Frankenchild

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives us a clear example as to why knowledge shouldn’t be forced upon children. For those who have read Frankenstein, you know that the creature Victor Frankenstein creates has many child-like qualities; for that reason, the creature should be viewed as a child throughout this post. As the first of his species, the creature doesn’t know right from wrong, especially because Victor didn’t teach him anything. The creature then ventures out and learns on his own.  

According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy, "[a child] is first an animal, then a savage, then a solitary like Crusoe, and only at adolescence is he a human being in the full sense of the world.”(Boyd 153.) Throughout the novel, the creature hits every point of Rousseau’s idea of development, if only he lived to reach the final stage. For instance, after being created, the creature acts upon his instincts and murders Victor’s brother. The next stage mentioned in the philosophy is solitude. Rejected by Victor, the creature lives in the woods, secluded from society. There he learns survival and social skills, as well as linguistics.

“Rousseau also believed that the child should be allowed to remain in its ‘naturally’ innocent state as long as possible.”(Gaarder, 312.) Mary Shelley exemplifies the consequences of a child that does not remain in said state for an appropriate amount of time. Even after developing some type of understanding of the world, the creature continues his killing spree by murdering both Victor’s best friend and his wife.

Rousseau explains the journey of adolescence, and concludes that a child that moves on too quickly into adulthood can cause catastrophe. Mary Shelley proves his points even further throughout the novel. After studying Rousseau’s works, the reader should have a clear understanding of how his beliefs correspond with the creature when reading Frankenstein.

Works Cited

Boyd, William. The Educational Theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963. Questia School. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy. New York: , Straus and Giroux, 1994. Print.