Mental Illness In Frankenstein

As you read through the novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly, a common theme comes into play with Victor where anytime misfortune or traumatic events occur, he falls sick right afterwards. Victor contracts an illness physically or emotionally throughout the novel which purely exists because of the stress and regret that separate him from society. I believe that Victor does use the illness as a means to escape rather than becoming a normal member of society or because of the guilt he feels after creating the monster. He uses this physical separation to lighten the guilt and responsibility he feels over his creature as he becomes more and more separated from the reality of the creature being his responsibility. The unspecified illness can consume

When he began to make his creature, Victor completely secluded himself from the outside world, cutting of contact with other individuals for months at a time no matter who the person was. He neglects the idea of nature and the rights and wrongs of what he was doing because of how focused he was in creating this monster. Right after Victor created the life of the monster, he then realized what he had done and just how hideous and inadequate it is compared to what Victor wanted to make. Victor flees his lab, not wanting to take any responsibility for what he has done, but when he inevitably returns, and the monster was nowhere to be found, Victor felt rather joyous, yet eventually fell ill. As soon as Victor had become sick, he then realized just what he had let out into the world and just how much of a mess it can make for himself and society itself. Victor spends almost two years alone with his illness and guilt, nearly dying from it if it wasn’t for his best friend Henry to come by and help nurse him back to

The magistrate of the area, Mr. Kirwin brought Victor to the body, thinking that if he was the murderer, it would become clear with how he reacted emotionally. When seeing Henry’s body, Victor recognized the handprints left by the creature, reacting with horror and in the shock that had been building up inside Victor, he fell to the ground convulsing, his illness catching back up to him soon after. It took 2 months this time until Victor had recovered from his illness, and he found himself still in prison by the time his recovery was over. Victor's father, upon hearing his son was sick and his best friend died, quickly rushed to see his son once more and together, the two had left Ireland and went back to Geneva after Victor's release.

Victor’s pattern of falling into extended illness in reaction to the monster suggests that the decline of his health is likely psychologically induced—as if guilt prevents him from fully facing the horribleness of the monster and his deeds. “The human frame could no longer support the agonizing suffering that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions,” he had remembered from his despair at seeing Henry’s corpse, making a rather clear link to