Compassion In Frankenstein Essay

The Importance of Compassion in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Compassion helps us by connecting with other people. It creates trust and love between people, which can help form better relationships and connections. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the theme of compassion plays an important role in forming the characters' relationships with each other. Shelly uses the reader's compassion for both the monster and Victor Frankenstein to engage in the plot and conflict. She presents stories and evokes the sense of empathy from the reader to the monster. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows compassion through Henry caring for Victor when he was feeling sad, Caroline adopting Elizabeth, a poor orphan, and Victor agreeing to make a creature for the

Victor talking to Robert Walton about his parents’ thoughts of Elizabeth, “They were fond of the sweet orphan. Her presence had seemed a blessing to them, but it would be unfair to keep her in poverty and want, when the Providence afforded her such powerful protection..the result of that was that Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house…the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures” (Shelley 17). This quote demonstrates the sympathy that Caroline feels for the poor, orphaned child. She can understand Elizabeh because she was also poor for a period of time until Victor’s father married her. Elizabeth was not treated any differently from Victor or anyone else in the family. Caroline shows empathy towards Elizabeth by taking her

Yet even thus I loved them to adoration: and to save them, I resolved to dedicate myself to my most abhorred task” (Shelley 108) . Victor, as the creator, feels as if he is responsible for all the deaths the monster had caused. This also shows that Victor is willing to do anything for his family, even a task he finds intolerable. Victor Frankenstein experiences and indicates compassion for the