How the Absence of Favorable Interpersonal Exchange Leads to Disorder in Frankenstein

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How the Absence of Favorable Interpersonal Exchange Leads to Disorder in Frankenstein

Garden Variety Devastation:

Nearly all of the scholarly criticism regarding Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has dealt

with, to some degree, the relationships between its characters. Oftentimes, the characters’

relationships with, or to, one another are compared and contrasted in various ways, but rarely has

the nonspecific or universal role of relationships been analyzed in the context of the larger novel.

In other words, while the role of, for example, Walton with respect to Victor, is something

regularly discussed, the grander sense in which the interconnectedness of persons is important

and, I will argue, necessary (within the context of Frankenstein) seems peculiarly absent. In this

paper, I will investigate the remarkable nonexistence of healthy, active, interpersonal contact.

Though portions of my investigation will focus particularly on the role of friendship (or a lack

thereof), my scope is not limited to friendship; I will explore the apparent individual need for

any proper communication or meaningful exchange, be it between friends, strangers, siblings, or

the romantically involved. Beyond this, I will address a number of important potential

implications, as I see them, of such a narrative – that is, a narrative seemingly determined not to

allow any relationship that could be fairly deemed healthy or appropriate to blossom. Shelley’s

fictional world refuses to permit even a single genuine bond to transpire between individual

characters, and those few bonds of an otherwise hopeful nature are dramatically and unnaturally

corrupted or snuffed out. Such relationships contri...

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... in order to affect the world. Chaos becomes, by the end of the novel, nearly

synonymous with communion. And as Laura P. Claridge states neatly in a piece regarding the

absence of parental guidance in the novel and in which she explores the individual’s search for

communion brought on by that absence, “Shelley insists that man can live only through

communion with others; solitude, for her, represents death” (15).

Works Cited

Bentley, Colene . "Family, Humanity, Polity: Theorizing the Basis and Boundaries of Political

Community in "Frankenstein"." Criticism 47.3 (2005): 325-351. JSTOR. Web. 20 Apr.

2014.

Claridge, Laura P. "Parent-child Tensions in "Frankenstein: The Search for Communion"."

Studies in the Novel 17.1 (1985): 14-26. JSTOR. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003. Print.

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