The Role Of Family Influence In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Raised by her father, William Godwin, Mary Shelley is taught the same values that her father preached during his time; some of which are seen in her novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, including the role of an individual with and without a community, but she focuses on the importance of family influence. In her novel, Mary Shelley claims that family plays an essential role in the development of what society considers to be the qualities of “being” human. The importance of family influence is seen through the development of several characters throughout the book including Victor Frankenstein and the Creature that he builds. Through the character of Victor Frankenstein, Shelley demonstrates how the rejection of family will only lead to one’s degeneration in society as Victor pursuits dangerous knowledge, outside the boundaries of …show more content…

After the death of Elizabeth’s biological mother, her father wrote a letter asking Victor’s father to “consider her as [his] own daughter, and educate her” (Shelley, 20). Elizabeth is accepted into the family without any hesitation because she is “affiliated by blood and sentiment” where she has the ideal childhood with Victor and learns the harmony and unity of family (Bentley, 332). Shelley sets up a perfect family that lacks “disunion and dispute” and provides endless love and care for not only Victor and his brothers but also Elizabeth, who Victor’s parents treated as one of their own. Despite his ideal childhood, Victor begins to explore into the world of science, specifically, natural science, at the young age of thirteen where his dreams and curiosity are “undisturbed by reality” to search for the philosopher’s stone and more importantly, the elixir of life (Shelley,

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