Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein indulges within the dark depths of Victor’s world, yet fails to feature the rest of the Frankenstein family more specifically Ernest. It is safe to believe that the novel’s audience will unlikely recognize or even acknowledge the existence of Ernest throughout the novel. Regardless, there is a questioning aura concerning Ernest, and Mary Shelley's use of “conspicuous absence” through his character. Within the two-hundred and seventy seven pages of the intriguing Frankenstein the name Ernest is mentioned a whooping thirteen times throughout the entire novel. It would seem that as Victor began to detach himself from his family, so did the existence of those most irrelevant to him at the time, such as his middle brother. …show more content…
Despite the exciting news of Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein attributing another baby boy into the world, Victor has already hardly acknowledged the very existence of his own brother. For instance, “On the birth of a second son, my junior by seven years, my parents gave up entirely their wandering life, and fixed themselves in their native country” (Shelley 18). However, in Mary Shelley’s earlier published Frankenstein the characterization of Ernest Frankenstein reveals to be heart wrenching, yet still quickly advanced through in Victor’s mind. In the first published version it states, “Ernest was six years younger than myself, and was my principal pupil. He had been afflicted with ill health from his infancy, through which Elizabeth and I had been his constant nurses: his disposition was gentle, but he was incapable of any severe application” (Shelley Romantic Circles). Victor soon after runs off to pursue his career at University, and soon forgets Ernest necessarily even exists until Elizabeth later on writes him a later. Perhaps Victor was anxious about the possibility of losing his brother, therefore he excluded him from his mind and world. This is the first instance readers encounter of the disappearing