In Class Quote Comparisons Group #5
Sorry about the lateness of this post everyone. I totally misunderstood what we were to do with this work and typed it up and brought it to last class thinking Dillion had wanted us to do something with them there but I didn't understand they were meant to be posted on the blog. Anyways...
I think that this quote from Frankenstein connects to Nietzsche because the monster became overcome with a thirst for vengeance and decided to act upon it. In Nietzsche’s second essay he writes about how conscience and the ability to mask free will. The conscience is referred to as a dominating instinct. This dominating instinct seems to be telling the monster to get revenge.
R: Revenge is a reactionary instinct that is only created when one is concerned with overthrowing the power of another. The monster’s free will is vengeance because he is not socialized so his guilt does not last for long.
The monster of Frankenstein is made to be the epitome of evil, but he was nothing but a being with no understanding of its purpose or existence until he lets the branding words of those who deem him such win out as a self fulfilling prophesy. However, after wallowing in the depression and torment of his own horrific existence, he decides to seek revenge against that source which gave rise to his tormented life, a source which sees no remorse or pity for its action and chooses to fight back. Frankenstein’s monster is the revolt of the lowly masses, defined as abhorrent by the aristocracy who think they have trapped them with their moral bearings.
R: Before the monster decided to take revenge, he had pity for Frankenstein. He decided to take revenge when Frankenstein tried to bring happiness to his own life while harming the monster. He didn’t always want to take revenge.
Nietzsche says “whoever clumsily interposes the concept of revenge does not enhance his insight into the matter, but further veils and darkens it (for revenge merely leads us back to the same problem. “how can making suffering constitute a compensation?”)” p151 essay 2 #6
The passage from Frankenstein shows the circular reasoning that guilt and revenge create. The hatred that the monster builds up as a result of his guilt fills him with the creativity for vengeance that Nietzsche describes. The hatred that the monster has is momentarily forced inward after the murder of Clerval but he then turns it into vengeance.
R: You made a good connection, and honestly I think you’re right. If I have to argue against it though, I guess I could say that instead of just being circular and making Frankenstein suffer, the monster is trying to achieve justice in the only way he knows how and can.
The monster feels urges that Frankenstein should seek to feel enjoyment, a feeling that he will never have. This relates to Nietzsche’s good vs. bad essay because Frankenstein, the creator of the monster and thus his superior, has taken it upon himself to deem the monster as “bad” and himself and mankind as “good.” The monster’s resentment leads him to create his own values and he deems Frankenstein as a man who should be hated for the horrible thing that he had done and for wishing to be happy while he could not be.
R: If Frankenstein’s monster represents the slave revolt’s redefinition of morality, when then does Frankenstein represent a moral prerogative of Christian humility, and his creation, the greatness of a Greek god? Is Frankenstein’s monster better thought of as Nietzsche’s superman?
I think that this quote from Frankenstein connects to Nietzsche because the monster became overcome with a thirst for vengeance and decided to act upon it. In Nietzsche’s second essay he writes about how conscience and the ability to mask free will. The conscience is referred to as a dominating instinct. This dominating instinct seems to be telling the monster to get revenge.
R: Revenge is a reactionary instinct that is only created when one is concerned with overthrowing the power of another. The monster’s free will is vengeance because he is not socialized so his guilt does not last for long.
The monster of Frankenstein is made to be the epitome of evil, but he was nothing but a being with no understanding of its purpose or existence until he lets the branding words of those who deem him such win out as a self fulfilling prophesy. However, after wallowing in the depression and torment of his own horrific existence, he decides to seek revenge against that source which gave rise to his tormented life, a source which sees no remorse or pity for its action and chooses to fight back. Frankenstein’s monster is the revolt of the lowly masses, defined as abhorrent by the aristocracy who think they have trapped them with their moral bearings.
R: Before the monster decided to take revenge, he had pity for Frankenstein. He decided to take revenge when Frankenstein tried to bring happiness to his own life while harming the monster. He didn’t always want to take revenge.
Nietzsche says “whoever clumsily interposes the concept of revenge does not enhance his insight into the matter, but further veils and darkens it (for revenge merely leads us back to the same problem. “how can making suffering constitute a compensation?”)” p151 essay 2 #6
The passage from Frankenstein shows the circular reasoning that guilt and revenge create. The hatred that the monster builds up as a result of his guilt fills him with the creativity for vengeance that Nietzsche describes. The hatred that the monster has is momentarily forced inward after the murder of Clerval but he then turns it into vengeance.
R: You made a good connection, and honestly I think you’re right. If I have to argue against it though, I guess I could say that instead of just being circular and making Frankenstein suffer, the monster is trying to achieve justice in the only way he knows how and can.
The monster feels urges that Frankenstein should seek to feel enjoyment, a feeling that he will never have. This relates to Nietzsche’s good vs. bad essay because Frankenstein, the creator of the monster and thus his superior, has taken it upon himself to deem the monster as “bad” and himself and mankind as “good.” The monster’s resentment leads him to create his own values and he deems Frankenstein as a man who should be hated for the horrible thing that he had done and for wishing to be happy while he could not be.
R: If Frankenstein’s monster represents the slave revolt’s redefinition of morality, when then does Frankenstein represent a moral prerogative of Christian humility, and his creation, the greatness of a Greek god? Is Frankenstein’s monster better thought of as Nietzsche’s superman?
posted by mickeyknox at 1:35 PM
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