Free «Frankenstein is a Novel» Essay Sample

Frankenstein is a novel that was first published in 1818 by Mary Shelley in London. It took her three year to write the story, however, the novel is considered to be among the best science fiction stories of the nineteenth century. The storyline of this novel is of a scientist who is brought up in a wealthy family in Geneva, and has passion for achieving scientific wonders. As young as five, Victor is obsessed by outdated theories, and pushes his dream up to Ingolstadt University where he studies galvanism. Equipped with enough science knowledge, Victor begins his mission of creating a body, and animating it with life. However, Victor ends up creating a monster that ruins his life by killing his family, and results to his death. To cut the long story short, this novel basically analyzes different themes in the life of this family one of them being bad parenting.

The theme of bad parenting is seen in families throughout the story, and it is the cause of all dramas in this families. To begin with, Frankenstein’s father is considered to be a caring, and devoted to his family and children. As a father, he consoled him when things went wrong, and advised him to always remember his family. However, Alphonse played the least crucial role in Victor’s life. Moreover, he played no significant role in his son learning, and education preferences. On the other hand, Krempe, Frankenstein’s philosophy professor was involved in Victor education, and even encouraged him to start his studies a new. As a child, Victor liked to study outdated scientific theories. He particularly had a liking for books authored by Cornelius Agrippa. He was fascinated by his works and spent most of his time reading his books. However, it was Waldman, the professor of a chemist who sparked Victor’s interest in science. He ignited in him the desire for more knowledge. Hence, we can conclude that he had the most influence on Frankenstein. In his excitement on his discovery, he ends up creating a monster contrary to what he anticipated. He had intended to create a beautiful creature but instead he created a creature that was hideous to his eyes.  He rejects the monster, and runs away in an attempt to forget what he had done. This confuses the monster and angers him as he fails to understand his creator’s reaction (Shelley 55).

In regards to Victor’s way of thinking, it is obvious that he has a habit of neglecting his responsibilities. Frankenstein created a monster that hurt so many people. When he rejected the monster, he was abandoning his responsibility as the creator of the hideous creature. All the harm the creature did was as a result of Victor’s rejection. Therefore, he is the monster. Even after, the monster confessed to him and asked him for a companion, Victor was reluctant hence annoying the monster. This resulted in more deaths and pain. All this would have been avoided if Victor had taken responsibility of his action, and not run. When he ran away abandoning the creature, he left it with confused with no one to understand him or to feed him. This action triggered the creatures’ anger, hence resulting in the blood bath. Despite the fact that Victor did not commit the hideous acts, he was solely responsible for the creature’s deeds. He should have stayed home and nurtured the creature, teaching him the ways of man. This would have prevented the monster from killing people in an attempt to get Victor’s attention.

Throughout the novel, Frankenstein father has a steady connection with his children. Additionally, he is not seen comforting Victor when grieving for the death of his mother, brother or even wife. By this, Frankenstein is slowly pushed away, and ends up making unreasonable decisions that ruins his life, and that of the entire family. Victor states that his mother’s caresses and his father’s smile was a true sign that they loved him and that it was their responsibility to take care of him. However, she somehow blames herself for the death of her son claiming that he would have been alive is she had been more careful, and responsibility. In the beginning, Victor is introduced as a well-mannered and an educated man from a wealthy family (Shelley 57). Moreover, in chapter 5 Victor is seen as an irresponsible, and obsessed young man which is opposite from his original character. He might have been a wealthy kid showered by love by his parents, but he lacked discipline. It would be fair enough to state that he was a spoiled kid. This made him grow up to be an irresponsible, immature, and a selfish man.

According to the author’s point of view, it is evident that she agrees with the monster’s demands upon its creator. This can be compared to a child’s rights, whereby the parent should not neglect their duties. In this case, Victor is the mother and father of the monster, and should have played a vital role in molding the monster life. Instead, he created the monster and left it due to the frustration of what he had created. Victor seems to be aware of proper parental duties, moreover, he chooses to neglect them, and abandon his monster. Part of victor’s irresponsibility is by refusing to name his creation, and therefore, it is referred to as the monster. The lack identity frustrates the monster and in the quest to seek attention from his creator, it ends up causing deaths of his family members. Love is part of parenting care, and lack of it causes weird behaviors like that of the monster created by Victor. It seems that victor had a tendency of thinking after doing something instead of the other way round. First, he creates a monster without thinking of the consequences, and second he plans to chase it after it killed his wife without thinking what he is getting himself in to.

Walton interest in exploring is traced back when his father forbade him from undertaking sea voyage. Walton is used by the narrator in a paradox manner. This is because his character is parallel to that of Frankenstein in many ways. This is evident where he chooses to end the pursuit for the monster, as it was dangerous while Victor on the other hand, wanted to continue. However, it is through him that the narrator tells the remainder of the story through letters he writes to his sister. On the other hand, Clerval’s father denies Clerval’s the opportunity to go to school, and instead he advices Clerval’s to focus on trade as a career. This frustrates Clerval since he had a dream of pursuing a career in science just like Victor. Unfortunately, victor’s obsession of creating a beautiful creature becomes the root of all the deaths of his loved ones. Surprisingly, he has no guts of revealing the truth to the police even after innocent people are convicted of murder committed by his monster. He only reveals the story to Walton before he dies leaving his creation to destroy other people’s lives (Shelley 49).

Victor only cared about his discoveries and did not give much thought to the consequences of his actions. He was willing to risk anything in order to succeed in his exploration. His greed for success made him blind to the plight of the poor creature. His selfish nature is also revealed when he refuses to create the monster a companion. This show how inconsiderate he was since the monster only wanted the company to get rid of the boredom. This is ironic since Victor was himself getting married and he ought to be in a position to understand the creatures need for a companion. Moreover, it was mean and cruel of victor as everyone needs to have a companion one share their live. In conclusion, Victor is the real monster in the story. This is because; his actions have all through triggered the creature’s anger causing the deaths of people. In addition to this, he betrays the creature from the very beginning. This betrayal is repeated over and over again hence the creature is only acting out of anger and confusion while Victor is acting out of malice and selfishness. This makes him the true monster in the story (Shelley 67).

Conclusion

To summarize, bad parenting contributes to almost all the misfortunes that befell the Frankenstein family. However, it is clearly evident the Shelley has amoral lesson to wealthy families that neglect their parental duties and focus on their career. Despite being an old piece of literature, Shelley’s point of view has clearly emphasized on the theme of bad parenting, and, therefore, maintaining its fancy over the years. The theme of bad parenting can be traced from Mary Shelley’s life back in young motherhood when she lost two of her children in a span of two year. Through this novel, it is evident that she blames herself for their deaths, and she somehow relieved personal feeling by incorporating the theme of bad parenting in her novel.