Frankenstein Chapters 11-12
Here we learn what has been happening to the monster during the time we have been following Victor’s meanderings; we learn the origin of his eloquence. What two things do you think have been the most critical to his development? Explain. Use one or two quotations to support your view. Be sure you do not use a quotation that someone else has used. Post due Wednesday, November 25.
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The creature's development has been molded around his personal experience and by observing the behaviors of the DeLacy family.
When the creature discovers a fire left behind by wandering beggars, he learns the concept of cause and effect. By drying wood and tossing it into the fire, he obtains both light and warmth. He also becomes aware that, "the same cause [can] produce opposite effects (Shelley, 101." So by personal experience with the fire, the creature does not simply gain intellegence, but also wisdom. This wisdom provides the logic that helps him to argue with Frankenstein so eloquently.
The creature also develops much by observing the manners of the DeLacy family. The creature finds his gentle nature when he thinks of "restoring happiness" (Shelley 113) to the family. He also manages to learn the french language from the family. The creature's development, whether it be from a fire or a family, is rapid because of his willingness to learn, and his want to be loved.
The creature has developed his intelligence and has learned how to speak by observing and studying the De Lacey family. They have served as an example to him since he learned about human feelings, language, ways of life, and everything people do on a day to day basis.
The creature learns how to speak by listening in on their conversations and when Safie was being taught English. He was smart enough even to recognize that she didn't know how to speak english. "I soon perceived that although the stranger uttered articulate sounds and appeared to have a language of her own, she was neither understood by nor herself understood the cottagers" (Shelley 116).
The monster also developed his emotions by analyzing the DeLacey family's situation. When he first noticed the unhappiness of the cottagers, he started to experience it himself. "They were not entirely happy. The young man and his companion went apart and appeared to weep. I saw no cause for their unhappiness, but I was deeply affected by it." (Shelley 109) The creature learned to have feelings, and he even states somewhere in the chapter that he also got happy whenever the DeLaceys were happy.
since the creature's creation we had not been able to see his life until now. Now we can know what the creature has been doing all this time that we had spent reading about Frankenstein. Yet there was always the uncertainty of where the creature had learned to be so eloquent and where had he learned to speak and reason. If he was alone how could he develop all these things?
In chapter 11 we see how the creature leaves to wonder o his own. By his experience he learns how to behave around humans. "He turned on hearing a noise; and, perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable. (Shelley)" The creature encounters many humans in his voyages and I think he learns a valuable lesson when he realizes that he is not like them. He can't socialize with them therefore he must stay away. He deduces that in order to learn from humans he must remain hidden because otherwise he will scare them.
The creatures also develops emotions when he observes the DeLacey family. "I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighbouring wood. (Shelley)" He mentions how by observing the family he is able to identify their source of sadness. He then, to some extent, even endures this sadness with them because he feels pity when he realizes that he has been stealing from them and this causes them more pain. His emotions grow and he becomes a very emotional creature from his observations.
The creature has showed a very drastic change since we last saw him after Victor brought him to life. The creature, since all alone, had to fend for himself. He started learning as soon as he was out of the Victor's building.When speaking to Victor the creature mentions how "all the events of that period [the beginning after his creation] appear confused and indistinct" (Shelley 99). There are two things that helped him learn so much. The first was the time that the creature spent in the forest. In the forest he was able to figure out some of the necessities to a living being. For example when he felt "tormented by hunger and thirst" (Shelley 99) he went out and found some berries to eat and a brook to drink from.He figured out how day andnight worked and that the sun gave warmth. He learned about the "gentle light [that] stole over the heavens and gave" (Shelley 100) the creature a sensation of pleasure. This was the moon. He learned about the world around him; he learned about the birds that sing and also about fire. By accident he also burned himself with the fire in turn learning it was hot and he also was able to figure out that some food tasted better after being heated. I believe that the De Lacey family also played a very critical role in helping him become the eloquent creature we meet in chapter 10. This family of three taught the creature about social interactions. They also taught him about emotions. By observing the family he was touched in ways he had not experience "either from hunger or cold, warmth or food"(Shelley 105). He not only learned about love and compassion but also learned to communicate. By observing and listening to the Delacey's he was about to acquire language. He learned how to speak French. By being so observant and open minded, he was able to quickly learn how the world worked around him.
In these chapters, the creature meets the Delacy family and uses them as a mentor. By observing their manners and customs, the creature manages to become more elaborate and mature, thinking for himself and acting reasonably.
One of the first discoveries he makes while spying on the Delacy family is the sensation of true feelings. Feelings of joy and sadness: "He raised her and smiled with such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature; they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced" (Shelley 105). The creature learns how to deal with his feelings and tries to figure out what they mean. He is becoming more human.
The second, and I believe most significant change that the creature encounters is the ability to analyze and conclude. He had been watching the family for a some time and noticed that joy was not always present in their cottage. After some close thought he found the element that made them so miserable: "I was at first unable to unable to solve these questions, but perpetual attention and time explained to me many appearances which were at first enigmatic. A considerable period elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty" (Shelley 109). Not only does the creature learn how to interpret different situations on his own, but he consequently is presented to the various aspects of life and learns how to manage his feelings according to each aspect.
