A Monstrous Adolescence, My Look at chapters 13 & 14

Haphazardly thrown into the world as a full grown being, Frankenstein's monster spends much of the first moments of life discovering the wonders of the world seen through virgin eyes. However, due to his inherent intelligence and superhuman flexibility, the monster soon masters the elements of basic survival that any wild beast is forced to learn. His first contact with human society and the species in person comes from incidental encounters early on in his life where he wanders through a hamlet and several cottages. He instantly learns of their fear of his monstrous appearance and the human tendency towards violence. These experiences are soon pushed to the back of his mind as the will to survive fuels his earliest mental development. With the satiation of his basest needs, the monster's bemused pondering returns to the strange creatures he had encountered. Driven by the deep seated need to learn more on the subject, the monster creates a hidey-hole through which to observe the De Lacey family, and dissect their behavior. By becoming obsessed with the knowledge he can glean of their familial relationship, the monster illuminates the very human desire he possesses within his superior brain to feel accepted by society and a close knit family group. By exposing this urge, the monster displays his own similarity to a human adolescent. Like an adolescent, his genuinely positive desire to be an accepted member of the De Lacey family, the monster illuminates his own potential to be an empathetic, productive member of society. And like and adolescent, he demonstrates his own innate mortal naivete about the world through his method and attempt at communication with the De Lacey father. In these ways the monster shows that he is pre-occupied with many of the same topics that dominate the lives of adolescents, proving that he follows a parallel, if not altered and accelerated, path to a genuine and accepted human intelligence.

Rationalization

When Victor first comes back to his hometown of Geneva after the mysterious death of his brother William, Victor comes into the knowledge that the murder was most likely perpetrated by the monster of his own creation. Nearly simultaneously, a servant and family-friend/surrogate of the Frankenstein's is accused and arrested for the selfsame crime. While Victor stays quiet and sits on the vital knowledge he has, the friend, Justine, is falsely convicted and executed for the crime. While this is all happening Victor is telling himself that nothing he could say or do would convince the judges of her innocence beyond what he believed would be justly revealed. This is not the case. Victor's attempts at rationalization simply displays his continuing inability to take any sort of responsibility for his crime against nature or his towering hubris. Furthermore, his delusion only serves as a way that he can deny that he was ever wrong in the first place to attempt such a feat or that the realm of empirical science is all encompassing. It is an attempt to distance himself from any liability and create a dynamic to continue his falsity and not succumb to his guilt.

Journal Entry on Rationalization, Physiognomy, and Prometheus

When comparing the mythological story of the titan Prometheus and the romantic tale of Frankenstein, several striking similarities stand out to an objective viewer. Both the goal that obsessively drives them to their doom and the manner they go about achieving their ends link Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the titan Prometheus. Both attempt to condense down the spark of sentience and bestow it in any manner they choose without the conveyance of the greatest power, both end up harming the receivers of their "gift', and both pay the most dire of prices for their hubris. Beyond both's overwhelming desire to create thoughtful human life, imperfectly, the manner they go about their deed is steeped in the utmost of hubris. While Frankenstein attempts to recreate the mechanics and drive of life with the rudiments of biology, chemistry, and technology Prometheus attempts to pass all the metaphysical potential that we as humans posses when staring into the face of the universe in a petty prank spawned to spite his cousins. Both attempt to go beyond their own limitations and bestow the spark of the divine in an imperfect manner and both pay the ultimate price for their hubris.