Family Values and Social Interaction in Mary Shelleys Novel Frankenstein and The Modern Prometheus - Book Report/Review Example

The Importance of Family Values and Social Interaction in Mary Shelley’s Novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” Literature works cover a variety of topics of human beings’ actual reality serving as a reflection of their thoughts and ideas. At the time many writers have wondered whether a person has the right for creation of his own kind. Naturally, the question is not just about child-bearing; it touches the scientific approach to the issue of revival of inanimate matter and insertion of soul into it. In this respect Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” appears to be a bright example of the story focused on the creation and further life of a unique living being named after his father Victor Frankenstein. As a matter of fact, the scientist has managed to achieve his primary goal only partially, that is: his creation is a monster, which is brought to live in the world of people but is not allowed to do this due to his horrible ugliness. The novel presents the theme of the importance of family values, social interaction and strong community ties and reveals the consequences of the absence of these values both for humans and Frankenstein. Firstly it must be mentioned that the whole story is depicted through the close connection between Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Even their destinies bear a particular resemblance in this or that way. Notably one of the key points is the process of their alienation from society and family. Though Victor and the monster’s existences are radically different due to their origin and appearance, still there are many somewhat common difficulties, which are faced by the main characters. The main idea lies in Victor’s purposeful and voluntary escape of social life for the sake of his scientific activity and Frankenstein’s forced departure from people’s community and hiding from people’s eyes because of his nature. So the theme of family values and the importance of social ties finds its reflection in lives of the scientist and his creature. Victor Frankenstein is a young man from a loving and caring family with numerous fundamental life values at the heart of the relations. It comes from the novel that Victor’s mother and father are the people of large sympathies. Victor tenderly recalls his mother’s image in his memory: “This, to my mother, was more than a duty; it was a necessity, a passion ... for her to act in her turn the guardian angel to the afflicted” (Shelley 32). This is proved out by their handsome gestures of taking into their family of two girls, namely: Elizabeth who is treated as a sister of Victor and whom the whole family loves and sees as a future spouse for him, and Justine, a girl living in their house. Both females are perceived as family members in spite of the absence of the blood relation. Such a family is able to give the feeling of safety, stability and comfort. Moreover Victor’s parents don’t push their son in his choice of favorite occupation, and give him the whole freedom in his desire to commit himself to sciences of the natural world. So while living with his family the young man has strong ties with its values and absorbs them. But Victor’s decision to leave his relatives and move for studying to the university in Ingolstadt changes his life to the extent that he almost forgets his family and humiliates any connections with society. He turns into an alien and outsider due to his hidden way of life which is a result of his secret experiments over nonliving matter. In such a situation the only bridge between Victor and society, Victor and family is his close friend Henry Clerval. He is just the man who returns Victor from his desired solitude with his works over the revival of his creature to the world of people and beautiful nature. The scientist’s friends, family and any social ties with people’s community have become non-essential part of his life due to his passion in the face of science and its secret of life. There is probably a particular dependence of Frankenstein’s creature to become alien for human society as well as his creator was. Still this is the moment which determines the triviality of Victor’s life, which is devoted to the science far away from society. Being obsessed with the idea of creation of a new kind of living beings, Victor gives the birth to the monster frightening people by its appearance and killing Victor’s relatives out of revenge. So it may be said that it is the price paid by the scientist for his break off with his family and society in general. Another consequence of the young man’s creation is his inability to declare expressly about his creature, for people may suggest him to be insane. As a result his silence kills Justine, the member of his family. In this respect, every death can be perceived as a result of Victor’s alienation of social life, which has produced Frankenstein, the monster killing his creator’s cronies in order to revenge his master for his treachery. Nevertheless, there is another side of the medal, that is, the destiny of Frankenstein. This is about the living circumstances and their impact on his development as a living being. As we can see he suffers from abundance by his creator and even cannot understand the reasons for such an action till he realizes his unfitness to the people’s world. This understanding doesn’t come to him at once. Frankenstein passes through different events contributing to his intellectual, mental and emotional evolution, and as a result the monster approaches to becoming almost a human being with the difference in appearance only. All these features are gained by him due to the factual living side by side with De Lacey family and his watching of the relations within it. The scientist’s creature sees tender and caring attitude between people and thereon this gives him the same emotions and simultaneously sharpens his feeling of misery and loneliness in his forced isolation from anyone who can accept him, talk to him and love him, as the members of De Lacey family do. That is how Frankenstein talks of them: “The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys” (Shelley 162). So the absence of family ties makes Frankenstein suffering from his alien existence. Only spring nature is able to give him a kind of a soul comfort in the context of his misfortune. The case is that the monster cannot identify himself with any living creature in the world, though he has the similar feelings with humans. And this aspect alongside with the abundance by his master stirs Frankenstein into evil actions, that is, the murder of Victor’s younger brother William, friend Henry Clerval and indirect part in Justine’s death sentence. He just afflicts with his incompleteness for the measures of human society and is hard up for the absence of community ties and family values. The monster realizes his asocial position and strives for its improvement through the creation by his father of another female living being in order to find a friend and family in her face. Naturally, this cannot interchange essential life in public for Frankenstein, but at least it will give him a person to talk to and to love and be loved in return. So the absence of social ties pushes Frankenstein for the search of alternative ways of life. But Victor’s decision not to allow such a great mistake to happen (for the sake of humanity) bears only one desire in the monster – to revenge him. In such a way Victor’s own creature as a fruit of his scientific work in deprived from society place has turned to be the nightmare of his life and people in general. That is a particular consequence of the absence of social ties and family values in the life of Frankenstein. The comparison of the destinies of two main characters of the novel shows that family values as well as family ties are of a great importance for life. They serve as a bridge between a person and society itself, as a family is a part of society. Both Victor and Frankenstein’s cases prove the positive effect of family values on the life of a person: the monster discovers and develops his human abilities and features, and for the scientist family is the place where he can recover under the love and care. Social interaction in its turn manifests the importance through the depiction of its absence in both lives of Victor and Frankenstein, as they are the outsiders of society due to the different reasons. The scientist has the close friend Henry Clerval who unites in his personality almost every of few demands required by Victor for the connection with community. In fact, he doesn’t need strong ties with people’s social world, for his only interest is science. In particular, Victor’s searches remove him from family and lead to isolated asocial way of life. As for Frankenstein, it is obvious that the key idea of his existence is loneliness and misery because of his inability for self-identification. So it is the absence of community ties and social interaction that makes the monster to be a monster, and to suffer from the forced isolation from people and their fear of his nature. One way or another both Victor and Frankenstein lose the warm connection with humanity and bring the pain to themselves and their surrounding as well. All things considered then Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” proves the importance of family values and social ties for a person and shows the consequences of their absence. The young scientist Victor Frankenstein finds himself isolated from society due to his all-consuming passion to sciences of the natural world and the desire to create the life. As a result his creature is a unique living being, which is destined for suffering and loneliness because of his ugliness. The destiny of both characters confirms the essential character of family ties and social interaction for everyone with brains and heart, for it is impossible to live in solitude without love, care and support by other human beings. The whole triviality of Frankenstein’s position is rooted in the absence of his identification with the world of people, which makes him suffer and act amiss. Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. 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