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The Significance Of Family In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The Significance of Family in Frankenstein The role of family is a reoccurring theme throughout Mary Shelley’s epistolary novel Frankenstein and the idea that family has significant role in one's life is evident. In addition, Mary Shelley’s life is also alluded to in many ways throughout her novel such as the death of her mother and her trip to the Swiss Alps with Percy Shelley. The sequence of unfortunate events throughout the book suggest the idea that the disconnect to one's family causes emotional turmoil that he or she cannot overcome.
Victor plays the role of brother, son, husband, cousin and creator throughout Frankenstein, however, his role of brother/ husband to Elizabeth is significant. His connection to Elizabeth begins when Elizabeth …show more content…

He lives in a hovel observing a family of cottagers for the majority of his short life where he discovers the image of family. The creature attempts to unite with the cottagers, but his plan fails him and he becomes enraged admitting to Victor “I gave vent to my anguish in fearful howlings. I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a staglike swiftness. Oh! What a miserable night I passed” (Shelley 146). After telling Victor the story of his short, miserable life, the creature’s longing to be a part of a family continues as he begs Victor to give him a female creature, similar to himself, that he can run away and avoid humanity with forever. The creature explains to Victor “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (Shelley 156).
The absence of family throughout Frankenstein causes psychological as well as physical illness in several characters. This suffering Mary Shelley brought upon her characters may have been a reflection of the pain she felt in her life growing up without a mother. Her personal experiences enabled her to put her feelings into her characters making Frankenstein the infamous novel it

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