Frankenstein theme essay

Submitted By DSong22
Words: 962
Pages: 4

Author of the novel Frankenstein, Marry Shelley, discusses many significant and debatable issues as forms of themes and motifs through the characters and their actions in the novel. These themes and motifs represent her own life experiences as well as the social problems during the time period. The most important themes that the author reveals in the novel are the life and death, alienation, and family. One of the themes that the author depicts the most frequently is the concept of life and death which is represented through Victor’s creation of a monster. Victor, who was very talented at natural science, a subject that most of his professors thought ridiculous, succeeds in creating a human life form. As a creator of a monster, Victor takes role as a women who gave a birth to a creature. While Victor was working in his laboratory making a creature, “winter, spring, and summer passed away” (47). This passing time is nine months which is equal to the time required for a human baby to be formed in mother’s womb. This represents that Victor is not only a creator but has a role of mother who is responsible for her belongings. Later on the story, Victor has no purpose in life other than getting rid of the monster and therefore only focuses on making a new form of life, a process which, at the time period, was the only purpose of most women. An example of weak and powerless women is also depicted as the condemnation of Justine. She was convicted of a crime that she did not commit and eventually sentenced to a death penalty. Through the theme of life and death and the responsibility that comes with it, Shelley criticizes Victor who has abandoned his own creature. After creating a life, Victor felt that “the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled his (my) heart” (51). He was “unable to endure the aspect of the being he (I) had created”(51). This horror and detest toward his own creature is quite different from his first belief in which he thought “a new species would bless him (me) as its creator and source”(48). He wanted to create his own child who unconditionally obeys and loves him until he realizes the ugliness of his creature. The tragedy that happens to Victor is mainly because of his lack of responsibility and through this tragedy, Shelley emphasizes the high morals of life and responsibility of caring children. The theme that mainly depicted by one of two main characters, the monster, is alienation. The monster suffers his entire life because of his alienation from human beings by its terrible outlook :“his yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath … his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips” (51). It was not only the Victor who had abandoned the monster but also every human beings. The villagers, after the monster “had hardly placed his (my) hoot within the door before the children shrieked” (102), threw stones at him. People, even the DeLacy family which he admired and believed to understand him, judged him only by his outlook and this isolation made the monster to realize that he “was absolutely ignorant” (107) and therefore will never be accepted in the human society. He then asks Victor to create “ a female for him (me), with whom he (I) can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for his (my) being.” (129). But even his last desire to be loved has vanished by Victor when he tears the female creature right before he finishes the work. The violation and tragedy caused by the alienation