human benevolence
Human benevolence, or natural goodness (the quality stressed in the
revised language of the third edition), is an attribute believed in deeply
by both Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley. At the same time, it cannot
simply be assumed as a given in Frankenstein, for it is severely
tested by the chain of events driving this novel. Even people who are
nominally benevolent (Victor is the obvious example), act with
questionable ethics. And those who are most committed to the notion of a
natural benevolence (Elizabeth, for instance) would be hard pressed to show
any evidence for it.
