This brings us back to Frankenstein, Victor 's relationship with his parents friend, and Elizabeth translated by good words, Shelley uses quotes to emphasize the importance of human relationships (especially, family 's relationship) and how important they are to a person 's well-being “My children, my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation will now be the consolation of your father. Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children. Alas! I regret that I am taken from you; and, happy and beloved as I have been, is it not hard to quit you all? But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world”(24). Victor shows the strong love of family in his childhood “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley,40), he raised with excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gives this love to his creature and ignored him, notwithstanding the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein 's darkness and ignorance toward his creature, he refused to accept the monster because of his physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if he were the monster when the creature
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Show MoreBoth Victor and Elizabeth were raised by generous and loving people and those traits were passed on to the children, Elizabeth moreso then Victor. Elizabeth was adopted into the Frankenstein family after Victor’s mother heard her sorrowfully backstory. This random act of kindness was normal for both of Victor’s parents, as they are described as being “possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Pg. 23). Being surrounded by that much positive influence caused both Victor and Elizabeth to form strong connections to individuals they were close too. Elizabeth especially as she was loved by everyone and truly cared for all those around her, as she helped ground them.
In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein the creature is seen as a tragic figure who causes pain to people by not only using revenge to get back at Victor but also because he doesn’t have a companion and Victor has unfortunately abandoned him. The creature despises Victor and takes revenge on the things he loves because he doesn’t have anyone who loves him. Obsession and vengeance are powerful tools that can change the shape of the mind and can cause the most benevolent people into a malevolent person with harmful intentions. The creature when he was created wasn’t meant for hatred, he turned evil once Victor had abandoned him and pushed him away.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein brings his creation to life and has to endure the repercussions of his actions. While Victor is in fact human, the question of whether the creature or Victor is more human still stands. Humanity is demonstrated as compassionate in the book and monstrosity is the opposite. The creature is more human because of his developed personality and desire to be human. Victor, although born into a humane family, evolved into everything bad about humanity; he developed obsession, resentment, and manipulated life to conform to his idealities.
Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek
By denying both main characters the sensation of domestic affection, or any other kind of social belonging, Mary Shelley highlights the importance thereof. The resulting isolation became the driving force behind both Frankenstein and his creation’s abominable actions which, in turn, shows that trying to avoid isolation and seeking the feeling of social belonging is the primary message of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and of
If the narrator had been the creature, the reader would sympathize with him for creating him to be alone vs feeling bad for Frankenstein’s loss. The different point of views offer more evidence to support the author’s message about companionship. Shelley writes from Frankenstein’s point of view, “I have but one resource; and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction” (Shelley, 1818, p 188). In this quote, we can see how the lack of his wife, friend, and brother has driven him insane with anger and revenge for the creature.
Throughout volume 2 of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley emphasizes the theme, necessity of a friend, to the reader throughout the book. The necessity of a friend is shown through the creature’s loneliness and wanting of another creature. The creature said,” I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me…my companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create.” (pg: 105-106)
In volume 1 of Frankenstein, Victor's selfishness unleashes the “monster” in Victor and leads to Victor losing connections. Through the portrayal of the monster inside Victor, Shelley argues the universal theme of obligation. Shelley argues the universe of obligation, through showing us the ways of Victor only thinking of himself. In the circle of individuals and groups toward whom obligations are owed, one's self is always in the center. After oneself in the middle, family and friends come very close behind in the second circle.
Interestingly enough, the novel resembles Shelley’s own life and can be interpreted as a reflection of her perception of families. Shelley shares many of the same characteristics with most of her characters. As the main character in the novel, Frankenstein’s creature is depicted as “a motherless orphan” who had an “unnatural birth” (Griffith). This correlates with Shelley’s own childhood as she was raised without a mother and her birth was in some ways “unnatural” as mothers are not naturally made to die during childbirth.
However, the monster yet asserts that his capacity for “revenge remains” and tells Victor that he shall again with him “on his wedding night” (140). Frankenstein, due to his emotional disconnect with his family, perceives the target of this threat to be himself, but instead on the fated night finds Elizabeth, his own companion, “lifeless and inanimate… [with the] mark of the fiend’s grasp on her neck” (165-166). Elizabeth’s murder causes Frankenstein “the agony of despair,” to the extent that he is made to feel “the heat of fever” in recollection of the event (166). In killing Elizabeth, the monster effectively mirrors onto Victor the pain felt at a lack of companionship, thus ensuring that Victor’s emotional isolation from his family becomes absolute—just as the monster is absolutely alone with the abortion of his own companion.
The monster is spurned by society because of his horrific appearance, his body, alone and hated, unfit for the company of strangers, just as Frankenstein fears he is. He is miserable which makes the hatred grow, as he says, “all men hate the wretched; how then must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!” In fact, this wretchedness and enforced isolation is the monster’s main character trait, parallel to the isolation being Frankenstein’s biggest fear. Now that Victor is in college, he does not have his family to fall back upon for affection.
Perhaps, if a human such as Frankenstein had accepted the creature, onlookers would have had an easier time welcoming someone with his appearance into their presence. Society’s false perception of what makes someone “normal” is what altered their first impression of The Creature. People had a hard time distinguishing the difference between mind and body, which resulted in The Creature’s undesired abandonment and a gut filled with hatred towards his creator. In contrast, Victor Frankenstein refers to his family in a positive way several times throughout the novel.
Companionship is the closeness or familiarity, a true fellowship among people who for some reason have a connection. “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.” The quote is from Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Robert Walton longs for a friend. The creature wanted a female companion.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein examines how the presence of a mother, negatively or positively, affects the development of a child. Victor’s mother, Caroline Frankenstein, dies while Victor is still a young man (he is about 17 years old), breaking their relationship between mother and son. Because Victor loses his bond with his mother, he is unable to act as a mother would when he creates his creature. Caroline Frankenstein’s absence in Victor’s life creates a disunion between the mother and child bond, which is evident in Victor’s creation and his fragmented relationship with the creature. Caroline Frankenstein, Victor’s mother, portrayed a traditional mother in the Frankenstein household, until her death.
The need and mutual respect for love and companionship is what truly makes one human. In the book Frankenstein it is seen from the first time Victor brings his monster to life that he has no compassion or attachment towards him. In fact, he abandons him out of fear. Throughout the story the monster feels a lack of affection, not only from Victor but from the other people he meets and wants to make friends with, leaving him in misery. Due to persistent abandonment and apathy, the monster sought out revenge and committed treacherous acts of violence.