Theme Of Father In Victor Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein’s creation, the nameless creature in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, displays countless characteristics of physical monstrosity; he is described as “ugly”, “demonical” and a “hideous… wretch” (Shelley 36). However, the creature expresses that his only desires are acceptance and love, but he is seen as a monster regardless of his true intentions. When the creature is abandoned by Frankenstein, he is forced to find acceptance on his own and eventually comes across a cottage in the woods. As an attempt to gain approval, he waits to approach the home until the only character home is a blind man, to whom he explains his desire for friendship. The creature says that he is afraid to become “an

Father and son relationships are much more complex when observed from a deeper surface. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, two different outlooks on fatherhood can be seen. In some cases, the role of a father-like figure can be unfulfilled, which leaves the child feeling isolated. While on the other hand, there are situations where the father can be seen as being a guide and mentor for the child. McCarthy shows how in a dystopian society; a father provides his son with unconditional love and care. Whereas, Shelley’s work portrays abandonment and lack of care provided by Victor for the creature. Through these two texts the father and son relationship is shown to play a prominent role in them, but two different

Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .

In the novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, the creature and its creator, Victor Frankenstein, share a lot of similarities throughout the story. The relationship shared between the two resembles that of a father and his son. Since Victor created it , the creature inherits certain traits of Victor’s without realizing it. Victor and the creature both have an overpowering thirst for knowledge, a love for the beauty of nature and a tendency to use it as a scapegoat, a depressing feeling of isolation from people, a desire for revenge, and the ability to play God. The relationship between Victor and the creature does not develop like a normal father-son relationship, nor does it develop as a good versus evil relationship. Both characters show hero and villain qualities throughout the novel as their relationship develops.

A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques.  Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love.  To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”.  Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility.  Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we are introduced early in the story to one of the main characters Victor Frankenstein and subsequently to his creation referred to as the monster. The monster comes to life after being constructed by Victor using body parts from corpses. As gruesome as this sounds initially we are soon caught up in the tale of the living monster. Victor the creator becomes immediately remorseful of his decision to bring the monstrous creation to life and abandons the borne creature. Victor describes his emotions and physical description of his creation as follows:

(Shelley). The fact that Frankenstein fled from his creation very shortly after it came to life, proves how he refused to accept his obligations and responsibilities after his creature was created. ?The [creature] is Frankenstein?s abandoned child? (Mellor Abandonment 357). It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. Victor was intimidated by his hideous characteristics and felt threatened by the creature. He did not know his creation at all, so he had no right to judge him. This is an example of how various people and society place too much judgment on physical appearance. The creature had just come into the world for the first time, and the first thing he saw was his creator screaming for his life as a result of his appearance. This traumatized the creation, and caused him to seek revenge on Frankenstein. This novel shows how when people are prejudice against physical deformity or ugliness, it automatically characterizes that person as bad or monstrous (Halberstam 59). Victor was the one who gave him these characteristics; so in fact, he is to blame for the creature?s appearance being so monstrous.

Many times children abandoned at birth may feel shame and self doubt for the rest of their lives. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Monster may be seen as a newborn baby who knows nothing of the world, who is abandoned by Victor. His grotesque appearance causes Victor to form a quick judgement about his creation which then leads to Victor fleeing before understanding the being. The creature was born with basic conceptions of love that soon turns from shame to hatred, due to ignorance. Victor's abandonment, as well as society's neglect of the creature, ultimately leaves the monster isolated and possessed with a spirit of cruelty and vengeance.

Monsters are not born, but created. In order to become a monster one must have been previously victimized or have a predisposition to violence. The monster is created because he is exposed to violence and rejection, he then breakdowns and becomes malicious. In the lines “Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? (Frankenstein, 124)”. Shelley is showing that by turning against the creature, Victor is deserting him in a strange and uncomfortable world. The creature is miserable and all alone. In corollary, the creature hurts others, because he has been neglected and in turn a monster is created. The creature states that “I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred (Frankenstein, 138)”. I believe that the novel would have turned out differently if Victor had welcomed the creature with

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.

Likewise, Victor Frankenstein allows his emotional senses to give way to a hatred of the Creature without even giving the Creature a chance. After seeing the hideous creation made by his own hands, Victor refrains from taking responsibility of the actions of the Creature, even when his conscious tells him it is his duty to. On the night of the creation, Victor recalls that the creature, who he emotionally describes as a monster, “held up the curtain of the bed … one hand stretched out, seemingly to detain [Victor], but [he] escaped … catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of

The story of Frankenstein is one that focuses mainly on the idea of losing touch with the reality of what is family and love whilst in the pursuit of knowledge. This can initially be experienced in the beginning of the novel in the letters Walton sends to his sister Margaret Saville. In this case, Walton, in search of a passage to the Pacific, risks his life without much regard for how his sister may feel. During his voyage Walton eventually gets into a situation, being trapped in the ice, that jeopardizes not only his main objective to find the passage, but the relationships he has at home, specifically his sister.

It was made out of many dead bodies which made it look ugly. When Victor saw the creature alive in front of him, he was scared by the thought of what he ended up with. Frankenstein’s monster is like a new-born baby. It did not know how to speak or cope up with the world. When Victor turned his back on the monster, it felt betrayed. It did not get the love and support it should’ve been given. Also, when the world was reluctant to accept the creature even after it helped them, it started harming the people who hurt him. It felt lonely as it was not taken care of by the only father figure he had, Victor himself. The monster told Victor, “You had made me, but why had you not looked after me, and saved me from this pain and unhappiness?” (Page 30) This showed how much deprived of happiness the monster was, which made him take revenge from Frankenstein.

Frequently, literature is intended to convey a significant idea or theme to it 's readers regarding events that occur in our everyday existence. Occasionally these ideas appear in the context of straightforward characterization, but in some literatures, such as Marry Shelley 's Frankenstein, these themes come to us in the guise of monsters, goliaths, dragons, gods, and myriads of fantasy-like components that express meaning in ways impossible within the boundaries of reality. Frankenstein came about when the famous romantic poet, Lord Byron, challenged Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, and a few others to write a ghost story to entertain them from the horrid weather that engulfed Lord Byron 's Swiss villa one night.