Abuse And Neglect In Frankenstein

The unwavering desire for knowledge may cause the decay of relationships. This idea is displayed as Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, continually desires to create human life from inanimate materials, which leads to the destruction of many of his relationships. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, exhibits how the constant desire for information may cause the deterioration of relationships through the decayed relationships Victor has with himself, his family, and society.

When a young child touches a hot stove tears are sure to follow. Trial and error experiences like this are necessary for a child to learn from their mistakes. Some things, however, are taught by parents and guardians. A lack of parenting and guidance can have a dramatic and negative effect on the development of a child. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster that Victor creates is similar to a child. The monster can not speak initially and immediately feels abandoned when Victor goes to bed for the night. He is very emotional over the smallest of issues and shows many more signs of immaturity. Viewing the monster as a child causes the reader to feel empathetic for him like a child without parents.

Mary Shelley’s ability to create such multidimensional characters in Frankenstein proves that writing is a powerful tool that has the ability to provoke vastly different opinions amongst readers. Even though each individual reading the story is reading the exact same words, their interpretation of those words often leads to opposing views in regards to the fate of the characters. The creature, in particular, has been a popular topic of discussion when conducting a close read of the novel due to his arguable versatility as a victim and villain. The concept of the villain has evolved over the years, however its basis still rests upon the simple fact that as a character in the story, their actions are a result of malicious intentions

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, acts of cruelty serve as the driving force behind many tragedies within the novel. Set in 18th century Switzerland, Victor Frankenstein embarks on a horrifying journey to satisfy his growing desire to create life. However, Victor and his creation are overcome by their selfish agendas and growing hatred of one another, creating seemingly endless misfortune for their selves. The enemies' constant misunderstandings of each other ultimately turn an innocent victim into an inconsiderate and hate-filled monster.

If a child acted violently toward another child, should the parents of that child be held responsible for the inappropriate behavior, or should the child take full responsibility for his/her actions? This question of responsibility comes up often in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Her horrific and dark tale of the mad, science-obsessed Victor Frankenstein, wanting to create life from what had already been dead, evokes questions of who is at fault for the creature’s murders. Although some may say that the creature is at complete fault because he is own “person”, but ultimately Victor is at fault because he is the one who created a being that destroyed the lives of innocent people due to how he treated the creature.

The true nature of human beings, when they are born, is kind hearted and gracious, but their own species tarnishes them and they turn malignant. One piece of evidence to support my claim incorporates quotes from the book Frankenstein. In the beginning of the monster’s expedition , he is innocent and sympathizes with the Delacey family. The monster explains how he was sad when they were sad and would feel whatever they felt (Shelley 75). But, this all changed when the human species rejected him for his appearance. His character went from well behaved to atrocious. After not getting accepted, many unfavorable thoughts had crossed his mind and he desired to do many bad things (Shelley 92). When reading these quotes, the reader can comprehend that

Power corrupts, and any person put into a position of power has the ability to be corrupt but also to corrupt those around them. Victor Frankenstein and Lord Henry are both in positions of power and influence over others, the creature and Dorian Gray respectively. The desire to control people, for power over people, creates systems that allow a select few into the position of control. These systems, that created a patriarchal society, are what allowed women to be considered less than human, possessions, with no autonomy outside of what is deemed correct by those in charge of those systems. The corruption is not limited to people; the arts act as a different means to the same end result. Abuse of power is so inherent that anyone in any circumstance

"We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves-such a friend ought to be-do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures,” writes the narrator of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein. Without a companion of some sort, people will only suffer more. However, without the supervision of parents, children altogether are greatly affected for the rest of their lives. An innately good and sympathetic creature, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster struggles to survive in the human world. After creating and abandoning his creature, Dr. Frankenstein is the juxtaposition of a monster, portraying humans as shallow, judgmental, and uncaring. The monster simply wants humans to accept him as one of their own. Facing rejection in different forms, he becomes truly monstrous and evil, giving up hope of companionship as a result of his abandonment. Modern case studies of abandoned children report similar ideas. Children who are abandoned do not learn about morality, yet only people with morality are accepted by others as human. Children who are abandoned are frequently not accepted by others as human ultimately.

"Victor Frankenstein, does not live up to his role model. He lacks compassion for his creation" (Madigan 3)

In the book, Ffrankenstein, I would diagnose Vvictor with Depression and Anxiety. “Difficulty sleeping or excessive sleeping” are symptoms of depression (Ford-Martin & Odle ). Shelley wrote, “Sleep fled from my eyes; I wandered like an evil spirit,for i had committed deeds of misschief beyond description horrible, and more,much more (i persuaded myself) was yet behind” (77). By reading the article about depression and the book i said he has depression because he can't sleep very well. Feelings of worthlessness or guilt are also symptoms of depression. (Ford-Martin & Odle ). “The blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart which nothing could remove,” (Shelley 77). The article also said feeling worthless and guilt

Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was raised by a single parent, her father William Godwin. She acknowledges the mentally stimulating role a father plays in the development of a daughter, presumably speaking from personal experience. She declares, "There is a peculiarity in the education of a daughter, brought up by a father only, which tends to develop early a thousand of those portions of mind, which are folded up” (Veeder). Shelley offers in Frankenstein a portrait of how children’s minds are shape, and ultimately their fates sealed, due to influences from their fathers. Alphonse, Victor’s father, made mistakes in his parenting that negatively shaped the development of Victor’s mind and how he treated other living things.

The gothic fictions “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” approach the importance of a parent role and the effect of such role on the child’s life. In Mary Shelley’s novel, she uses Victors past and present to demonstrate how the poor treatment from his parents lead him to poorly fathering his own child. In contrast, James’ takes the approach of showing parenting in a more overbearing and overexerted way, in demonstrating the relationship between the governess and the children and as their guardian how she seeks to protect them from all danger. This essay will look at these two works and how critics have interpreted this theme to view the similarities in the effects of certain parenting and the differences that led to these outcomes. In looking at the main characters of both narratives and their approach with their children it is possible to see how there must be a balance in the presence and absence of parental figure in the developmental period of a child or creature’s life. Moreover, if such balance cannot be attained this could be the leading factor to the detrimental downfalls of the families in these novels.

Anguish, pain, torment and suffering are all a part of our day to day lives. These may issue from a variety of causes such as great deprivation, hardships to emotional and physical loss. Many texts, such as that of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly in the early 1800's, depict unalleviated suffering caused by living within societal norms. However very often, these sufferings are inflicted upon people by one individual and in the case of Frankenstein, this source is Victor Frankenstein. This statement becomes evident when examining the intersecting cultural beliefs of gender, class and ethnicity of the time.

Throughout history, Ireland has developed a strong sense of cultural identity and independence as a result of incessant discrimination from Britain. However, their story is often left out of history books, a common occurrence among oppressed groups of people. Often, powerhouse nations like to leave out the more revolting parts of their past so as to keep their stability. American history classes, for example, ignore a lot of major racially motivated injustices, such as Japanese internment. The same concept applies to the Irish people, especially before the Republic of Ireland was formed, a nation separate from the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

The Romantic Era of Literature provided many different discourses that came into play in the texts of the authors that lived during that time. Authors writing in this era combined these discourses, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in their literary works. Of these many discourses arises the discourse of slavery; heavily influenced by historical events such as the French Revolution, many European writers began to distribute works that either opposed or advocated for Slavery. Slavery in Romantic Literature depicts the relationship between the slave and the master, oftentimes addressing opposition or submission, superiority and inferiority, a struggle for power, and an awareness of identity and cultural differences. Abdul R. JanMohamed