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In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, she uses the sense of abandonment to convey the relationship between a parent and child. Both Victor and the creature are both abandoned in some way that influences their actions and how they behave in life. Throughout the novel, Victor and the creature choose to follow a path that endangers many innocent people, and by doing so lose their sense of identity. Shelley uses the characters of the victims and the creature to reveal
how a parental figure can influence day to day life and how it can alter life changing decisions.
The lack parental figures throughout the novel allows the freedom to behave selfishly and vainly. During Victor’s life his parents thought of him more as an object than as their
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son and because of this he lacked the knowledge of affection. Caroline and Alphonse were so invested in there love that they neglected Victor. It is proven that the “maternal rejection of a newborn infant,” would corrupt the infant later on in life (Johnson). When they had the time to give him their attention they idolized him rather than give him their love and care. While he is trying to get the attentions of his parents he notices that he is more a “object of their love,” than their actual child (Claridge). Due to the neglect from his parents at an early age Victor had to “receive the lessons of patience, of charity, and self-control”(Shelley 19). His father Alphonse cared more about his mother than him, making it seem like Caroline his mother was the child. He would tend to her every need and she would cherish that someone was finally taking care of her no matter who it was. However, they noticed that Victor’s lack of companionship was starting to take a toll of their relationship, therefore Caroline (gave) Victor a female object aka elizabeth saying that she was a “pretty present” (Shelley 21). By presenting Elizabeth as an object made Victor believe that she was his for the rest of his life. This did not give her an option of how she wanted to live out her life or who she could chose to love. She was his plaything and he idolized her because she was beautiful. Like his parents she also idolized him which made his ego rise, but it never gave him a real sense of reality. Growing up Victor was taught that beauty was everything and that anything that was beautiful was perfection.
He choose only what he thought was beautiful for his creation, and when his expectation did not match with reality he was shocked and horrified. Victor made sure that each body part and feature was “beautiful,” and that each of his “limbs were in proportion,” so that it would live up to his expectations of perfection (Shelley 43). His expectations growing up always became his reality, because everything he ever wanted was given to him and due to this he was always idolized. He had the expectation that the Creature would be the “beauty of the dream,” but it vanished, and he was then in “horror and disgust”(Shelley 43). The reality that he saw made him run in horror that he started to hallucinate and becomes sick. After abandoning the creature victor becomes ill, and when victor hears of his brothers mysterious murder he comes home. Once arriving home he assumes that the creature has killed his brother and that justine was innocent, but cannot bring himself to help the wrongly accused. He believes that she is innocent, but is to afraid that it would ruin his reputation and that the town would call him crazy. Victor says that he has no …show more content…
“circumstantial evidence could be brought forward strong enough to convict her,“ but the fact that he could reveal the creature could help prove her innocence (Shelley 73). Victor could be said to be the “giver of both creation and destruction,” because much like Prometheus he threw the Creature out into the world without teaching him about life (Johnson). This caused the Creature to bring about destruction on to William, but also put blame on to Justine because he was afraid she would reject him. This was the start of his corrupt desire for vengeance against victor at any cost. Throughout Victor’s childhood he never had the parental figure to teach him about the realities and hardships of life. When it became time to father his creation he lacked the ability and skill sets to parent the creature and instead abandoned and rejected him. The creature grew up not knowing why he had been rejected and depended on observing the De Lacey family to acquire basic life skills. The Creature never knew how to read, write, or even speak, but watching the De Laceys he got to learn all those skills indirectly. He thought that he to should “[endeavour] to learn their language,” so that later on he would be able to interact with others (shelley 105). He soon was able to understand, speak, read, and write in a short amount of time just by watching the De Lacey family. By observing the family the Creature gained the knowledge of the world he did not know, but also made him crave human interaction. Wanting love and affection from others was something the Creature strived to achieve. He never had anyone to love and care for him so when he saw the De Lacey family he fought to win their affection. He did not understand why he did not have a father like Mr. Delacey that would “‘doated on the smiles of the infant, and the lively sallies of the older child,” and wanted to know why no one treated him the way Mr. Delacey treated him children with so much love (Leaders). He wanted to learn how to speak he wanted to make sure it was absolutely perfect so that he may finally interact with the De Lacey’s. Mr. De Lacey was blind so he “ responds compassionately to Frankenstein's child because he is blind and therefore not prejudiced by appearances,” instead of rejecting him for his external appearances (Claridge). His family is not as accepting as their father. The children were horrified and “dashed [him] to the ground and struck [him] violently with a stick”(Shelley 123). The way the children reacted compared to their father shows the human kind judges more by appearance then by personality. After being rejected by victor and the De Lacey family he sets out for revenge against his creator, however, on his search he runs into William and wishes to sculpt his own image into the child. The Creature wants to have someone to finally accept him and when he sees William he has hope, but instead he also rejects him. William screams “'monster! Ugly wretch! You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces. You are an ogre. Let me go, or I will tell my papa,'” this breaks the creatures heart (Shelley 132). The way William behaves towards the Creature shows how corrupt he is, but also shows how he has been raised. This is the Creature’s point of no return, because no matter how hard he tries people always reject him that he can not take it anymore. After so many innocents have died victor must decide on what to do with the creature, and whether or not the world would accept him after his horrendous creation.
