What Is The Moral Of Frankenstein

Beyond the individual toll of physically dying, death often reverberates through the souls of loved ones, permanently etched into their futures and fates. In Mary Shelley’s gothic horror and science fiction novel Frankenstein, Mladen Dolar recognizes that “Frankenstein’s creation] is the zero point of natural subjectivity, and herein lies his paradox: as the embodiment of the natural zero state, he is counter to nature, a monster, excluded from nature and culture alike. Through his tragedy, culture only gets back its own message: his monstrosity is the monstrosity of culture” (18), implying that the “monster” is the purest reflection of human nature (Dolar 18). Stripped from the physical form, human beings are comprised of their humanity, or

When his mother was still alive, Frankenstein viewed his parents’ parental roles as responsibilities in a professional sense, rather than through unconditional love, which he continues to believe in later in life. He explains that “[he] was their plaything and their idol, and something better – their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards [him]” (Shelley 35). By labelling parenting as “a duty” and describing himself as “the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven” (Shelley 35), Victor Frankenstein displays his accumulated knowledge on familial relationships – that parenting requires only responsibility rather than affection. Frankenstein is only familiar with love out of obligation , which “seems to take the place of a typical father of the 19th century who wanted a child to claim as a possession rather than a responsibility” (Harris 3). When Victor’s mother dies, this familial dynamic shifts as a sudden lack of protection, which a child is able to easily interpret as (though unintentional) abandonment and neglect, which skews Frankenstein’s perception of parental figures and the requirement to stay. In turn, when he needs to take over the parental responsibilities of his creation, he does it without love while expecting love from the creature, and abandons any opportunities to create positive reactions with the creature. When Victor obsessively constructs life, which is driven by his life force to create life in the absence of a maternal presence, he explains that “[a] new species would bless [him] as its creator and source;