Pinocchio and Frankenstein’s Creature:
Nature
vs Nurture, the age-old debate on whether we are born inherently biased towards
what is the concept of societal good or evil versus learning them through
experience. As much as I would enjoy writing another essay on it this one
focuses on two literary classics and how they are fatefully bound and
intertwined as philosophical equals when analyzed by their respective points of
view. Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly and The
Adventure of Pinocchio by Carlo “Collodi” Lorenzo Filippo Giovanni Lorenzini.
A
brief summary on both should be an order. Frankenstein tells the story of mad
scientist Victor Frankenstein attempting to create life from dead corpses. Once
he finds himself successful he comes to regret his blasphemous actions as he
sees the consequences of his actions. From then on the story is told from the
point of view of the creature, learning and understanding his circumstance as
“monster”, an “abomination” from others that fear its existence. He swears
revenge upon its creator, longing to find Victor accountable for his actions
against nature itself.
A
summary of Pinocchio: Master builder Geppetto wishes he had a son, and a fairy
grants him that wish, with the caveat that it will be a wooden puppet. Alive
and conscious, the wooden puppet was called Pinocchio, and loved by his new
father. Pinocchio seeing the limitations of his appearance wishes to be a human
boy and tries his best to become one by going to school. Soon after his is
coerced into joining a circus for children, abusing natural sins such as greed,
gluttony, and pride. Geppetto grows weary and sets out to get back his boy and
reuniting with him once again, fulfilling the ultimate act of love and turning
Pinocchio into a proper human.
They
are both the same philosophical concept told from a different frame of
reference in which one of them tells the story of abandonment from the creator,
disdain from everyone around, and the other from a loving perspective by the
creator. The similarities comes from them being created out of a sense of
desperation. The humanistic obsession with possessing enough power to be a god,
domain over life and creation. They both deal with the consequences of creating
life and the ultimate price we are willing (and unwilling) to pay for it.
Of
course, this is not a one-to-one tale. The desperation from Geppetto stems from
his desire to have a son to teach and love. Victor, on the other hand, had an
expressed desire to rebel against nature, taunt her with his intellect and
wound up regretting his choice. In terms of their frame of reference they are
polar opposites, one deals with disdain and the other with familial affection,
revenge against the pursuit of happiness. Sin versus virtue, greed versus kindness.
In
conclusion, they could both be allegories for man’s incessant and obsessive
drive towards control and creation, the need to become godlike and failing
because consciousness begets responsibility. Or maybe it’s to understand the
consequences of poor and good nurturing of an individual and the aftermath of
it. Am I trying to say that love is the answer to nature vs nurture, being the
only caveat that it just reinforces nurture in the sense that through affection
humans are therefore more likely to conform to the societal depiction of
goodness? Perhaps. But that is neither here nor there, because Frankenstein’s
creations yearns for the ultimate human desire of being cared for while
Pinocchio possesses all and more.