The Responsibility Of Mothering In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein is inadequate to “mother” his creation. Victor is so horrified that he runs away from the creation in two different ways. When he finds his creation missing, instead of looking for him, he tries to forget about it all. Victor didn’t want to deal with the effects of his actions. Victor doesn’t show affection and care outside of his immediate family and friends, so “mothering” was not in his instincts. This could portray women of this era in a negative light, however, the message behind Shelley’s choice is not just for the women. The message is to parents who don’t understand just how much their actions and treatment towards the child can affect them. The reason behind Shelley’s characterization of Victor has different reasons behind it.
One reason Mary Shelley
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Now a woman may have a child expecting the child to be perfect in what they find perfection to look like in looks and skills. Yet they are unprepared for the child to turn out as anything than what they expected. The wealthy women will be able to have a nanny come in to take care of the child, so they don’t have to deal with the imperfect child. There are times when a child does not turn out how the parents wanted so they may emotionally, or even physically, abuse the child. This is the relationship she portrays with Victor and his creation. This type of parent-child relationship does not speak for all families in Shelley’s time period. Perhaps what Shelley was trying to point out is that the relationship between a parent and child has a significant effect on their child. The child reacts to how the parent treats them in either a negative or positive way depending on how they are being treated. Victor is the parent who did not want to help his “child”, the creation, which caused the creation to harm his family and friends. The creation claims that Victor made him this way because of how Victor treated
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