And as soon as he is able to infuse artificial life into this inanimate assembly of various body parts from different corpses, his dream vanishes and his nightmare begins.
Unlike a legitimate and natural "pregnancy" and procreation, Victor hides his ambition to create life on his own. It is an illegitimate "pregnancy" with horrifying features of power of its own (Thompson 2004). He keeps his plans secret even to his favorite mentors Waldman and Krempe, family, friends and fellow students in Ingolstadt. He is unwilling to share his goal with them, knowing that they will mock him for his obsession to father and mother a creature by reanimating dead human tissues he sutures in the dark of his laboratory. He maintains egotistical and self-absorbed and lives in isolation in order to "become God, a creator of life" and a surrogate parent of a new species of immortal beings.
Mary Shelley's novel is viewed as a powerful argument against newborn life and the circumstances of guilt, dread and flight that accompany birth (Moers as qtd in Thompson 2004). In . Victor's overall inferiority highlights, and is highlighted by, Walton's full acceptance of Victor's failure and weaknesses and his creature's odiousness when Walton finally encounters the creature. Shelley presents Walton as the ideal parent that Victor fails to become towards the creature.
Bibliography
Boeree. C. George. Alfred Adler. Personality Theories, 1997. http://www.shipedu/~cgboeree/adler.html
Claridge, Laura P. Parent-Child Tensions in "Frankenstein:" the Search for Communion. EBSCO Publishing, 2002
Huber R. John, et al. Frankenstein: an Adlerian Odyssey. The Journal of Adlerian Theory Research and Practice: University of Texas Press, 1989
Thompson, Terry W. Robert Walton as Re-animator. Volume 40 Issue 3-page 296, 9p. Papers on Language and Literature
Waxman, Barbara Frey. Viktor Frankenstein Romantic Fate: the Tragedy of the Promethean Overreacher as Woman. EBSCO Publishing, 2003
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