The creature is incredibly smart and eloquent. This is due to the fact that he has been learning the nature of human beings by observing the DeLacey family and discovering how to survive by his own by withstanding long and harsh nights in the woods. “I passed three days in these rambles and at length discovered the open country.”(Shelley 102) It is here (the forest) where the creature learns how to survive by his own and learns the basics of human instinct to stay alive no matter what. He manages to learn about fire and food and shelter, and manages to survive three cold, long and harsh days in the woods. The monster also learns about human interaction by observing the DeLacey family.” I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers…This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it” (Shelley 110). The monster learns about the true meaning of words and the impression it has on others. He is desperate to learn how to speak with affirmation and conviction, and wants to meet the family as well. That is why the monster is so eloquent when he speaks to Victor, and it shows that the monster was incredibly intelligent and hungry for knowledge.
The most critical events to his development I believe are the villagers running away from him and his contrasting observance of the De Lacey family.
The first is integral to his development because he got to see the nature of human beings- they are afraid of anomies, and usually their fear is translated into the need to destroy. He learns this after "some [villagers]fled, some atacked [him], until grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, [he] escaped to the open country".(Shelley 103).
The other most important experience is his whole stay "with" the DeLanceys. He not only learns that there is another side to human nature (a kind and loving one he had never before seen), but he learns to communicate his thought eloquently and passionately. He grows to understand human customs and feelings with the DeLanceys- and I think this is his "development" in a nutshell.
We have learned the creature’s incredible reasoning and learning abilities that have enabled him to rapidly adapt, survive and learn the laws of nature. He has learned the pros an cons of fire, what to eat or not to eat, where to shelter, and most importantly to avoid other people. All these experiences combine to that development of the eloquent being it has been presented to us when he spoke to victor.
In my opinion his eloquence is rooted into to different parts, physical experience and emotional experience. An important aspect that contributes to the acquiring of eloquence is logic. The creature acquires logic, through cause and effect and through his senses. He learns that fire can provide heat and therefore keep him warm, but when he touches fire he realizes that it burns. Also through fire he learned that if some foods are cooked they actually taste better but some “ I found that berries were spoiled by this operation, and that nuts and roots much improved” ( shelley 102). Logic is essential to the acquiring of eloquence since in enables him to transmit his in a clear and concise way since logic enables us to organize our ideas in a cause and effect manner that in the end appeals to peoples logos and therefore we gain people ‘s hearts, respect attention or money like how the creature convinced Victor to hear his story in chapter 10.
The creature has gone through a series of emotional experiences, but what has impacted him the most was rejection. The creature couldn’t understand why when people stared at him they would run and sometimes he would get stones thrown at him., Because of this he wanted to avoid human contact at all until he found the Delacy family. The creatures becomes intrigued with the family since for the first time he experienced what true human nature really was since past experiences had thought him otherwise. The monster becomes attached to the family and observes them for an extended period of time and learns a language essential for communication and very important when he wants to transmit his ideas to others. Most importantly he learns about himself, that he is alone and not accepted n the context of society, but in someway the delacy family provides that warmth. Now the creature has learned to express himself through a common language, and therefore expresses his feelings to victor appealing to his emotion and logic with his newly acquired language, A point that I must point out is that language is no tought properly communication problem may occur, and due to the fact that later in the book we discover the Delacys family origin it its guaranteed to us that they spoke properly and eloquently and those assets evidently captured by the monster.
The "newborn" monster's critical things that helped his development are his instincts of survival and his strong will to learn and understand the world (through observing the DeLacy family). "A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt,heard, and smelt at the same time; and it was indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.(Shelly99)" Through his harsh journey through the wilderness, the monster was able to learn and discover what is dark, light, thirst, hunger, cold, etc. And what to avoid and what to use.
By observing the DeLacy family through a small crack in the wall, the monster was able to learn warmth of humanity and thus feels more wretched and alone. With his strong will to learn, the monster even vows to learn the language of the humans. Through observing the DeLacies, the monster developes human emotions and learns what is kindness, gentleness, happiness, sadness, etc. When the monster listens to the old man play and "produce sounds sweeter than the voice of the thrush or the nightingale" he feels touched and says that "it was a lovely sight, even to [the monster], poor wretch who had never beheld aught beautiful before" (shelly 105). The monster even states "this trait of kindness moved me sensibly" (Shelly 109). This shows how the monster was moved by the DeLacys' poverty and sadness that the monster decides to "assist their labours" by "collecting wood for family fire...sufficient for the consumption of several days" (Shelly109). In brief, the monster's instincts of survival and strong will to learn and understand the human world through the DeLacy family developed the monster in to a eloquent sensitive human- like creature.
The monster´s eloquence has come from his observation of the DeLacey fmily. By listening to the family talk among themselves he has come learn their language and to read the novels they read. He has also experienced emotional growth through the empathy he feels for the sad situation of the DeLaceys, "He raised her and smiled with such
kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar
and overpowering nature; they were a mixture of pain and
pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from
hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the
window, unable to bear these emotions." (Shelley 80).
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