Frankenstein Rhetorical Analysis

During the Regency period in England, the lack of modern medicine contributed to many women dying from disease or during childbirth, resulting in the desertion of a parental figure. Parental abandonment affects us all in different ways; some of us grow into functioning adults, while others live in an ocean of guilt and a constant need for attention and love. In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, she uses rhetorical devices such as symbolism, powerful ethos and the motifs of a lust for companionship and self-hate to illustrate the difficult ways that parental abandonment and rejection affect us and how deeply it can influence how we grow and mature.

The main character that Shelley portrays as having various parental abandonment issues is Frankenstein’s

The root of the Monster’s feelings results from the rejection and guilt Victor himself has for creating the Monster in the first place. Yet, in the beginning of the book, the monster had no intentions to kill anyone, in fact, he saves a girl from drowning in the lake; it’s not until Victor rejects the monster that he develops feelings of revenge and hatred against his creator. When the monster confronts Victor about how he “detests and spurn [the monster], that creature to whom thou art bound by ties…” we see that all the monster wants is a friend, someone to care for and love, while Victor wants nothing more to do with him. Shelley pulls at our hearts and allows us to feel sympathetic for the Monster, even though he murders many characters in cold blood throughout the book. Shelley uses the feelings of love and the need for companionship we all crave to make Victor appear as the real villain, leaving the poor monster all alone. Even “Satan had his companions, fellow devils to admire and encourage him” making the monster believe he is worse than the Devil himself. All the self-loathing and self-hate inflicts feelings of jealousy and revenge onto the

Displaying deep denial when his mother dies, “My mother was dead but we still had duties,” Like the other main characters, Victor also longs for a companion. Even though he has a childhood friend, Henry, Victor lives in a constant state of guilt. After creating the monster, Victor regrets his decision immediately, rejecting his creation, much like how he believes everyone is rejecting him. This can be represented through the killings that the monster commits, William, Justine, Henry, Alphonse, Elizabeth. Victor believes that because his mother left him and his father never approves of his studies that they reject him. The deaths the monster causes represent each character rejecting Victor, as well as the buildup of his guilt. Victor’s monster symbolizes a physical representation of his own self-loathing and guilt Victors believes the monster to be the root of his problems until he finally realizes that he was at fault for creating the monster in the first place. Instead of a lust for revenge, Victor envelopes himself in a sea of guilt, feeling that nothing he does will please anyone. Also, we see how selfish Victor is, believing the monster wants to kill him when he threatens to “be with [Victor] on [his] wedding night”. The monster planned on killing his fiancée, but Victor’s self-absorbed attitude led him to believe that the monster only wanted him. Yet, we can see