The creature now realizes that he will continue to be rejected for his outer appearance, so he gives Victor an ultimatum, but ultimately he just wants victor's to accept and love him. The Creature knows that no matter how hard he tries Victor will not love and accept him like he wants, but he continues to have hope. Knowing this he asks Victor to create him a companion where they can go off and promised that he and his companion would not disturb anyone. Victor listens to his argument and questions himself, “‘ did I not as his maker owe him all the portion of happiness,’” and reluctantly agrees to this compromise (Shelley 133). Victor felt that he owed him some sort of happiness because he abandoned him when he was born and knew no sense of love or care. After Victor creates the Creatures companion he realizes what a mistake he made and destroys her, because he is afraid what an impact the both of them would make on the world. All the Creature wanted was a companion, because without one he would be alone all of his life and “man can live only through communion with others”(Claridge). The creature had to live in isolation because no one would accept him and with a companion he would be able to finally have human interact and happiness. Once the Creature realizes what happens he tells Victor that, “‘ I shall be
with you on your wedding-night,’" which makes Victor assume that he is going to kill him and he did consider that Elizabeth might be harmed (Shelley 155). Soon after the Creature kills Henry and he released he finally admits that “‘[he] murdered her. William, Justine, and Henry—they all died by [his] hands," and when his father hears his confession he believes he is crazy (Shelley 172). This makes makes believe they all will believe that he is crazy if they hear about the Creature. After the death of so many of his loved ones Victor realizes that the only way to stop these deaths is to destroy the Creature. Victor reaches his climax once Elizabeth is killed and finally realizes that the creature must be stopped, so he sets off on a voyage to destroy him. Victor realize that he never meant to create the “‘miserable daemon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction,’” and because of this his love ones were harmed (Shelley 186). He went around the world chasing the creature but could never come close to destroying him. Once Walton meets Victor he is fascinated with him. Unlike victor he learns from his mistakes, but also the mistakes victor makes along his journey. Walton becomes fascinated with Victor’s story about the Creature, and vows to take what he has learned and head back home with his crew. Walton learns from Victor’s mistakes and instead of pushing forward in uncharted territory he asks “Do you then really return?” (Shelley 203). When his crew responds with “Yes!” he grudgingly heads home even though in his heart he wishes to continue his journey for fame and glory (Shelley 203). By listening to his crew Walton reaches his climax, and learns from the mistakes he has made along the way. It could be said that Walton becomes the hero Victor was not because he was not selfish and listened to his crew and returned home. Shelley’s use of characters and victims in the novel reveal how the lack of parental figures can greatly affect day to day life. It is in human nature to crave social acceptance and love from people around them. The rejection the creature faces from Victor at the beginning of his life sets the tone for how he will respond to his lack of identity in the future. Likewise, Victor’s childhood handicapped him from experiencing the necessary footholds of life to develop into a strong adult. Unlike Victor Walton listens intently to the story Victor tells, and uses this to determine his new voyage in life.
Victor animated the creature from dead body parts, effecting his creature’s appearance when he came alive. He couldn’t even look at his creation, and thought that it was malodorous, without thinking how unwanted and helpless the creature feels. With little hope for the creature because of his unappealing appearance, Victor does not bothering to wait and see if he has a good interior or not. As a result of Victor not taking responsibility, the monster decides to take revenge. The monster is repeatedly denied love and deals with the loneliness the only way that he can, revenge, killing Victor’s loved ones making him lonely just like
In Shelley?s Frankenstein, Victor brings a monster to life, only to abandon it out of fear and horror. ? gThe beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart? (Shelley, 35). The reader must question the ethics of Victor. After all, he did bring this creature upon himself.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
Victor had created the creature with the vision from his dreams of a strong, tall perfect being with no flaws. His years of study with the unnatural and science had come to this final conclusion and masterful idea that he was determined to finish. To his surprise, he had created the opposite, “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (Shelley 35) Victor is saddened by what he thinks of as a failure. He leaves his own apartment to go sleep in his court yard outside following his creation. He begins to isolate himself from the creature because of his fear of the creature’s outward appearance. He loses all hope for the creature without even learning anything about him. The fact that Shelley begins to refer to the being that Victor created as a “creature” shows Victor’s ignorance and lack of acceptance. It is Victor’s prejudice that blinds him of the creature’s true potential due to the unwanted preconception that follows the creature as he finds meaning in
Shelley’s mother died eleven days after Mary was born ( Britton 4). Like Mary Shelley, the monster was born motherless, and this deeply affected him. The monster proclaimed, “no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses” (Shelley 86). Just as the monster longed for a family connection, so did Shelley. Barbara D’amato wrote, “The unconscious conflicts and psychic experiences of loss and of longing for connection are captured and revealed in the orphaned character of Mary Shelley’s fictional story, Frankenstein (118). Shelley and the monster also share the struggle of feeling abandoned and hated by their fathers. Shelley’s father abandoned her twice during her life. The first time was when Shelley was a young child. Shelley believed that her stepmother was interfering with Shelley’s and her father’s relationship, and this jealousy caused conflict between the family members. Shelley’s father later sent her to live somewhere else. When Shelley was older, her father disapproved of her decision to elope with Percy Shelley which resulted in him disowning Mary. This abandonment left Shelley with the feeling that there was something terribly wrong with her (D’Amato 126). The monster was also abandoned by Frankenstein, or the man that can be considered his father. The monster explained to Frankenstein why he had become the violent being that he was, when he told Victor, “Believe me Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?” (Shelley
