Mary Shelley’s science fiction novel, Frankenstein, amplifies the damaging psychological consequences of obsession through the lives of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature he constructs. Victor treats his spawn with pure negligence and hatred from the moment he entered the world, which planted the seed for their demise. The Creature retaliates against his creator by murdering those he cherished most, ultimately generating a vicious cycle of revenge that consumes and ruins their lives. By the end of the novel, Shelley uses many diverse literary conventions to close the story between the two destructive beings by displaying the concept of Tabula Rasa on the Creature’s dismal psychological state, importance of self awareness, and displaying …show more content…
Through strong diction, Shelley emphasizes the pain he endured when he allows his rage take over him especially during the murder of Henry Clerval. His existence was made to receive and radiate love, but instead his blank slate was plagued by traumatic experience which made him believe he was incapable of love. In midst of an argument with Walton, who claims the Creature only seeks sympathy and feels remorse for his misdeeds because Victor is gone, the Creature claims, “No sympathy may I ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed...But now that virtue had become to me a shadow, and the happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair…” (). The use of a metaphor to relate the virtues of love and affection to a shadow that turned into bitter despair allows the reader to deeply understand the severe dissociation and alienation the Creature suffered. The lack of nurture throughout his life has etched pain so deeply into his blank slate that he is no longer searching for sympathy from the world around him, but instead from within, showing gradual signs of self realization and tranquility. Continuing to expand on his misleading prospects, the Creature confesses, “Once I falsely