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The Interpretation Of Dreams In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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“The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain” Mary Shelley once said. It's no secret that how a person grows up determines the path they take later in life. Certain tragedies and accidents can greatly impact them on a psychological level. Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist, believed a family relationship has great influence on how a person grows up. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Shelley exposes the life of a scientist named Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created. These characters had a tumultuous relationship due to the monster’s upbringing. It can be argued that the true monster in the Frankenstein is Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s id plays …show more content…

Sigmund Freud says “Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.” (Freud). In Frankenstein, Victor’s nightmares describe his subconscious and shows what he is truly scared of. His nightmares are often morbid and depict many of his loved ones dead. Frankenstein is quoted saying “I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel” (Shelly 58). Mary Shelley used her vivid knowledge of dreams and depicted Frankenstein as being shameful and frustrated that he created a monster. Frankenstein’s emotions about the murders weigh on his conscious and emerge in his dreams. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory gives insight into why people are the way they are and the decisions they make every day. He explains how the events people go through greatly affect how they run out in adulthood. Mary Shelley’s book paints a very vivid picture through a psychological aspect of Victor Frankenstein. She lets the reader make the decision on who the real monster

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