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Frankenstein And The Role Of Parents In The Process Of Childs Development DENISE DIDEROT: This person, whom we will call Frankenstein after his father, he steals and makes a general nuisance of himself. When you look at him you understand that he had no meal for several days. We know well, that he is not alone; he has a father, Victor Frankenstein, to whom he has the right to turn in the time of need. If anyone had a father who was such a famous doctor, a recognized genius, he would turn to such a father, bag on his knees to accept him back and teach about life and about his art.
However, instead, Frankenstein chose the road of stealth and indignity. He is a mixture of loftiness and depravity, of good sense and buffoonery. The notions of honesty and dishonesty must be really badly confused in his head, for he shows without ostentation that nature has given him fine qualities, and has no shame in revealing that he has also received some bad ones. (Diderot, Rameau's Nephew, p. 3) the question is: why such an outstanding person as Victor Frankenstein has such a dishonest son? KARL MARX: There is no secret that the history of the contemporary society is the history of the class struggle.
On the example of Victor Frankenstein and his son, Frankenstein we can see the vivid relation between Bourgeois and Proletarian. This case has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great are classes directly facing each other -- bourgeoisie and proletariat. (Marks, The Communist Manifesto). Victor Frankenstein does not want to recognize his son, abandons him as the monster, because he is afraid of his face. The same is with Bourgeoisie, which is afraid of Proletarian, to which it gave birth by neglecting the smaller, weaker or poorer members of the society. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. (Marks, The Communist Manifesto).
The phenomenon of antagonism between children and parents has been known and learned for centuries. But the root of it lies not in education of behavior. It lies in the possibility for parents to play the role of superiors for their children. Parents usually represent the figures of lords or masters for their children, who represent servants or slaves. While parents order their children around and make them obey, children are left to obey passively.
In circumstances of oppression and helplessness children are bound to start their struggle for independence and demand attention and equal treatment. DENISE DIDEROT: You have offered a very interesting comparison, Mr. Marx, but I do not agree with you as to the reasons of antagonism. Every child is the continuation of his father.
The parenting molecule of the father and the grandfather is always present in the child and he will resemble his ancestors. It follows that children and parents cannot be subdivided into two classes, because they are simply the continuation of the one. However, there can arise certain troubles because the parenting molecule might contain good qualities or bad ones. Education is necessary for any person, because it can develop the good qualities, which are brought by parenting molecule, and tame bad inclination. And such education should not include merely the teaching of sciences and techniques, but it should be accompanied with strong care and support. A person, who posses only scholastic knowledge will not success in life and will not be respected by people.
agreeable talents, even mediocre ones, among a people without morals, lost in debauchery and luxury (Diderot, , p. 35). And what has the father of Frankenstein done? He was not concerned about his childs welfare, about stopping the effects of this paternal molecule and about developing its fine aspects. Victor Frankenstein is a bad father, but he is a great genius. If a man of genius were characteristically hard to get along with, difficult, prickly, and unbearable, even if he were bad, what would you conclude from that? (Diderot, , p. 8) In hundred years from now people will still remember his scientific phenomenon and follow his achievements, so, perhaps he can be excused for the neglect of his son? In the long run we will understand that even Victor Frankenstein's actions resulted harmfully on his son, his genius brought much welfare and achievements for the future generations.
Let's accept things as they are. Let's see what they cost us and what they bring us, leaving aside everything we don't know well enough to assign praise or blame what's perhaps neither good nor bad, but what's necessary, as many respectable people think? (Diderot, p. 10) But we should never forget the present, Victor Frankenstein and his son. If you can dispense with taking care of the conduct of your wife, your children, and your servants, you could easily neglect your own affairs. (Diderot, p. 30) While neglecting his son, Victor Frankenstein neglects himself, his own personality. The person can find satisfaction not only in interesting pastime or glorious achievements, but in caring for his relatives, close people and children, these moments they would consider the most precious in their lives. Besides, this kind of negligence can be turned against Victor Frankenstein himself, as his son can harm or damage him if he does not posses ethical morals and family values he has never been taught them.
