Life Is A Gift In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is more than just a regular novel. It is a book that conveys a deep philosophical message. The novel moved me to my very soul. It turned out to be a book not about an encounter against a monster but a misfortune of a scientist, who reached the goal of his work and life and realized that breathless horror and disgust filled his heart but all of these is on the surface. The inmost philosophical thought is covered and hidden, but is very profound. The author tries to say that life is a gift. After this gift is given no one can take it away and it transforms the accountability of the creator. The novel makes the reader anxious with the question: “Is a human being able to take obligation to provide life?”

“Frankenstein’s”

” …She presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally, and looked upon Elizabeth as mine-mine to protect, love, and cherish…” – and from that instant Elizabeth became a life-toy for him, only his toy [p.35]. So one of the reasons of was the parent’s “love” connected with the incapability to give anything to their child except providing joys for him. There was nothing little Viktor could do. The other reason is having Elizabeth as his property. Could be that the “outright” that Viktor’s parent left in his head about the true things around him made him study too much and everything at the same time which later led him to the “wrong path”: “…My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned, not towards childish pursuits, but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately…” [p.37]. “…After days and nights of incredible work and exhaustion, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter… “[p.51] – Viktor finds a grown-up toy and creates a monster that is doomed to be lonely and never be loved by anybody. The creature that was doomed to suffer without even understanding

Each living being has the right to live and to be happy in this world – which is the simple philosophy of life. When the creature asks Victor to create somebody to love it gets heartless reply:” …Devil ... do you dare approach me? ... Be gone, vile insect! Or rather, stay that I may trample you to dust! ... Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! You reproach me with your creation; come on then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed” [p.68]. For him the life on this creature is nothing, just another caprice, just something used to want and does not need anymore. He, considering himself to be “God”, does not care about what the creature feels and how lonely it is. Whom to blame? Analysis shows that Victor is the victim of the mistakes his parents did, and the Creature is a victim of Victor’s ill perception of reality. The answer says to itself!

Life is a gift – and that is the key philosophy of the novel. If you give life to somebody as a parent or produce a life like Victor Frankenstein you have to know earlier what to do with it and be able to take full responsibility for giving the best to your creation. The creature was Victor’s toy and Victor was the doll of his parents. Everything occurred in a chain reaction. One good deed makes another good deed and vice versa – one evil generates