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Motherhood In Frankenstein

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Recommended: Relationship between Victor and Monster in 'Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there is a strong antithesis between motherhood traits that female characters possess and that Victor lacks. Motherhood traits of care, protection and self-sacrifice are what hold family together when family is a representation of the nucleus of society. In Frankenstein there is a contrast between Agatha role as caregiver and protector in the De Lacey family, Caroline’s willingness to self-sacrifice for the health of her adopted daughter, Elizabeth bravery to testify, and Victor’s abandonment of his Creature followed by the abortion of the female creature. Female characters are represented as the protectors of humanity therefore, no female characters was involved on the creation of the Creature. It is for this …show more content…

Caroline catches a fatal scarlet fever as a consequence of caring for Elizabeth. When Elizabeth catches the scarlet fever against the family’s advice and aware of her likely death she still sacrifices herself, something that Victor never does for any of his family members. As part of her dying wish she asks Elizabeth: “you must supply my place to my youngest children. Alas! I regret that I am taken from you; and, happy and beloved as I have been, it is not hard to quit you all? But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavor to resign myself cheerfully to death” (45). Before dying she reaffirms that she is happy to die for the Elizabeth’s happiness. Ironically she entrusts Elizabeth with her children and not her husband or Victor who are older. This action suggests that men alone are not able to nurture children. On the other hand, Victor is the perfect example of bad parenting, since he abandons his Creature and as a consequence causes the death of his family members. In contradiction, when Caroline dies for the wellbeing of her daughter, Victor does not even recognize his responsibility toward his Creature. In Frankenstein the clear difference of the types of care given by women and the absence of care provided by the male characters argues for …show more content…

A female companion had the power to change the chain of destruction that ultimately only left revenge. The Creature was abandoned by Victor and due to his appearance he was deprived from the possibility of adoption or acceptance by a community. The Creature confronts Victor and begs for a female companion with harmless and pure intentions: “‘Oh! My creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!’” (148). The Creature presents to Victor a “peaceful and human” request and is willing to forgive Victor for abandoning him, however Victor’s responds with the violent and non-human destruction of the female creature.She would represents the possibility of hope and care. By destroying the possibility to have a female companion Victor ends with all hopes leaving only feelings of revenge on the Creature. Likewise after the Creature kills Elizabeth, Victor vows to: " For this purpose I will preserve my life; to execute this dear revenge will I again behold the sun and tread the green herbage of earth, which otherwise should vanish from my eyes forever” (206). At this moment both father and Creature are bound only by revenge and females are completely absent from the plot. With the destruction of the female Creature, Victor signs

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When Victor creates the creature he also abandons it. Once Frankenstein’s creature begins to murder off his family thus he begins’ to realize the importance of family. Caroline’s death contributes to Victor’s isolated nature.

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He grows angry at Victor for creating him, leaving him, and refusing to make him a female companion. Victor’s creation murders his friend Henry Clerval, his brother William, and even his wife Elizabeth. Once Victor’s creation comes to life, his life is ruined. If he would have accepted him from the beginning and taken on the rule of a father, his life may not have been so miserable. Victor and his creation ultimately needed each other’s love, because their separation ultimately destroyed them

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In the award winning article, “Passages in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Towards a Feminist Figure of Humanity?” Cynthia Pon addresses masculinity and feminism in terms of conventions, ideals, and practices (Pon, 33). She focused on whether Mary Shelly's work as a writer opened the way to a feminist figure of humanity like Donna Haraway argued. The article has a pre-notion that the audience has read Frankenstein and Haraway's article. Pon has a slight bias, due to her passion as a feminist writer.

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After Victor brings the creature to life, he is immediately repulsed by his creation and abandons him. Victor's cruelty towards the creature has far-reaching consequences, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads to tragedy. This act of cruelty is a powerful motivator for the creature, who seeks revenge against his creator for abandoning him. As the creature explains, "I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on" (Shelley 117). Victor's cruelty towards the creature ultimately leads to the deaths of several innocent people, highlighting the dangers of unchecked ambition and the human desire for power.