A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques. Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love. To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”. Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility. Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness. Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved. Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is a thought provoking story to read because the subject matter speaks to me. Dark, supernatural and gothic is exactly the style of reading I would choose in my own reading choices. It was only one step from my Victorian Vampire reading to Frankenstein therefore my choice to read the novel was almost a given to me. Several areas that I as a human can relate to are the human nature of each character, the unrelenting revenge the monster feels, and betrayal in the pursuit of self-preservation Victor bestows on his monster, his family, and mankind. The story speaks of betrayal, a strong an intense emotion that hurt the monster to the core so deeply he commits unspeakable acts. Frankenstein outlines Victor’s betrayal of his son, the monster. Victor literally created a child, a rebirth of flesh in his own design but he felt no love or sense of responsibility for the monsters well-being. This betrayal of the preverbal parent over their “child” is felt greatly by the monster and Frankenstein suffers at his own cost, unwilling and incapable to see he was his own destructor. A notable act of betrayal is when Victor can but does not save Justine from death. His own brother was dead and he was
This new side arouse from desperation and rejection, he was scared, and he could not stand the loneliness. Victor’s did not create a monster. Victor changed the character of the creature, the creature showed more humanity than his creator and now he act as though he looks, like a
...s creation as a way of revenge and payback for all the distress he brought to the creature. The creature, beginning as the most innocent, is alienated by his creator and every individual who witnesses his presence. Finally, Victor isolates himself from his beloved ones in order to fulfill his ambitions. All these misfortunes are caused by the lack of moral decision making. Unfortunately, these decisions ruined the life of many people involved in Victor’s life. All these events are the proof of what people’s actions can result into when isolation is a major theme in one’s life.
Not taking his own advice, Victor abandoned the creature to suffer life for himself. After months of looking for Victor, the creature in need of companionship says ”I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be slain at, and kicked, and trampled on. ”(Shelley 165) He journeyed on his own looking for companionship, no one liked him and to top it off reading Victor’s journal just made him feel even as bad as before. So he then looks for Victor and asks if he can create another
Victor’s initial isolation as a child foreshadows the motif of detachment that occurs throughout the novel. As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that combined with insufficient parenting Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most
To say that people want to be loved is an understatement. Humans crave and thrive off the feeling of being somebody’s everything. How can one survive if they are feeling completely and utterly alone? Simple answer, they can’t. From the moment an infant is born the desire to receive attention is instilled in their minds. Growing up without a role model to look up to who also provides wisdom and discipline can leave someone damaged and broken, seeking affection. Outcomes from abandonment issues vary from attachment to low self-esteem and anxiety. Throughout the novel the Creature has been on an emotional roller coaster experiencing a world wind of thoughts and feelings. Victor’s actions wounded the Creature resulting in no one to nurture him.
After Victor destroys his work on the female monster meant to ease the monster's solitude, the monster is overcome with suffering and sadness. These feelings affected his state of mind and caused him to do wrong things. He did not deserve to see his one and only mate be destroyed.
As previously mentioned, Victor’s childhood was full of parental support, and even included his parents “adopting” another child into their home (Shelley 35). The creature’s “parent” Victor, abandons him, leaves him to fend for himself, which results in the creature feeling angry toward Victor. The creature had a resentful, distant relationship with his creator, while Victor’s upbringing could not have been more different. Shelley uses the story of Victor’s childhood; the adoption of Elizabeth, the stories of the De Lacey children to compare to the creature and the “upbringing” Victor is denying him. The opposition in parenthood is displayed between Victor and the creature are displayed by the way Shelley writes the creature’s last quotes after Victor’s death “Once I had falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities I was capable of unfolding” (Shelley 239). The opposition lies in the monumental difference in parenting between Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein, and Victor Frankenstein. Perhaps if the creature had been cared for more adequately, the story would’ve ended much
Many people know that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was part of a family of famed Romantic era writers. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was one of the first leaders of the feminist movement, her father, William Godwin, was a famous social philosopher, and her husband, Percy Shelley, was one of the leading Romantic poets of the time ("Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Biography."). What most people do not know, however, is that Mary Shelley dealt with issues of abandonment her whole life and fear of giving birth (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). When she wrote Frankenstein, she revealed her hidden fears and desires through the story of Victor Frankenstein’s creation, putting him symbolically in her place (Murfin, Ross. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Frankenstein.”). Her purpose, though possibly unconsciously, in writing the novel was to resolve both her feelings of abandonment by her parents, and fears of her own childbirth.