In Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," the young student of natural philosophy and science, Victor Frankenstein, becomes obsessed with acquiring as much knowledge as he can. In so doing, he discovers that with his acquirement of knowledge, he has a power, the power to bestow animation; consequently, he begins "the creation of a human being." However, after having given life to a creature on a "dreary night of November," horror and disgust fills Frankenstein's heart when he beholds what he has given life:
Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.
Victor Frankenstein calls his creature a "being" because, although it has life, it is not a human being. The word being is a noun formed from the verb to be, which means to exist. Thus being means something having life, something that exists.
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