Parenting In Frankenstein Essay

The role of parenting in a child's life is vitally important for the outcome of the child. The difference in a child who has a loving environment and a child that does not is incredibly drastic. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor is the prime example of an awful parent, as he does not give aid to the monster and lets the monster roam free to find it’s own path. He uses the monster's “ugliness” as a way to escape responsibility. Another example of poor parenting is the job of Alphonse and Caroline, Victor’s parents. They prearranged Victor's marriage from when he was just a child. Alphonse’s also had a very odd reaction to the death of Caroline. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explores poor parenting, through the absence of a loving environment.

Parenting is something in life that is usually considered a good thing. However that is not the case in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Victor tries to emulate God, in a way, by creating his own life form.

Much like God, Victor created a life form and immediately abandoned it. God leaves Adam and Eve, and Victor leaves the monster. These creature now have to find their own paths without any guidance. For Adam and Eve, that was eating the forbidden fruit and for the monster it was losing control and killing people. However, Victor attempts to justify his abandonment of the monster and his lack of responsibility for its actions by pointing to the monster’s horrid ugliness. “The ugliness affords him an escape from parental responsibilities; he can justify his immediate flight. After proving his godlike power to produce life, he is then able to immediately abandon it” (Claridge 81). After his mother died Victor’s main focus was to create life. He had no plans of taking care of his creation. The monster turning out to be hideous works in Victor’s favor of not wanting the responsibility of being a parent. When the monster is first created and Victor first sees it his reaction of calling the monster ugly and getting away from it set the mindset of the monster. The first thing that Victor, as a parent, does is neglect the monster. This abandonment stays with the monster throughout the novel and especially when William is killed. “‘Let me go,’

he cried, ‘monster! Ugly wretch!...You are an Ogre….Hideous monster!” (Shelley 122). William calling the monster ugly along with Victor’s reaction to the monster, that the monster remembers, causes William to be killed. Victors poor parenting inevitably caused the deaths of William, Henry, Justine, and Elizabeth. Perhaps if Victor wasn’t afraid and a coward the monster could have turned out to be something great. For example, the monster asks for a mate. The monster clearly wants to be happy and wants something good in its life. When the monster say, “‘I am malicious because I am miserable”’ (Shelley 124) it is clear that monster is not fond of what he has done and would like it to stop. At the same time, he is blaming Victor for what has happened. Victor caused the monster to become miserable by running out on him and calling him hideous. Victor is showing everyone exactly how to not parent. Can you truly expect a new creation with a mind that is a tabula rasa to act kindly, when the first thing he learns is that he is unwanted, ugly, and a mistake? It is nearly impossible for the monster to function in society without the necessary knowledge a parent figure must provide.
On the other hand, Victor is not all to blame, as he is just parenting the monster the only way he knows how.

And in this case, he learned the ignoring and poor parenting from his very own parents. Throughout Victor’s childhood, he was mostly ignored by his mother and father. Victor was extremely passionate and interested in science and his father cleary wanted that to not be a part of his life ‘“When the exuberant youth tries to discuss his reading with his father, Alphonse Frankenstein carelessly glaces at the title page and exclaims, ‘My dear Victor do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash’” (Claridge 79, Shelley 39). His father completely ignores his passion and love for science. The one thing that Victor really cared about was totally disregarded by his father. Victor was also an object of his parents love and not a participant in it. He was an only child until Elizabeth joins the family and he was receiving the least attention. Victor’s parents treated him as an object of love by setting up his marriage and not allowing him to find his own path to find that special someone. Also after the death of Caroline, Alphonse pushes Victor away and to The University of Ingolstadt. “His father insists that he depart for Ingolstadt soon after his mother’s death, away from the sympathy of his native country and into new, strange surroundings with no one to guide him” (Claridge 79) Alphonse is abandoning his son after an extremely tragic incident, which leads to Victor

mirroring these actions when realising the monster’s true ugliness. Victor is a lot like his father, in a sense that they both dislike responsibility. Victor uses the monster's ugliness as an escape route for not parenting and Alphonse uses Caroline’s death as an escape from parenting.
Dr. Frankenstein’s life is a complete guide of how to NOT parent a child. From his childhood to his very own creation of the monster. Both Victor and his parents are prime examples of horrific parents. They both abandoned something that they created and should have, regardless of the circumstances, taken care of. Being a coward must run in the Frankenstein family, because Victor, Alphonse, and Caroline are all cowards. They all have abandoned the one thing that should be most important to them. Although Caroline did not have too much of a decision she is still a coward and a bad parent because of her failure to teach Victor any necessary things for his life. Victor’s parents had also pre-arranged Victor’s marriage, which takes some excitement out of life. If you are going to be a parent soon or have thought about becoming one, I highly suggest that you read Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (AKA “The How NOT to Parent Guide”).