Foils In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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With this simile at the beginning of Frankenstein, Shelley sets the family dynamic within the household. By comparing her to a “shrine dedicated lamp,” Shelley establishes Elizabeth as the quiet light, who represents virtue and the domestic anchor for the household. Elizabeth forms a foil to Victor’s rashness and egocentrism. This sets up for her loss later in the novel to wreck Victor’s psyche all the more heavily. By showing Victor chasing a form in the Arctic, distraught and emotionally wrecked, the reader knows Victor and the monster come into conflict eventually. Thus it seems reasonable that Elizabeth would be the victim that sets off the Victor’s full hate toward the monster and makes him believe his life can never return to normalcy.