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Victor manifests hatred onto the embryonic creation, assuming the creature is programmed with evil nature. Instead, the creature, who desires affection, consumes his aversion and mirrors it. As Victor’s resentment becomes clear for the creation, he too forms animosity, forcing Victor to promise him happiness in the form of a female counterpart. Victor undertakes the promise, but reneges on it. He “destroy[s] the creature on whose future existence [the creation] depend[s] for happiness” and watches the creation, “with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdr[a]w.”

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The creature observes the feelings shown by humans while he is in the village and desires to acquire these same feelings. Victor filled with fear, pities the creature, so he followed the order and created a companion for the creature. Victor struggles to secure his power over his emotions. Half way through the making of the female monster, Victor feels guilt and rage from allowing the monster to have control over him and his emotions, which caused him to react in a violent manner to regain his power. He destroyed the new creature.

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After telling Victor the story of his short, miserable life, the creature’s longing to be a part of a family continues as he begs Victor to give him a female creature, similar to himself, that he can run away and avoid humanity with forever. The creature explains to Victor “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being” (Shelley 156). The absence of family throughout Frankenstein causes psychological as well as physical illness in several characters.

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To make Victor experience the feeling isolation, the creature sets out to destroy what he hold most dear, Elizabeth. Victor describes his spouse as the “body of Elizabeth, my love, my wife, so lately living, so dear, so worthy.” Nowhere else in the novel does Victor come even close to describing another human in this manner. Once the monster escaped, Victor realized how important it was to be near people he loved, he had learned the terrors of isolation. The creature then uses this against him by killing the person who brought Victor out of isolation, pushing him back into an even deeper sense of isolation from which Victor

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Victor’s parental figures in Frankenstein poison him by surrounding him with countless indulgences. From childhood, Victor was given all of his desires without question and this led to him becoming self-centered and dependent on the service of others. Victor describes his childhood with

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This much is true for Victor’s failure to take responsibility for not only teaching his creation about life but also failure to take responsibility for the actions of his creation. “Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy… you shall be my first victim” (153). Victor’s knows that he is responsible for the death of William because he abandoned his creation and made the monster learn the hard way that he would not be accepted into society. But he has no choice but to let Justine take the fall for the death of his brother because he fears being seen as a madman.

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Interestingly enough, the novel resembles Shelley’s own life and can be interpreted as a reflection of her perception of families. Shelley shares many of the same characteristics with most of her characters. As the main character in the novel, Frankenstein’s creature is depicted as “a motherless orphan” who had an “unnatural birth” (Griffith). This correlates with Shelley’s own childhood as she was raised without a mother and her birth was in some ways “unnatural” as mothers are not naturally made to die during childbirth.

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Because of this, Elizabeth had to play all feminine roles towards Victor: mother figure, sister, and wife. While Elizabeth becomes like a mother, Victor had already formed a friendly bond with her. Victor describes Elizabeth as “gentile and affectionate” (20), motherly characteristics, but Victor would never be able to see Elizabeth as a mother. Elizabeth and Victor had grown up together since the age of four. She was the only one who could make him forget his troubles, and he was the only one who could console her after the death of William and Justine.

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”(Millhauser). This violent rejection is a repetition of Victor’s lack of acceptance for the monster and attention to his family. Victor knows that the monster will never be able to live within society and that his ability to create life is the only hope the monster has of achieving companionship. Victor's own aversion to companionship surfaces as he, “ fails to give him the human companionship, the Eve, the female creature, that he needs to achieve some sort of a normal life.” (Mellor).

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Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist and the creator of “The monster.” As displayed in the book and article, he becomes the way he is by his relationships. His relationship with Elizabeth is an example of an important relationship. His cousin, adoptive sister, and eventual wife, she was always close to him. Elizabeth was dear to Victor’s heart in a way no one else was.

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