Parental Responsibility In Frankenstein Essay

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Themes of Parental Responsibility in Frankenstein

The horror and tragedy of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein has made it one of the classics, read again and again. It shares the story of Victor Frankenstein who, seeking the end to human suffering and death, inadvertently causes his own demise when he creates the lonely being known to the readers only as “the creature”. Throughout the book, Victor struggles not only with the creature, but with himself as he fails to take parental responsibility for his own creation and it ultimately destroys him. Mary Shelley’s theme that is portrayed throughout the novel is that if no one takes responsibility for their actions, then there is no way for them to fix their mistakes and there are consequences. …show more content…

He becomes disgusted with him immediately, as “the beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror... filled [his] heart” (42). Even though this creature was his work, almost like his child, he gives up on it before even giving him a chance. The creature later tries to show how unfair it was the Victor had “endowed [the creature] with perceptions and passions and then cast [him] abroad, an object for the scorn and horror of mankind” (119). This is the reason why the creature feels so alone, because Victor never loved him or tried to shield him from the cruelty of humanity. The creature becomes bitter with this rejection and kills Victor’s brother William in a fiery passion of rage, a passion that is “detrimental to [the creature], for [Victor] does not reflect that he is the cause of it’s excess” (43). The creature has even been endowed with some of Victor’s traits, as though Victor is his father. Victor, the parent of the creature, is responsible for giving the creature this passion, as well as the gift of life, yet he does not take responsibility for the creature or nurture it. Victor refuses to be held accountable for the mistakes that he made in creating, and then abandoning, the creature, and the consequence is the death of

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