Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (1818) delves into the important role parent’s have on a child’s development, this is especially notable when we take a closer look at Victor Frankenstein’s relationship with his animated and conscious creation. Victor’s rejection of the monster at inception is what ultimately leads the creature down a path of isolation and despair. Minutes after the creature is brought into the world it is thrown into the world defenseless and unaware of anything going on around him. The creature states “‘It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively, finding myself so desolate.” pg 116 as he tries to recollect the emotions he went through after being neglected by his …show more content…
I feel as though Shelly chose to have Victor neglect the creature to deprive the creature from any feeling of comfort a child can find in a parent figure when it most desperately needs them, the period of time shorty after birth. This is significant because to any newborn the touch of their parents is one of the first things they familiarize themselves with very early on. The touch of a parent gives the child a sense of security and safety. According to well renowned child psychoanalyst Selma Fraiberg the touch of a parent makes the child feel as though “they can count on these powerful beings to relieve tension and alleviate fears. And we know that the child’s later ability to tolerate tension and actively deal with anxiety situations will be determined in good part by the experiences of early years.” Some would disagree with this and say that the creature managed to survive on its own without the presence of a parental figure in order for me to address this counterargument I’d like to refer …show more content…
after being neglected multiple times the creature went on to develop a negative world view. In chapter 16 we see the creature come across a child that begins to weep as soon as it lays eyes on the creature. In order to keep the child quiet and in the heat of the moment the monster chooses to kill it. While recalling his account of the circumstances that lead to young William’s death the creature remembers feeling a sense of “hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, ‘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.’” The creature’s reaction after committing murder is not one of someone full of compassion for others. This, however, isn’t the first time we see the creature commit murder. After not complying to the creature’s request Victor loses his beloved Elizabeth. Victor recalls this moment when he states “I escaped from them to the room where lay the body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy.” The monster’s murderous behavior shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone because according to prolific child psychoanalyst Selma Fraiberg “the unnurtured, unloved child grows into the aberrant adult -- the criminal who seeks to negate his overwhelming sense of nothingness by inflicting pain on others -- a scream that "I exist, I am."” The creator's
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.
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
Victor, out of horror of what he had created leaves the monster in isolation. The monster describes what it was like, “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate… I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept,” (Shelley 87). At this point the monster is just an innocent child, who in his first hours has faced abandonment and such strong emotions. However, he is pure, like most babies. While he looks like a monstrosity he shows himself to be anything but. His first encounters with humans are all very negative. A man runs away screaming just at the sight of him. Villagers pelted him with rocks and chased him away. This makes him very fearful of humans. However, when he comes across the De Lacey family in their little cottage he sees how peaceful they are and he regains some hope. “What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people; and I longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching, and endeavoring to discover the motives which influenced their actions,” (Shelley 93). He is curious little
...ions toward one another. However, Frankenstein’s uncaring, negligent-parent approach to his creation who emotionally resembles a lost child, allows Shelley to establish the conflict between scientific discovery and moral consequence, as well as the greater conflict between right and wrong. She allows the audience to question who the true villain is in the story, and allow each reader to determine for themselves if the “parent” Frankenstein or the “childlike” monster is truly to blame for all the evil deeds that occur. Today, our society should view Frankenstein as a cautionary tale of the possibilities and consequences of scientific discovery mixed with greed.
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, many similarities can be seen between the creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein. While Victor and the creature are similar, there are a few binary oppositions throughout the book that make them different. The binary oppositions in the novel serve as thematic contrast; and some of the most illustrative oppositions between the two characters are on the focus of family, parenthood, isolation and association with others.
