Rather than expressing any kind of paternal (or maternal) love for his creation, Frankenstein recoils, as "breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart" (Shelley 43). One can quite reasonably view Frankenstein's desire to create life as a kind of twisted mourning, and the fact that his attempts to give birth without any kind of mother reveals the novel's position regarding the absence of a mother. In short, the novel views the mother as necessary not only for continuing procreation through her blessing regarding future marriage, but also through the mediating role she seems to play in the creation of life. Without a mother present, Frankenstein recoils from creation and abandons it to its fate, and the rest of the plot seems to suggest that the monster would have been able to grow up reasonably well adjusted if only he had been granted the encouraging, caring support of a mother. Essentially, Frankenstein transfers his own lack of a mother (and its attendant neuroses) to the monster, such that most of the tragedies of the story can be attributed to Frankenstein's mother's death. Her absence encourages Frankenstein to work towards creating life asexually, and the ultimate absence of a mother at the monster's birth ensures that it will...
Frankenstein's mother's death simultaneously sets Frankenstein on his path towards creating a monster and Elizabeth on her path towards death at the monster's hands. Her dying wish is for Frankenstein and Elizabeth to marry, and although this wish comes true, it does so in the absence of a mother and so is ultimately perverted and destroyed. Similarly, the monster is created without a mother, and thus is left to its own devices as Frankenstein is unable to handle the responsibilities of his own creation. Without the mediating, nurturing force of the mother, the monster grows up resentful and vengeful, as there is no one who accepts him for what he is. Ultimately, the novel Frankenstein argues that procreation without a mother results in disaster, because only the mother is able to offer the kind of support and nurturing that prevents humanity from acting on its worst impulses.
Frankenstein An Analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote in her 1831 introduction to the reprint of Frankenstein that "supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world" (x). These words not only indicate the manner of her thought on the night she conceived the idea for her gothic novel, they also reflect, as she notes, the ideas
Thus Shelley's novel provides a third solution of sorts, an acknowledgement of the imperfect and estranged nature of humanity that is not comforting, but seems more realistic to modern readers, perhaps, as the monster seems like a modern anti-hero, from a 21st century point-of-view. Even to 19th century readers, Shelley's ambiguous views of science and religion were likely to resonate. The analogies of creator and created are deliberately ambiguous in
Frankenstein's Influence On Science And Medicine The scientific concepts presented in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein helped introduce the public to concepts that would revolutionize the fields of science and medicine. First published in 1818, Frankenstein examined the role of science and religion, commenting on the dangers of "playing God." Frankenstein has been considered by many to be the first science-fiction novel written, and many of the concepts introduced have been further explored
The rash, brash young soldier Claudio is betrothed to Hero, who adores him, but because of the male code of the military he has been raised to believe in, he tends to assume the worst of women rather than the best. On their wedding-day, he shames Hero unjustly, even though nothing in her manner indicates she has changed: "You seem to me as Dian in her orb, / as
Victor is the perfect example of how the quest for knowledge can be bad for all. Victor abandons his responsibility as a scientist when he becomes self-absorbed and he abandons his responsibility as a scientist and a father when he leaves the monster to die. However, as it is with life, Victor did not consider the law of unintended circumstances in any of his endeavors. When the monster does
His family worries about him, of course, but they have no idea what is actually the problem. If they did, would they see Victor as a monster? It is difficult to say. Families can overlook a great deal of things when found in a person that family loves. However, some things are simply too great to bear when it comes to what a person has done or what he
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