frankenstein psychology & parenting

-"and now, once again, i bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper," is shelley equating her novel w/ the monster.  around the time of 2nd edition, locke wrote that he imagined all humans as "tabula rasas" (blank slates, nurture, etc), claiming that if you bring up children properly, you will have a more understanding, better world (some people took this too far, like thomas day, who adopted 2 young girls and told them nothing and left them to learn everything themselves b/c he felt culture was so corrupt —> allowed the children to even stick their hands in the fire to teach them that fire burns —> children grew up to be schizophrenic.

-as far as parenting goes, "sticking around" is step 1 for successfully raising children —> victor's total abandonment of his monster leaves the creature w/ no one to care for it.  BUT, on some kind of level, there is always a moral choice for the child (and the monster) ex: the monster frames justine, this shows he has some sense of right and wrong.  at first, the monster has no way of measuring himself in relation to other people before getting to observe families (monster tells victor he should have been his adam, but he abandoned him). 

-some parents put kids into extremely busy schedules b/c they don't know what else to do w/ them.  if a child is made to live out his parents' wishes, or made to prove something (like the way the monster was made to prove victor's genius), sometimes they make statements against this (either towards their parents or towards their institution, etc.).  for example, the monster will do anything to get his "father's" (victor's) attention, even (or especially) violent acts.  on pg. 109, shelley writes, "suddenly, as i gazed on him (william, victor's son), an idea seized me, that (william) was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity" —> later, the monster says to victor that essentially, "i was good, you made me bad."  on a related note, one  study claims that w/ the legalization of abortion, crime rates have gone down (less accidental or unwanted children or little unintended monsters entering the world).