4. Analyse how one or more important events represented a turning point for a character.

Mary’s Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ is a text that is held in esteem for its themes of “thrilling horror,” and is one of the most well known tales of the gothic fiction genre. Throughout the text, Shelley poses several important philosophical questions about human nature through the pivotal ‘Creature’. It is revealed over time that this nameless Creature, who was initially painted as a horrific and brute-like monster, only turned towards violence after several negative interactions with human society. From being deserted by his creator, to being beaten brutally, and denied a female companion, the Creature’s experiences through the text ultimately bring him to committing acts of violence towards those around Victor. Shelley develops these important events through both Frankenstein’s and the Creature’s narration to bring the Creature to his suicide, shining a direct light on the ways that society discriminates against those with points of diversity or difference.

Throughout the Creature’s three year life, he spent a great deal of time dealing with rejection, but the most important instance of this was when Frankenstein first deserted him. It is the Creature’s very first experiences that sets him up for his spiral into his lonesome, desolate life ending in suicide. Upon the moment of the Creature’s first breath, Victor Frankenstein recounted in his narration that, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?” It is this initial judgement that leads Victor to desert the Creature is his Ingolstadt residence, leaving the Creature to fend for himself. We later learn through the Creature’s narration that those first few days consisted of “a strange multiplicity of sensations” and that “it is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being.” The Creature therefore, has no memory of Frankenstein actually deserting him, and if he did it was patchy and inconsistent. However, this event was still crucial in leading the Creature to turn to violence to seek human interaction. If Frankenstein had not have fled from the Creature, and had properly fed and educated him, he may have been able to come more accustomed to kindness and compassion. This speaks strongly to the obligations of parents and other caregivers involved in the lives of young children, who are at a particularly impressionable stage of their lives. Throughout the first few months or so of his life, the Creature spends life in a fairly animalistic way, eating wild berries and drinking from a stream. Had Victor not deserted his creation, then these first months would have allowed the Creature to grow up in a controlled environment; he would have at least had the chance to to get a head start in learning the customs and values of the western society, and help Victor get an understanding of what the Creature’s place in society might be.

The first 1,000 days of life: The brain’s window of opportunity. The first 1,000 days of life – the time spanning roughly between conception and one’s second birthday – is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established.