From the moment of his creation, the creature only encounters abandonment from those he considers important to him. Dr. Frankenstein, the equivalent of the creature’s father, immediately leaves the creature, abhorred by the sight of what he had made. Upon the realization that the creature has left his house, the relieved Dr. Frankenstein does not attempt to find him, instead trying his best not to think about it. At this point, the creature is essentially an infant, already set cast out alone in a world that he does not understand. Hoping to find a safe haven or someone who could understand and accept him, the creature comes across the kind DeLacey family. After months of watching and helping the DeLacey’s, the creature comes to view them as his surrogate family, even though they do not know he is …show more content…
When Felix attacks the creature and moves his family away from their house, he unintentionally abandons the creature, adding insult to the wound. Left with no one, the creature clings on to the idea of a companion, someone to keep him company and never leave him. However, Dr. Frankenstein destroys the creature’s companion when he was almost finished with making her. Abandoned by the only idea that gave him solace, the creature gives into societal beliefs that he is a monster, plotting his revenge. Associated with several negative effects, abandonment is an increasingly more prominent issue in society nowadays. During infancy, children need caregivers to teach and give them attention in order to learn kindness, empathy, and compassion properly. Without this attention, incomplete or aberrant relationships form. The creature is a prime example of this phenomenon, incapable of forming connections and unable to distinguish clearly between good and evil. By abandoning the creature in the beginning of the novel, Dr. Frankenstein begins the creature’s downhill
Rather, it is others who alienate it because of its grotesque appearance. The monster is quite literally ‘born’ into perpetual isolation beginning with Victor’s abandonment of it. He denies it domestic safety when he flees to his bedchamber. Victor disregards the monster’s utterance of “inarticulate sounds while a grin wrinkled his cheeks,” then escapes its outstretched hand “seemingly to detain [him]” [Shelley 49]. Examining the monster’s body language as though an impressionable infant, its actions can be read as a child-like plea for its father though the absence of speech not yet learned. Instead, its unattractive appearance causes Victor to run, leaving the creature alone with no information about himself or his surroundings. Therefore, Victor’s abandonment is a crucial justification of the monster’s negative experiences with society and nature and actions in desiring community. The monster’s alienation from family is the missing first school of human nature, and the first lesson where he learns he does not belong. The creature leaves into the wilderness to learn about the world and himself on it own, only to understand his interactions are
The boy only wanted attention from his father. The greatest depiction of Frankenstein’s gluttonous, self-indulgent negligence is that of his child’s first moments of life. It takes but a night to steer his creature to the path of destructive apathy. Frankenstein has no care for those around him, and should never have been given the secret to life, considering his lack of interest in family and his obvious disregard for the laws of nature, creating life; and of man, withholding information of a dangerous being. Victor abuses his son with words and neglect and then wonders why his creature acts out harmfully towards others.
In a world full of novelty, guidance is essential to whether a being’s character progresses positively or negatively in society. Parents have a fundamental role in the development of their children. A parent’s devotion or negligence towards their child will foster a feeling of trust or mistrust in the latter. This feeling of mistrust due to the lack of guidance from a parental figure is represented in the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his creation in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The creature created by Frankenstein was shown hatred and disgust from the very beginning, which led to its indignant feelings toward his creator and his kind.
The creature displays his hatred toward Frankenstein for leaving him immediately and not providing guidance and protection in this harsh, new world by murdering his family and friends. While seeking his creator, the creature first murders Victor Frankenstein’s youngest brother William and exclaims, “I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him” (Shelley 144). The creature wishes for Victor Frankenstein to suffer taking his own companions away, forcing him to be miserable as well by destroying his personal relationships with others by murdering loved ones. Through the rejection of the creature because of his physical appearance, he learns what is accepted as well as how you can treat another being as he succumbs to his anger and proceeds with his crimes. The creature tells Frankenstein, “your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish your happiness forever.
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, has captured people’s attention since it was first written. People often wonder how much of Mary Shelley’s life is documented in her novel. From the theme of parental abandonment, to the theme of life and death in the novel, literary scholars have been able to find similarities between Frankenstein and Shelley’s life. The Journal of Religion and Health, the Journal of Analytical Psychology, and the Modern Psychoanalysis discuss the different connections between Shelley’s life and Frankenstein. Badalamenti, the author of “ Why did Mary Shelley Write Frankenstein?” in the Journal of Religion and Health, primarily discusses the connection between Victor
The creature who has been leading a solitary existence by observing the Delacey family, exclaims “The more I saw of them, the greater my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures” (Shelley 112). Being isolated from most of society, the creature’s only contact with mankind is through observing the Delaceys. Unlike any base monster, the creature has “yearning” that originates in his heart. Because the creature relates with the Delaceys as “amiable creatures” his desire for companionship with them is brought forth, further distinguishing him as distinctly human. Miserable and lonely, the creature desires to also “claim their protection and kindness” which demonstrates how the creature desires even more than just mere companionship but also to be loved. Most importantly, the creature desires acceptance into their family as one of their own. Although he observed the family, the creature took a radical and somewhat desperate choice to abduct Victor’s younger brother: “If I could therefore seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate”. (Shelley 121). Such extremes show to what lengths the creature was willing to go to gain companionship and acceptance. Without companionship, the creature cannot survive in happiness, but he yearns for it and cannot do without it. Once again, the human need for companionship comes to the forefront of the creature’s purpose and endeavors and he is not fulfilled without it. Far from being an emotionless, brutish monster, the creature need for a friend aligns it to mankind’s basic
