Victor's Obsession To Create A Family In Frankenstein

It’s human nature to reproduce, to create more life, and grow the population. But it is also human nature to not know creations limits whether it be a monster or a family. Mary Shelley’s struggles to create her own unified, idealized family are reflected by her character Victor, in her novel Frankenstein, through Victor’s obsession to create life, and his personal struggle with the outcomes of his creation. The first step of both Victor and Mary’s pain are their own obsessions.

Obsessions control every fiber of one's being, to the point where a person becomes intoxicated with what they were obsessed with. In this particular case the readers sees Mary Shelley’s obsession to create a family through her character Victors own obsession of creating life, “Every night I was oppressed

by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime. Sometimes I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become; the energy of my purpose alone sustained me: my labours would soon end, and I believed that exercise and amusement would then drive away incipient disease; and I promised myself both of these when my creation should be complete” (Shelley 597-600).

Mary Shelley always had an excessive need to create a family unit, which was derived from her childhood broken home. Her obsession turned unhealthy when she began to try to start a family by any means necessary even if that meant destroying one. Mary entered into a relationship with Percy Shelley, a married man and the fact that Percy was married rattled around in her brain and drove her insane. This bit of insanity was poured into her novel Frankenstein and seen through Victor’s decision to put off the joys of creation such as amusement, exercise, and glory, and to do so in secrecy. So that he would just have the result. Just as Mary Shelley put off the joys of a pure relationship by entering in a relationship with a married man in secrecy, just to have the result a child, and a family. But as soon as Mary Shelley got what she wanted, a husband to create a family with, she fled and Victor did the same, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had

created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelley 612-613). After Percy left his wife to marry Mary Shelley, they ran off together leaving Percy’s pregnant wife behind, because they knew that there relationship would be seen as disgusting, and they were not willing to defend it. Shelley put this feelings into Victor, making him unable to deal with his creation he flees, which only makes his feelings worse. Victor's immediate response was to run away from his problem instead of facing them, simply because his problem appeared to be ugly, and because he knew that how he made his creation was wrong, just as Mary Shelley felt. She knew that she got her husband the wrong way, so she ran away from the problem, the people that would know what she did. But running away from problems only makes them much worse and those who run from their problems, slaves to their problems.

As the book progresses Victor tries to run away from his creation, and by doing so, he becomes a slave to it. Victor spends months locked alone in his apartment, and finally completes his experiment, “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. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelley 611-612). Victor's first response is to run away from his problems, for what once looked beautiful was now seen as ugly, and so he runs away from it hoping it will just go away. Much like Mary Shelley’s own relationship with Percy, before they were married Percy seemed loving, attentive, and perfect, but as soon as they were married she saw the true monster that he was. A monster that manipulates her feelings, and constantly encouraged her to cheat, while he cheated on her. Again Shelley put up with this in an effort to create a family, by any means possible. After Victor flees from his creation he starts to fear the evils that the monster would do, and places the blame on himself for creating it, “I had been the author of unalterable evils, and I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness. I had an obscure feeling that all was not over and that he would still commit some signal crime, which by its enormity should almost efface the recollection of the past” (Shelley 1112-1115). During Mary Shelley’s marriage to Percy, many believed that Mary felt guilty for the sins of her relationship. She felt guilty that she was entering into an open marriage when all she wanted was a unified family unit, which is seen in Frankenstein through Victors own guilt about the monster he created (a parrell of what Mary saw her relationship as, a monster). Both Mary and Shelley want to achieve fame and glory through their written work, but both live in fear that their “monsters” will commit some crime that will expose their own pasts and destroy their careers. With these new found fears both Mary and Victor decide to fight back against their own monsters to try to achieve freedom for themselves and their futures.
A person can only live in fear for so long before they finally muster the courage to fight their oppressor, by any means necessary. After Victor receives a letter from his beloved Elizabeth he decides that he will no longer live in fear, “Well, be it so; a deadly struggle would then assuredly take place, in which if he were victorious I should be at peace and his power over me be at an end. If he were vanquished, I should be a free man” (Shelley 2529). Victor’s decision to kill the monster, and end the pain and suffering is what Mary Shelley wanted to do. Mary made the decision to leave Percy, but in reality she never mustered enough strength to do so, so she created a fictional novel to do so and to reflect the horrendous outcomes that ending the relationship would create. But a similar situation may have a occured in reality, that Mary Shelley read a letter from one of her lovers, and she realized how it felt to feel loved, so she decided to leave, but told no one. Victor tired of living in fear and in pain decides to kill the monster after he finds his beloved Elizabeth dead, “I rushed towards the window, and drawing a pistol from my bosom, fired; but he eluded me, leaped from his station, and running with the swiftness of lightning, plunged into the lake” (Shelley 2636-2638). Victor is tired of the fear and decides to kill the monster, and with it all of his own terrible dark secrets, this was the mindset of Mary Shelley. Mary was tired of Percy controlling her personal works, tired of him cheating on her constantly, and tired of the pain and shame that came with it. So she decided to kill Percy, but she was not successful, and she was kept locked in the snares of an abusive relationship, and eventually her secrets emerged exposing her for her sins.
The novel Frankenstein is simply a documentation of Mary’s personal life disguised as a fictional story, because it was published before all of her secrets came out while she was in her relationship with Percy. Through the novel the reader sees how Mary is obsessed with creating a family unit, something that is beautiful and pure. But this obsession turns against her when she puts her own needs second to whoever she enters a relationship with, believing that after she creates a family she will be happy. After she creates the family she immediately sees the monster she created by creating a family through, and tries to simply run away from her problems by moving to France with Percy. But even after she runs away she lives in constant fear that her sins would be exposed and ruin her chances of having a carrerior, but by running and living in fear she becomes a slave to Percy. Percy forced Mary to flirt with other men for his own personal enjoyment, even though she feels extremely guilty about it. So Mary decided to kill Percy and become free from her oppressor, alas she is never strong to kill Percy, or end the relationship, so she lives in a life of pain and suffering. Making the novel truly one of the scariest horror novels to ever exist, because it is a coded cry for help from a women trapped in an abusive relationship and contanly in psychological terror and torment.