It is just a victim. Similar to Victor, he is the victim of the mistakes his parents did, and the creature is a victim of Victor’s ill perception of reality. In the other word, it is like an iceberg that we can only see the top, but the biggest part of it stays under the water. The real reason of this accident is the indifference of people and the nature to judge everything basing on the appearance without even trying to look inside. Nevertheless, the blindness of people blinds the mistakes and pain of other people, even to love. Furthermore, what seems terrifying may turn out to be just the pain of someone’s heart, just like the pain of the creature that was thought to be a monster and not being one from the begging became one at the
A child's first steps are taken in the home. These experiences shape their existence for the rest of their lives. Jean Hall says that “The family may help the child grow up...loving...or a tyrant”. This fact holds ground in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as Victor and Elizabeth's childhood and the Creatures “childhood” are vastly different, which push them down very unlike paths. These differences are made so to connect the book to Mary Shelley's overall messages she wants to articulate about: Society's emphasis on wealth and appearance, and Nature vs Nurture.
Victor’s nature outweighs the nurturing debate. Victor quotes that his father “devoted himself to the education of his children” since the beginning of his childhood. He mentions how “no creature could have more tender parents than his own. The essence of this quote is that within Victor’s environment he grew up being privileged with a dad who dedicated his life to him. But despite his nurture environment, Victor falls for his selfish needs and innate
While isolated in the forest, the creature has no idea what to do with his life and has nothing to guide him like a parent would. However, the creature soon felt an amazing “sensation of pleasure… and beheld a radiant form rise from the trees…” which “enlightened [his] path…”(Lines 39-43). That amazing sensation he felt was the sun which symbolizes a parent who would guide him on through life. Parents usually enlighten the paths of their children and the same would go for the sun to the creature. During the night, the creature “could distinguish… the bright moon… with pleasure.”(Lines 51-52). The moon can also be a symbol for a parent to the creature because of its similarities to the sun and it brightens up the creature’s world with familiarity and the sensation of pleasure, like a parent would to their child. The creature was also “delighted when [he] first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted [his] ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from [his] eyes.”(Lines 58-61). Through the use of imagery, Mary Shelley characterizes the creature as a young baby experiencing the wonders of nature and learning new facts about the
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.
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.
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 distinguished of the republic,”(Shelley 17), Victor’s parents saw him as their “plaything and their idol, and something better-their child, the innocent and helpless Creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me,”(19). “The Social Order vs. the Wretch: Mary Shelley's Contradictory-Mindedness in Frankenstein Sylvia Bowerbank.” Bowerbank, "The Social Order vs. the Wretch", knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/bower.html.
After observing how to read and speak english, along with social etiquette, the Creature befriended a blind old man for several moments, proving that he has no ill intentions toward any humans. Rather the Creature simply wanted to have friends and people that cared for him the way he wanted to care for others. However, that dream was cruelly ripped from his grasp as just moments after he befriended the blind old man, his son Felix, upon entering the cottage with his father and the Creature inside, “...darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung, in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick.”(Shelley 161). This scene only further supports the claim that the Creature was of a gentle nature and was only treated as a monster because of his unnatural size and hideous appearance. No matter where the Creature wandered he was met with the same disdain, fear, and hate whenever he encountered any humans. As such the Creature reciprocated those same emotions that had been so violently thrown at him causing him to resort to violence out of despair after he would realize that he would never be
Victor immediately abandons the creature in disgust. The creature is made up of dead body parts and is gigantic in stature. From the beginning of the story, the creature’s genetic makeup has already influenced his first encounter with mankind. Victor retells his encounter with his creation “His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and rushed downstairs”(58). Because the creature never forms a bond with Victor, he is subjected to the cruelty of his environment.The conflict of trust versus mistrust, revolves around whether or not a person becomes able to rely on other people t...
Victor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator, is the victim of his own pride. An ego unchecked is a dangerous thing. But in truth, it really just shows Victor’s humanity. He is privileged, educated, talented, loved, adored, but he is not perfect. His flaw is his own ego and pride. Without doubt, this is the result of a childhood where he was overindulged. Overindulged to the extent he was given a little girl “Elizabeth” as a “present”, whom he considered from childhood “mine only” (Shelley 21). Little wonder the twenty year old Victor would think he could create, control and command life. But Victor as with any indulged child did not take the time to learn much from his parents about parenting and fath...