JOHN LOCKE: I need to say two things: Firstly. That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood or by positive donation from God, any such authority over his children, nor dominion over the world, as is pretended. Secondly. That if he had, his heirs yet had no right to it. (Locke, Second treaties of government. ) People on earth do not live by the rules of beasts, where the strongest survives. According to the natural state of things, all people are free and equal.
But in this state of liberty The Natured observes that a person does not have a freedom to destroy himself or his possessions and here works self-preservation instinct. While the person minds his own self, business or property, he is left for his own device. However, when he mistreats his child, such actions affect the freedom, rights and equality of another being and come in competition with his own welfare. When a person abandons his children, not by killing them, but by simply throwing them away, the Government should observe that the guilty ones are punished accordingly for such actions. MARY SHELLY: I absolutely support Mr. Diderot and Mr.
Locke. Mr. Frankenstein problem lies in insufficient parental care. I do not know if there exists such thing as paternal molecule, but if we trace the childhood of Victor Frankenstein and his so Frankenstein, we will understand, that, as Mr. Diderot said, should be educated not in one separate field, they should learn not only the sciences, but the surrounding world, its ethical and moral values. Victor Frankenstein in his childhood was left to himself and he was interested only in one field, which later brought him his fame.
His parents showed him only love and care, but even such attitude might be insufficient for the development of a harmonic personality, if the child is not guided in his studies and in his development. When Victor Frankenstein choose "the physical secrets of the world" (Shelly, Frankenstein. p. 37), his had not guided him through the choice of studies, but looked at his books in passing and called him "sad trash. " (Shelly, p. 38) Later Victor Frankenstein would say: it is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. " (Shelly, pp. 38 - 39) The upbringing of Victor Frankenstein irreversibly resulted in upbringing of his son. Frankenstein was abandoned from the first moments of his life and he had to learn everything from his own experience. Could this experience be positive, could he live successfully in the society, if he was uneducated, ugly and had no moral or financial support?
Of course his life could be only difficult and sad, his experience unpleasant and harmful. Victor Frankenstein repeated the mistake of his parents; he had not guided his son in life. However, Victors mistakes were even deeper, because his parents felt that they were responsible for him just because they gave him life. He had not taken the responsibility for his son, and now we have to deal with the results of such carelessness. I think that the child cannot be blamed for the mistakes of his parents, and we should do everything so that our society could to take the responsibility for the children that were abandoned by their parents.
We should control the educational and development processes in schools and other educational institutions, so that society could correct the mistakes of the parents. At the same time, we should educate parents as well and prevent them from repetition of such mistakes. However, if the harm is done consciously, the person should be punished for his actions. JOHN LOCKE: I hope we will all agree: in this case we see the violation of Frankenstein liberties and rights of a weaker person. Both, Parents and children are equal in rights, but children due to their weakness and helplessness have to be protected and widely educated by their children. Parents should provide them food, drink, shelter and relief from pain, offer safety and security.
And if parents do not fulfill their duties they should not be complaining on indecent children but they should be punished for indecently fulfilled duties. No parenting molecule or the phenomenon of genius can explain such hostility between the father and the son, as was present between Victor Frankenstein and his son. Quite the opposite, the phenomenon of parental molecule, mentioned by Mr. Diderot only proves that parents and children should be equal.
As Ms. Shelly said, the educational process in our society should be strictly controlled by the state. I consider that the introduction of free education for all children in government schools (Marks, The Communist Manifesto) will prevent the further cases of antagonism between parents and the children, as well as help the children to see the real state of things. In such way the state would be able to control the process of education. Bibliography Diderot, Denis Rameau's Nephew. London: Penguin, 1966.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London: Penguin, 1992 Locke, John. Second Treatise on Government. Library Online 25 Oct. 2004. < web > Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. "The Communist Manifesto. Socialist Party Website. 25 Oct. 2004. < web >
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Research essay sample on Parents And Children Victor Frankenstein
