or to catalog or contextualize the sensory information he receives. Further, he describes his immediate needs: he is hungry and thirsty, and—once he satisfies those needs—he "was overcome by sleep." When he wakes up, it is dark and he feels cold and frightened, and "feeling pain invade [him] on all sides, [he] sat down at wept." So, we have a creature who cannot understand the world around him, all he wants to do is eat and drink and sleep, and when he is uncomfortable in some way, he cries. He sounds just like a baby. As a result of these descriptions, which support the idea that the creature was "born" a blank slate, we can ascertain that we are developed by our environment and how we are nurtured, rather than by nature.

Frankenstein suggests that our experiences and environment determine what we become. 

The monster is the best example of this, of course, because he goes from being a rather innocent being to a murderer. From his very first instances of knowing movement and action, he merely goes up to Victor and smiles. 

. . . I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks.

The monster obviously has no ill intentions toward Victor. As well, later on in the novel, the monster actively tries to get to know people and to somehow be what they might want him to be.

People scatter and scream at just the sight of the monster. The monster only ever wanted to have companions and to escape loneliness. He goes to great lengths to get people to like him, even attempting a convoluted plan to educate himself and then befriend a blind man. The entire plan fails and that starts the monster on his path to being a murderer. Even so, he continued to do good things for others despite having been scorned once more in his attempt to befriend a blind man. 

I rushed from my hiding-place; and, with extreme labour from the force of the current, saved her, and dragged her to shore. She was senseless; and I endeavoured by every means in my power to restore animation, when I was suddenly interrupted by the approach of a rustic, who was probably the person from whom she had playfully fled. On seeing me, he darted towards me, and tearing the girl from my arms, hastened towards the deeper parts of the wood. I followed speedily, I hardly knew why; but when the man saw me draw near, he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired. I sunk to the ground, and my injurer, with increased swiftness, escaped into the wood.

However, after this incident of being injured in return for saving a young girl, his heart hardened and he, "vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind." He never wanted to hate humankind and had always done everything he could to gain the friendship of humans. The monster was never driven to commit acts of violence or revenge before he had been so harshly scared, emotionally and physically, that his internal moral compass broke. 

Even after murdering Victor's younger brother, William, the monster does not want to outright kill Victor. The monster simply asks Victor to make him a companion so he will never be lonely and can happily live in the wilderness away from human settlements. 

The monster never wanted to kill others but was led to when faced with the hatred of everyone, including his creator, and the prospect of being alone forever. 

I concur with the below answer; the Frankenstein monster was not evil at inception or by nature but was nurtured into evil by the people he interacted with.

Victor was excited about his creation; however, as the creature was taking shape, Victor noticed that his physical features were not appealing. Victor was not willing to give up on the creature since he had invested time and effort in the creation process.

When the monster comes to life, Victor is utterly petrified, and he abandons his creation. The monster had the opportunity to harm Victor as he slept, but instead, he only seeks an audience with his creator. The monster shows no signs of violence.

The monster had no knowledge of the world and how it operated, and with no one to teach him, he learned it all through experience. For instance, the monster learned that he could enjoy the warmth provided by fire, but touching the glowing embers resulted in painful burns.

The monster experienced the fear of men after they saw him for the first time. He witnessed an elderly shepherd run for dear life after he saw him. The experiences left the monster perplexed because he did not understand why other people were scared of him. The monster was chased away from a village he stumbled upon. The men attacked him, but he managed to escape.

The monster learned the trait of kindness from cottagers after he observed them reserve food for the elderly during the harsh period of winter when food was scarce. The experience compelled the monster to stop taking food from their store.

"This trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption, but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots . . . "

After the monster learned how to read, he managed to read the books that he carried around in the pouch. He discovered some strange knowledge about human beings and how they interacted with each other. He also learned about parents and how they took care of their children, which made him wonder about his own upbringing.

Although the monster was exposed to some positive human traits, the bulk of his experiences came from the worst of human nature. The experiences forced him to distance himself from human beings who seemed eager to harm him whenever they met.

"How can I move thee? Will no entreaties cause thee to turn a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy goodness and compassion? Believe me, Frankenstein, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me."

The nature vs. nurture debate questions whether Frankenstein's monster was born evil, or if he learned to become evil because of his lack of "nurture".

I believe that the monster was born good and innocent.  After he was "born" and left to his own devices, the monster was found watching Victor sleep.  When Victor wakes, the monster smiles at him and reaches out his hand for him.  These are not the actions of a violent person.  The monster had the opportunity to kill or injure Victor as he slept, but he  only watched his creator lovingly.

In addition, when watching the Delacey family and realizing that taking their food was harming them, he stopped taking their food and began gathering fire wood to make their lives easier.  His first insticts were also to save the little girl who fell into the water, but to his surprise he was rewarded by being shot with a gun by the girl's father.  These are such instances which demonstrate that the monster's "nature" is quite good.

However, the creation, who was abandoned at "birth" was left to his own devices and was never nutured.  In order to be fully happy in life, everyone needs to be able to count on someone.  Unfortunately, the monster never had this opportunity.  He was abandoned by his own creator, beaten and chased away by villagers; he was never given the chance to fit in.  When he finally has the opportunity to be "loved", by the Delacey's, Felix beats him with a stick, Safie screams and runs away, then they leave the cottage forever.  The monster is then rewarded for saving a girl by being shot by her father.  It is at this point that the monster utters the words "If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear."

The "nurture" debate argues that the monster never had a chance in life.  If he became a monster who killed people, it is because he had no other choice.

The creature Victor creates is initially full of love and kindness. He wants nothing more than the acceptance and love of other human beings, such as his creator, Frankenstein. But Victor rejects him in horror, fleeing him. When the creature tries to approach people in a friendly way, they react with terror at his looks, thinking he is a monster. Even the kind De Lacey family rejects him, and after the creature saves a child from drowning, the child's caretaker shoots him in the arm for his pains.

Although nature has produced a creature with a good heart, nurture turns him to evil. The creature, constantly rejected and treated as horrible, even when he tries to do good, turns to evil out of loneliness, anger, and despair. He murders William to hurt Frankenstein the way he himself has been hurt. He continues to lash out in anger against Victor's friends and family because of how he has been treated.

Shelley posits that humans are born good, even humans as aberrant as the creature Victor creates. It is nurture—treating people cruelly and with rejection—that turns them to evil. As the creature says:

I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all.