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Mrs.Forys
English IV Dual 3
3 March 2015
An Abominable Creation
In humans, mental stability and well-being strongly correlates with the feeling of acceptance and the presence of others. Most find love and acceptance first through family, then through friends and eventually in society. Through interaction and relationships with others people learn, cooperate and grow to better the world. The absence of normal and healthy relationships and existence in community results in the strong sting of seclusion and loneliness. Even one instanceof the horrible feeling of rejection in a child’s life in an otherwise healthy loving family can create a lasting negative memory. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she takes this acute pain of rejection and casts it upon the main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Shelley develops the themes of the anguish of rejection and the despair of abandonment throughout the entire novel. In this classic work, Shelley exploresthe depth of feeling and consequences of rejection and abandonmentand how this figures into the lives of Victor and his monster as a tool to both of their major downfalls which results from their beingoutcast from society.
Early in the novel, Mary Shelley introduces the reader to Victor Frankenstein’s deep love of the pursuit of science. This love of sciencefeeds his thirst for knowledge which slowly leads to him being outcast from society. In chapter two, Victor explains this attraction, “Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember" (Shelley 22).Here, Shelley relays to the reader that this strong inclination towards science is among the earliest feelings Victor can recall, showing the deep hold this passion had on him. At first, Shelley portraysthis passion as a positive start to a promising career when Victor leaves his family to study the sciences at college. But his discovery at college leads Victor to work by himself more and more. In his critical article, Harold Bloom proclaims, “It is this enthusiasm that leads to his downfall as he becomes increasingly seduced by his own abilities to surpass all other scientists before him.” In Bloom’s opinion,it is not only after Victor’s horrible creation of the monster does he fall into a sickness that leaves him secluded, but also the actual work of creating the monster that drove him to be outcast from society. As the manifestationof his intense desire to create life grows, Victor becomes increasingly obsessed with surpassing all other scientists, and his isolation also increases. While Bloom suggests that his thirst for knowledge isolates him, critic Ira Smolensky further makes the connection that Victor himself brings his downfall and being outcast from society on himself. Smolensky states, “Victor is a victim of his own hubris in seeking the divine power of creation.” Both Bloom and Smolenskyassert that Victor brings isolation upon himself by his own doing. While it is logical that society would reject a mad scientist trying to create a monster and play god, blame for this scientist’s rejection lies with more than society. By abandoning his own morals and secluding his scientific workshop, Victor isolates himself from society and must own some of the blame for his rejection and seclusion.
Just as Victor Frankenstein’s thirst for knowledge began innocently and led to his seclusion, so did his downfall that resulted from his creation. Victor had no way of knowing the havoc his creation would wreak on his life and the lives of others.As Victor notes in chapter one, “…whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me” (Shelley 19). In this quote, Victor describes how he was raised well and was innocent until misery began to impact his life. After isolating himself for months while creating the monster, the misery begins when he makes the decision to abandon the creature itself. Critic Jennifer McClinton-Temple,explains the results, “In turn, he abandons the monster he has created and the creature spends the rest of the novel in search of connection, resulting in tragic consequences.” McClinton-Temple further explains that not only had Victor isolated himself from society, but he isolated himself from the creature he so feverently sought to create, a creation that depends on him. Victor’s thirst for knowledge becomes his demise, because he does not realize the consequences and responsibilities of creating another being and never owns up to the problems he has created. In the critical essay entitled“Frankenstein”, Sarah Webster Goodwin supports a similar conclusion.Webster-Goodwin states, “As a scientist, Victor does not consider the consequences of his research, and he does not take responsibility for them when they are tragic.”Victor not only created a tragic situation, but he then also does not take responsibility for the repercussions of his creation’s actions. One example of this shortcoming is the fact that Victor knew that his creature killed his brother, William Frankenstein, but he did not speak up or make any effort to defend his family friend, Justine, who was accused of and eventually convicted for William’s murder. (Shelley 71) He fails to reveal his knowledge of the murder, because he fears the rejection he might meet when he explains his creation. This action introduces another wedge that further separates Victor from society. As a result of Victor’sabandoning his creature, a feeling of overwhelming loneliness and sickness overtakes him. Bloom highlights this when he states, “Victor Frankenstein’s physical and mental well-being are disrupted and become increasingly unstable as he becomes steadily tormented and sickened by what he has wrought.”This quote explains the overall reality of Victor’s turbulent story due to his lack of responsibility towards himself, his creation, and society.
