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Frankenstein Character Analysis

Decent Essays

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein has characters that exemplify the Freudian psychoanalysis. The creature made by Victor embodies several aspects of his analysis: id, repression, displacement, and sublimation. The creature absorbed his surroundings and reflected them with how he ultimately felt about himself and his creator; the cultural surroundings of the creature best influenced his character.
The creature, the yellow-faced and beautiful yet disgusting being, has had issues of feeling closer to a fish out of water than his surroundings since he was created. These grievances manifested themselves into his psyche and shaped his outlook permanently. With a father that had no positive role in his life and a nonexistent mother, the creature had repressed feelings of deprivation and resentment. These feelings were internalized into his views and plans for his community. The lack of a mother figure was deep inside his psyche and caused him to desire wisdom and beauty to establish a mother-son relationship. Shelly displays how these feelings came to a head, “ I gazed with delight… I was forever deprived” (144). The feelings of deprivation and the culture where others loved without the creature manifested themselves into a need for affection from the creature’s own kind. Attempts to escape the isolation of the culture were futile, so the best solution was to be with someone the creature could resonate with. A male companion was not desired due to Victor’s lack of caring causing

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