey family and partly through
reading The Sorrows of Young Werther, Plutarch’s
Lives and Paradise Lost. It is in reading these books that the being begins
to question his identity at a deeper level.
I chose Frankenstein as an artefact because it
shows the influence education, self-education or otherwise, has on a person. It
is up to us as educators to help students become positive members of society. I
wouldn’t say it is as dramatic as creating an angel or fiend as in Frankenstein, but how a student is
treated in the classroom can have far-reaching effects on his/her life.
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