As mentioned in the introduction, it is widely accepted that family influences much of human behavior.Although Victor Frankenstein had a loving childhood, his decision to stray from his family lead to his further isolation and persistent troubles. In the narrative, Mary Shelley shows Victor’s appreciation for his once closeness to his family and explains the temperaments passed on to Victor. “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley 23).This excerpt from the novel shows that Victor has experienced a fine upbringing and feels that family is important. In her critical essay, Webster-Goodwin points out the contrast between his noted “happier childhood” and his parting from these family values. Webster-Goodwin states, “Victor represents the tendency of science to divorce itself from ethics.”According to Webster-Goodwin’s critique, Victor’s seclusion from his family isolates him even more from society because his seclusion separates him from the ethics he was taught in his upbringing. Not only does his abandonment of his ethics further him from acceptance by society, but it also separates him from the very family that instilled these values, and his sense of self. In her critical essay, McClinton-Temple highlights this obvious but overlooked detail. “Victor Frankenstein leaves his loved ones lonely and alone in his search of individual, intellectual glory.” This detail of Victor abandoning his own immediate family seems miniscule in the big picture, but the detail actually explains a lot. Because Victor is able to leave his own immediate family and morals so easily, the reader can now more clearly understand how Victor so nonchalantlyabandons his own creation. Unlike Victor,who decides for himself to leave his family, his creation has no such choice. Therefore, Victor’s choice to leave results in both of their being outcast from society. This similarity in social condition is pointed out in a critical essay by Susan Slyvia.Sylvia states, “Victor and the creature are ‘doubles’ (or mirrors) of each other because they are both stuck with the inability to successfully communicate with society.” As a result of their outcast condition, and their lack of connection and acceptance from family, they both cannot communicate with society. This can be felt by the reader when Shelley describes the monsters longing for family. “I had first become master of their language, which knowledge might enable me to make them overlook the deformity of my figure” (Shelley 94).Shelley creates sympathy as the reader discovers the monster longing for family. Just like Victor, the monster has difficulty communicating with and being accepted by society because of his disconnection from family.
Mary Shelley’s use of the abandonment and isolation themes as a major conflict and demise in both Victor’s and the monster’s lives actually directly reflectsconflict, isolation and pressure from society she herself felt throughout her own life. Shelley explains the monster’s feelings of isolation and relation to no one. In chapter 15, the monster wonders as follows: “I was dependent on none and related to none… Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come?” (Shelley 109). As the monster feels anguish for not having natural or true parents, Shelley also felt this anguish in her own life. Shelley’s mother only lived ten days after giving birth to her. Not only did Shelley feel rejected as a child, she also felt as if she rejected or couldn’t care for the several babies that she birthed but who did not live beyond infancy. Smolensky points out this connection stating, “The novel reflects Shelley’s experience with the traumas of birth and rejection.” Although Shelley’s personal circumstance of her children’s, mother’s and loved one’s deaths was traumatic,this trauma was made even more traumatic by the treatment of women during her historical time period. Because women were expected to produce children and keep the home, and she was unsuccessful in this expected care work, she felt particularly isolated and lonely. Not all critics share this view. Slyvia refutes this claim in her article. “The novel’s themes center on the social and cultural society during Shelley’s lifetime. The characters in the novel reflect the struggle against societal control.”As Shelley felt pressure to be a good mother and nurturing figure, her failure to do so led to her being outcast from society. Similarly, Victor and the monster cannot nurture each other nor can they create natural and healthy relationships, so they are also outcast from society. The reader can see parallels between Shelley’s life and her fictional monster. Shelley uses the voice of the monster to explain how she once felt. “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing” (Shelley 101). As Shelley had no memory of her mother, neither did the monster.
The entire novelFrankensteinexplores themes of the torture of abandonment and the isolation of rejection. Shelley relates these themes through the monster’s despair at attempting to reconcile his existence with civilized society. Victor Frankenstein, in his choice of self-isolation, reveals that even self-inflicted isolation is painful and destructive. Additionally, Shelley expertly explores ideas of relations, communication, and belonging and these idea’s centrality to individual’s senses of self. Shelleydevelops this theme through the burden of knowledge, downfall, family, and the connection to her personal life. Through these connections she shows the dangers of science overcoming nature, self-interest overcoming family, and irresponsibly overcoming facing the consequences.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold, ed. "Background to Frankenstein." Frankenstein, Bloom's Guides. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 16 Feb. 2015 <
Goodwin, Sarah Webster. "Frankenstein." Masterplots II: Women’S Literature Series (1995): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.
McClinton-Temple, Jennifer. "Abandonment." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer, ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Smolensky, Ira, and Marjorie Smolensky. "Frankenstein." Magill’S Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition (2009): 1-2. Literary Reference Center. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.
Sylvia, Susan J., and Bonnie Flaig. "Frankenstein." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.
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