The Theme of Family in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Book Report/Review Example

Sur Lecturer Frankenstein Mary Shelley in her book “Frankenstein” addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in the society. Family values are upheld in this novel, with several events surrounding major characters. Victor, the creator of the monster exhibits ambitious characterization. Even as a child, Victor studied past scientists and sciences. However, his ambition was his downfall. Victor ignores his responsibilities. He commits mistakes out of his ambition and pride. This brings destructions and unhappiness to his family. Although ambition is constructive in life, Victor’s ambition brings him down. He shows a burning urge to learn in the beginning. He spends long hours studying. His goal changes when he creates a monster. He failed to realize the implications of having a monster. He invited evil to his door step. The theme of family is illustrated in this theme under Victor’s ambition. Victor thinks parents do not understand. The tragedy would have not occurred if his dad had given reasons not to read Agrippa. Mary Shelley explains in her novel that having a supportive family is a great solution to the problems of the society. However, the nice family in this novel ends up in the middle of the woods exiled in a cottage. Not so good for a family. Victor’s ambition resulted into the death of his mother. However, Victor is exonerated morally from the tragedy responsibility since such happening was not in his control. Walton’s desire to have a friend reflects the urge the monster feels for a mate. In this novel, gender is not an issue: it is about intimacy and closeness, not sex. Frankenstein gives a gratifying “depiction of family affection.” However, this is not usual in a novel complete with tragedy, murder, and despair. These tragedy, despair, and murder take place due to the absence of connection to either society or family. Isolation is the true evil in this novel. Victor’s ambition resulted into loneliness. When Victor becomes lost in his researches, he isolates himself from the society. He loses responsibility and implication of his actions due to this isolation. Victor’s monster becomes vengeful because of isolation, and not because it is evil. Monster gets filled with overwhelming anger and hate. The monster wants Victor to be lonely the way it is. This results in violence, hatred, and revenge. Through Walton and Victor, Mary Shelley in her novel exhibits human beings as very ambitious, though flawed. The two characters shared a dream to transform the society and bring glory to their families via scientific accomplishments. However, the ambition of the two characters makes them fallible. Clouded by ambitions of glory, they lose the sight of their responsibilities and implications of their actions. Victor becomes a creator, god through creating a monster. He becomes fallible and fails to fulfill his responsibilities to the monster as a creator would to his creation. Victor wants to be a creator, but eventually becomes the creator of devil. Walton retrieves from his quest before being killed. He however remains angry and concludes his glory is taken from him. Mary Shelley exhibits other themes under the family in her novel. One such theme is feminism. Feminism is equality for people regarding politics, economics and society. Feminism challenges people to live in different ways through confronting and questioning gender roles and stereotypes. When a feminist lens is applied to popular literature or culture, then ideologies in the society are interpreted or questioned. Mary Shelly has explored feminist perspective in her novel. She has explained different ways in which women are treated and commented on various perceptions of women. In addition, Mary Shelley has handled the theme of motherhood well in her novel. Even though Mary Shelley reveal her female characters as gentle and able to make decisions on their own, the characters still portrayed feminist qualities like being independent and responsible. Women could not be left to live on their own or even get education back then as men did. This is different from the feminists we think of today: strong and independent women with common rights as men. However, Mary Shelley did not portray feminism in all her female characters in this perspective. Although it isn’t obvious at a first glance, Mary’s Frankenstein is practically edged with allusions of the feminist perspective. With no particular reference to any strong female character, Mary Shelley inserted the role expected of women to play in the society. She portrays an idealized powerless woman of the romantic era. The first instance of feminism in the novel is when Caroline Beaufort gets married to Alphonse Frankenstein merely because of his money. It was impossible for a woman to provide for herself in the society. Mary Shelley portrayed women as men’s possession to be protected. However, Frankenstein thinks less of or listens to Elizabeth and ignores her virtually while working on anything else including his monster. In fact Frankenstein shows very little consideration for Elizabeth throughout the novel. In addition to the defenselessness and powerlessness bestowed on female characters, women in this novel are revealed as angelic and good characters. Victor fails to trust Elizabeth. He thinks she cannot handle the secrets of his creation and that she will probably not believe it with her innocence. Mary Shelley has explored feminist perspective in her novel in a unique way. Every female character in the novel is given an entrance into the storyline as a passive and dormant woman who suffers in silence, and then calmly expires from Justine Moritz to Caroline Beaufort and to Frankenstein’s aborted female monster. None of the female characters attempts to resist or delay their own downfall or death. This is a complete opposite of the idea of feminist to women. The comments made by Mary Shelley on the perception of women on feminist were influenced greatly by her mother and her ideas of feminist. In spite of her choice against showing the strength of women in Frankenstein, Frankenstein is not a patently feminist novel, but an ironic show of women for Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter, for she portrays them as weak instead, and practically showing readers how things ought not to be. Mary Shelley portrayed stereotypical traits of female characters in Frankenstein. For example she says, “...when my father entered the chamber. He entered the like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care...” (Shelley 18). After the death of Caroline’s father, she is unable to take care of herself and Victor’s father takes care of her. Caroline is shown to be weak, left a beggar and crying after losing her father. She is practically unable to work and has little education because she is a woman. “… and when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift…” (Shelly 21). Victor demonstrates how he is promised Elizabeth as a child. Both Caroline and Elizabeth had no choices left in whom to marry. Both of them were poor and married rich men. They entirely depended on them for social and economic protection. In the entire Frankenstein, there are several points where women show feminist qualities in their lifetime. For example in Chapter 8 where Justine owns up the blame for William’s death and encourages Frankenstein’s to move on. She takes the penalty of murdering when the readers know she is not responsible for the death of William, just to help those she loves and cares for and to prove she is responsible and strong. Mary Shelley portrays all women in her novel as strong and responsible. The female characters care for their husband and children. They do the cleaning, cooking, and chores as demanded by the society. Although Caroline, Justine, and Elizabeth were portrayed as gentle and could independently make few choices, they carried out the activities they were able to in order to be their own person. They were responsible. Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, London: Pearson Education India, 2007. Read More