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Parent-Child Relations In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Recommended: Critical analysis of father and son relationship in frankenstein

Frankenstein could be focused on two different parent-child relations: that of Victor and his parents, and that of him and his creation, even though the entire novel is filled with parent-child relations that are abnormal, such as Safie’s with her father, where her interests are betrayed, Elizabeth’s with her parents, where she is left an orphan, Walton's relationship to Margaret, in which she failed to respond to her younger brother’s needs, and many more. In the beginning of the novel, Victor talks about his childhood in a way that makes it seem as if he had the perfect childhood. The reason he does this could be a psychological defense of an only child (which he was for a long time) who maintains a love/hate relationship with his parents because he senses that they share a love and affection that he is not and cannot be involved in. Victor is an object of their love, but not a participant in it; he is "their plaything and their idol" (Shelley 33). In his recollections of his parents' relationship he mentions their devotion to each other mainly, and not that of their child. In addition, if everything was centered on fulfilling his mother’s wishes and needs, one wonders at the son's account of the love left over for him: "they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from a very mine of love to bestow them upon me" (Shelley 33). The narrator claims to be too credible when he assures us …show more content…

. .” (Shelley 46). In reality, however, his parents had regarded him as a toy in a sense, and so Frankenstein views his creation as an object of his pleasure, just like his parents did to

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In Frankenstein, Victor is consumed by his ambition to create life that he pays no attention to his personal relationships with his family. Mary Shelley writes, “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation” (35). Victors ambition drove him to isolate himself for two years he pursued his goals to such extremes that he disregarded his own health and relationships.

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