How can I argue that Victor Frankenstein’s abundance of friendship and love leads him to be overly confident in his abilities, while the creature’s lack of the same prevents him from benefiting from his greater human potential?

What an interesting thesis! I would assume you have already thought of some elements which would lead you to this idea. It's always easier to amass the evidence first and then draw the thesis from that evidence, rather than trying to make the evidence fit the thesis retroactively. In this case, however, I do think there is a case to be made.


Your first paragraph needs to introduce your thesis and provide an overall summary of what you are going to say, without giving too much away. Your final paragraph should draw together the threads of what you have said and offer a convincing conclusion supporting your thesis. Here are some suggestions for your three main body paragraphs:


First, I would suggest a focus on Frankenstein himself, and how the friendship and love he received may have led to an over-inflated sense of self-confidence. You might start with his childhood:

No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence.

This quite straightforwardly offers support for your premise. Victor felt very much loved and supported as a child, and, even though his parents died when he was still young, they led him toward "an eager desire to learn." Victor identifies that he very early formed a passion for science, and there is a suggestion that his parents offered him seemingly unconditional support without trying to force him to learn about things he did not care for—"languages" and "governments." Therefore, we can argue that early in life he learned that he could generally drive his own pursuits and would be supported in doing so. Because his father was "not scientific," Victor was also able to cultivate a sense that he himself was more intelligent and knew better than his parents: he begins to trust in books, rather than in other living people, while still feeling supported by and loved by them.


Elizabeth, whom Frankenstein always describes as good and pure, might be a next obvious point of focus. We know that Elizabeth is a rather passive character who was literally commanded by Victor's mother, on her deathbed, to "take her place" in looking after Victor. So, Victor always felt that he was able to rely upon the "expectation" of Elizabeth's love and support, as if she were his mother as well as his beloved. This places undue pressure on Elizabeth and also gives undue freedom to Victor.


In order for your essay to be balanced, I would recommend perhaps a middle paragraph dealing with the possible objection to your thesis—what about the fact that, in carrying out his work, Victor is so isolated from others? Why would a man who feels entirely supported by the love of those around him—his parents, Elizabeth, Clerval—remove himself so much in pursuing his goals? We might counter the point with quotations such as this one:

Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become; the energy of my purpose alone sustained me: my labours would soon end, and I believed that exercise and amusement would then drive away incipient disease; and I promised myself both of these when my creation should be complete.

Victor feels that his labors are temporary and that, ultimately, not only will he definitely succeed, but he will be rewarded and can return to the life he had before, one he had enjoyed and wants to return to. Victor "knew [his] silence disquieted them" (his family), but he also feels sufficiently that he knows better than his own father to assert that his father would be "unjust" to ascribe Victor's silence to anything other than the fact that he is striving to become a father himself—a father to whom his creation will owe everything.


The next section, then, should focus on the creation itself, a simple transition from the previous point. We know that the Creature is an intelligent being, capable of expressing itself in a very erudite style and entirely aware of its own fate and the reasons for this. We know, too, how deeply he feels touched by his emotions: on the first night he "quitted [Frankenstein's] apartments," he sat down and wept, overcome. However, he is emotionally unfulfilled, and because he has never been offered love, the sight of it pains him:

He raised her and smiled with such kindness and affection that I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature; they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced, either from hunger or cold, warmth or food; and I withdrew from the window, unable to bear these emotions.

The Creature is sadly aware that he is imperfect, and at first thinks this means he does not deserve love—"If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched." However, as time goes on, he begins to blame Frankenstein for having brought him into the world without thinking about the fact that, as someone capable of human thought and feeling, the Creature would need to be loved and could never be, because of his grotesque aspect. As a result, the Creature becomes angry, knowing that "no father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses." He has been unnaturally created.


This, of course, drives the Creature to his ultimate state of rage. A key paragraph would be his approach to Victor, after he has recognized that Victor has "cursed" him:

"Shall each man,” cried he, “find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains — revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict.”


From these points, you should be able to draw your thesis together into a conclusion. Good luck with your essay!