He never had the choice if his creator was going to abandon him because of his outward ugliness. Paula R. Feldman recognizes this forced isolation, saying, “Frankenstein is accepted by society but chooses isolation, his Creature is an outcast but yearns for companionship… formed only by the cruelty and neglect of society” (Feldman 69). The creature is an outlier of society, but never by choice, and, unlike his creator, who chooses to separate himself from everything in his life, the monster did not have the opportunity to experience life before being forced into solitude. The creature is often is “confined within a state of lonely and insuperable incommunicability” (Schmid 19). The creature wants nothing more than to be accepted by society, and does not receive the affection and relationships that a child should be provided with. He lost the connection with his father right from creation, but never could truly understand why he was abandoned. The creature realizes he will never be accepted by mankind, and wants Victor to make him a companion. He swears revenge on Victor, and displays his disdain for his forced isolation by killing anyone who was close to Victor, including Elizabeth. The acts of violence committed by the monster are a direct effect of having no true relationships, considering that if he had these, he would better understand human interaction, and would not have acted out against Victor in
In Volume 2 of Frankenstein, the Creature’s repeated experiences of rejection unleash the “monster” in him and lead to the destruction of the De Laceys cottage. Through the portrayal of the “monster” inside the Creature, Shelley argues that loneliness caused by lack of human relationships will drive an individual to do harmful actions. Throughout volume 2, the Creature had been secretly living alongside the De Lacey family. He grew attached to them the more he spied. The creature finally decides to reveal himself to the De Laceys. As he does that, the family runs away in fear. After all that happens the creature says “My protectors had departed and had broken the only link that held me to the world. For the first time, the feeling of revenge
Frankenstein does not want anyone to think that he is anything less than perfect, so he decides the best action is to leave the creature completely; however, this has some negative effects, especially to the creature. Frankenstein leaving the creature makes the creature develop Abandoned Child Syndrome. According to the author of “Understanding the Physical and Psychological Impacts of Abandonment to a Child,” Abandoned Child Syndrome is “a type of psychological condition on children that stems from either an abusive household or loss (or absence) of one of both parents.” It can be said that Frankenstein is the father of the creature since he made the creature, so since one of the creature’s parents left, the creature had to learn the way that the world works on his own. Claudia Black, author of the article “Understanding the Pain of Abandonment,” says that children depend on their parents to provide a safe environment for children to grow, and that when the parents do not provide that environment for their children, the children can grow up believing that the world is an unsafe place, that people can not be trusted, and that they do not deserve approval and comfort. The creature exhibits all of these symptoms and emotions. After the creature saves a little girl from drowning, he is attacked by her father and wounded. “This was the reward for my benevolence! [...] Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelley 135). After being betrayed multiple times by humanity and the people that he felt like he was close to, the creature is tired of being deserted and attacked for just being himself, so he decides not to trust humanity anymore and to do things that make him succeed, even if those actions hurt the people around him. The creature was never taught how to deal with these emotions or how to deal with
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Creature executes extreme and irreversible acts due to his isolation from society. Although the Creature displays kindness, his isolation drives him to act inhumanely. The Creature, pushed away from his creator because he is an abomination, and indicates his isolation as the only one of his species. As the Creature gets more comfortable with the De Lacey ’s, he approaches the old man as his children are gone but before he can explain himself, the children come home and see the Creature, “Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me?
Just like a blasted tree, the creature was struck by “lightning”, which figuratively gives him life. The lightning that Victor uses to bring the creature to life in turn makes the creature so hideous that even Victor cannot love him. In Victor Frankenstein’s lab coat, the creature finds some of Frankenstein’s notes. These letters lead the creature to say, “Cursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred” (Shelley 91). Not only does the creature realize that he is ugly and scared like a blasted tree, but he also realizes here that he no longer has any family. Just like a blasted tree, the creature now feels like he has been obliterated; he also sees himself as unwanted and ugly. The creature is missing his parent(s) to help him grow efficiently and stable. For a tree, the parents are its roots since they are what keep the tree stable ...
The creature is isolated from all of society but unlike most people he was not raised by a parent or anyone who had parental influence on him. This made it difficult for him to understand why people were afraid of him and left him alone. Thus he didn’t know right from wrong or how to act properly. Children without a lot of parental interaction in their life are more likely to commit crimes. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein states that he was, "Unable to endure the aspect of the being I created, I rushed out of the room and continued along time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep"(Shelley 49). Victor brings life into a being that he work so long to make then he abandons him. According to Lee Zimmerman the monster is “A classic case of a battering parent who produces a battered child who in turn becomes a battering parent: the creature's first murder victim … is a small child whom he wishes to adopt"(Zimmerman). The monster not having parents would have had to rely on Victor to teach him about the world. Victor proved to be a horrible parent when he abandoned his creature with...
age; Frankenstein is left without his mother after her death, the creature is rejected by Frankenstein's abandonment.
Throughout Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein pursues, with a passion lacking in other aspects of his life, his individual quest for knowledge and glory. He accepts the friendships and affections given him without reciprocating. The "creature," on the other hand, seems willing to return affections, bringing wood and clearing snow for the DeLaceys and desiring the love of others, but is unable to form human attachments. Neither the creature nor Victor fully understands the complex relationships between people and the expectations and responsibilities that accompany any relationship. The two "monsters" in this book, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, are the only characters without strong family ties; the creature because Frankenstein runs from him, and Victor because he runs from his family.
In the novel Frankenstein, the monster is deserving of empathy because as a young child he did not have the guidance nor care from a parent or guardian like most people do. He was brought into the world and then cruelly rejected by the ...