The Orphan

To hear the miserable cry of an unfairly punished child weeping “I never asked to be born!” is a terrible sound. And In 1823, the first literary work to whimper those words was released; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in London, England. Although many people think they know the real story, they don’t. A young man by the name of Victor Frankenstein, unable to understand the intricacies of giving life, is spurred on by his lack of knowledge into an intense urge to produce it. But when his creation actually appears before him, he is overcome and unable to submit to the responsibilities of his child. So instead he backpedals and leaves the child to stand on it’s own two feet. Therefore it submits itself to the cruel bashing and beating of the world, and in turn conceiving a broken and banged up child due to it’s lack of care and no one to look after it. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victor to act as a symbolic mother who thoughtlessly bestowed life, but after seeing the severe repercussions it can have on his future – he aborts. In turn leaving the creature to be battered and beaten alone in the world: “a man left to himself from birth would be more of a monster than the rest” (Shelley 46). Thus showing how the state of a child relies on the responsibility of the parent, for if not given the proper means of growth in a stable environment, it can turn into a monster. Specifically, if Victor had acted as an ideal adult bound by the moral obligation of a creator, the creature would not have become a monster. This is important to Shelley because her mother died giving birth to her. After her death, her father never forgave her; he alienated her as if she was an orphan. Therefore Shelley makes an urgent request to her readers ...

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...ke the monster, the author faced the world nearly alone. Although set side by side, Shelley literally proves that even the slightest guidance from her father made a difference between ending up ordinary or outlandish. In other words, the creature would not have behaved the way he did if he had support from a parent. In conclusion, Shelley’s unparalleled perspective makes practical use of the real experience of an isolated child in Frankenstein through allusions and symbolism to show the catastrophic consequences when the social contract shackling parents and children together is destroyed.

Works Cited

Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. New York, NY: Penguin Group , 2007. Print.

Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. New York, NY: Penguin Group , 2007. Print.

Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley: her life, her fiction, her monsters. New York, NY: Meuthuen , 1988. Print.