What is a soul? According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary a soul is three things: 1) the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life , 2) the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, 3) a person's total self. In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Dr. Victor Frankenstein creates a monster, who either has a soul or is considered "soul less". When put side to side with the previous three definitions, Frankenstein's monster does in fact have a soul.
According to the first definition, a soul is the immaterial essence, animating principle of an individual life. Chapter 11 begins the Monster's story. From this time on he begins to learn with no recollection of a past, just like a new born baby. "One Day, when I was oppressed by cold, Delight at the warmth I experienced from it."(Shelly,89) In this sequence the monster is able to comprehend that from the lighted fire he can receive heat, just like a normal person discovers the same when he is born. But with his delight and joy, the monster has also started to experience pain. "In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!" (Shelly, 89) The Monster's soul has started to help him realize that burning fire is bad when you touch it, and that many things can cause both good and bad effects based on how you use them. The Monster's soul finally lets his emotions run full at the end of the novel when Frankenstein is dead in Walton's cabin. "But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death this throat who never injured me or any other living thing. I have devoted my creator, when that imagination will haunt my thoughts no more." (Shelly, 204) The monster shows his true feelings towards Frankenstein and shows that his soul has helped him to adapt to a fully thought-capable being, who can now function in a world full of rejection and hard obstacles.
