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Abandonment And Struggle In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

800 Words4 Pages

Throughout literature, abandonment is a leading cause of conflict and struggle. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is successful in his endeavor to create life, but once he sees the life he has created he runs from it out of fear. This causes the Creature to be left all alone, which makes him grow bitter and want to take revenge on Victor by getting rid of the people in his life. The Creature kills Victor’s brother William, his best friend Clerval, and his fiancee Elizabeth. All because he had nobody to love him. One real life example of how abandonment affects human beings is shown by statistics. 60,000 neglected children enter the foster care system every week. They are placed into homes that may not be able to properly care …show more content…

The Creature promises that he will leave Victor, his family, and all of humanity alone. He promises to move away and that Victor will never have to see him again. Victor contemplates on whether or not he will fulfill the Creature’s request, and decides that he is going to create a compainion for him. Victor begins creating a companion for the Creature, in the midst of his work Victor destroys the new creature in a fury of anger. He disposes of it in the water right in front of the Creature’s eyes, and tells the Creature he will not continue his work. The Creature threatens Victor telling him that he will be with him on his wedding night and disappears. Shortly after this, Victor finds that his best friend Henry Clerval was found dead with marks of the Creature’s hands around his neck. A similar parallel can be made with children put into the foster system. In an article on why foster children act out, James Kenney writes, “Adult crime and violence are likely outcomes in those individuals whose empathy is stunted and who grow up without the conscience normally fashioned through a concern for the well-being of others. Add resentment and anger to a lack of compassion and you have a dangerous person in process...Multi-placed children are referred to as psychopaths in the making,” (Striking Back in Anger: Delinquency and Crime in Foster

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