Blame My Insanity on My Father, the importance of a paternal bond in Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein

All human beings are created in the same way; they may not spawn from the same mother, but each baby is created through the collision of a sperm and egg cell, the formation of a zygote, and the development of a fetus. According to the theory of Tabula Rasa, individuals are born without built-in mental content or rules. Instead, their knowledge comes from their unique experiences, many of which can be influenced by their childhood.

Even when it comes to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, parenting played a significant role in the development of her characters. As the creator of his “child”, Victor Frankenstein is solely responsible for the creature’s murderous behavior. The lack of a paternal bond and a proper parent-child relationship between Victor and his creation psychologically affects the creation’s ability to self-identify and ultimately leads to his malicious behavior.

Victor’s Perfect Childhood

Victor’s childhood was the epitome of utter perfection. He recalls, “during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity and of self-control” (Shelley 16). Victor himself believed his childhood was charitable and beneficial to his self-development. In fact, he was “guided by a silken cord that all seemed but one train of enjoyment” (Shelley 16). The affection, stemming from his mother, father, and Elizabeth, provides Victor with a luxurious feeling of being loved and subconsciously creates a stable support system. Victor’s parents themselves had good hearts and “were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence,” and whenever he observed other families, he “discerned how peculiarly fortunate [his] lot was” (Shelley 19). His parents’ innate ability to express affection appeased Victor and eventually formed into tender love and attachment, allowing Victor to develop his scientific passions in a healthy manner in which he is guided by a passion to do good, not evil.

Victor’s goal was to “ultimately succeed” and accept that even though his “work be imperfect…the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics” would at least be improved (Shelley 32).

Victor’s experimental passions are centered around scientific development and improving mankind as a whole to ultimately enhance life and its many creations.

Victor’s Belittling Relationship With His Father

A part of Victor feels as though he has been let down by his father. When he communicated his discovery of Cornelius Agrippa’s theories to his father, Alphonse says, “do not waste your time…it is sad trash” (Shelley 20). Victor was still young at this time and he was nothing but a blue flame; he was young, inexperienced, and his scientific passions were on fire spiraling at a fast pace. He communicates his findings to his father because, as a child, he naturally wants to impress him. To this remark, Victor would like if his father motivated his passionate energy with more knowledge, rather than some demeaning criticism. He says that,

“ if my father had taken the pains to explain that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded…I certainly should have thrown Agrippa to the side”

Victor would have outgrown the unrealistic practices of the former alchemists as well as the knowledge that goes with it; however, because his father’s “cursory glance” showed no signs of complacency, Victor avidly pursues his passions which, he believed, “led to my ruin”(Shelley 21).

As a result of this harsh behavior, his father’s rejection was projected onto Victor’s creation. He plainly believes the monster’s inherently evil nature drives his vengeful actions; however, the monster’s

“overwhelming sense of isolation and despair at lacking human connections,” and his ignorance of the monster’s damaged condition, is the true culprit of his bitterness towards mankind (Claridge 6).

The creation, like Victor as a child, was seeking fellowship and approval from his father figure, but the prejudices prohibit him from establishing those connections. For Victor, Alphonse criticizes his passions; but for the creature, Victor criticizes his ugliness and wretchedness. It is this desire for friendship that ultimately leads to the creature murdering William; he hoped that with someone beautiful, pure, young, and slow to judge, he could establish a connection he lacks with Victor.

Victor as a Selfish Father

Victor neglects his responsibility as a father to his creation and does not take advantage of his talent to create life. Even though he had the gift of “deliberately, knowingly [creating] his child; [choosing] the parts,” Victor is overwhelmed with feelings of disgust enough to abandon the creature, like a mother abandons a newborn child out of guilt.

It is ironic that he hates what he sees. Victor “produces such a grotesque model for his procreation in part as a response to his own aggressive feelings toward his parents and the guilt these emotions provoke” (Claridge 13).

Victor was compelled to satisfy his father as a son; having his passions regarded as “trash” by the person a child would naturally hope would be the one to support, Victor subconsciously sees himself as “trash” as well for pursuing that subject. His parental irresponsibility is simply a result of being selfish.

The only excuses one can make are “short-sightedness, and the lazy inability of parents (or society in general) to look beyond the most convenient course of action, or the most self-serving judgment” (Potters 20).

Victor puts his own guilt, embarrassment, and stress before his creation. Instead of an interplay between love, there is an interplay of anger and isolation leading to the repression of emotions that are essential for one’s self-development.

Parallel with Shelley’s Life

The lack of a paternal bond between Victor and his creation had an adverse effect on the creature’s psychological development. Victor is the “mother” who had the power to beget a child into existence upon its creation.

The book is a connection to Mary Shelley’s experiences of her own abandonment as an infant and her message in the novel “imaginatively describes what it is to have been primarily rejected as an infant and to feel regarded as a monster” (Britton 1).

Shelley did not have the opportunity to get to know her mother because she had died shortly after Shelley’s birth; therefore, she never had the chance to form a loving, maternal bond filled with affection and care. Shelley, like her monster, is left alone to helplessly seek the transcendent relationship which can “only exist between mother and infant… Shelley and her motherless creature both become unfairly subject to their frustrated abandoned state, forcing them to repress painful emotions and therefore struggle as they each try to establish a sense of self” (Lall 31).

Victor’s Rejection of the Creature

Successful self-identification for the creature “relies on a healthy relationship between parent and child and that an unhealthy relationship conversely produces harmful effects for a child as that child attempts to construct his/her identity” (Lall 3).

The relationship between the parent and child, Victor and the creation, was stagnant and disconnected as building blocks: disordered and lacking structure or foundation. The creature is not evil; he is emotionally hurt.

When the creature was born, he was essentially an infant: newly created and brought into the world for the first time. The connection established between a mother and an infant “consists of the feelings of love and compassion shared mutually (though not verbally communicated) between the two.”

Just minutes after the creature is born, the creature is reaching out to Victor and smiling, like a human infant would when he/she is born. This natural, nonverbal attempt at forming a connection proves to be a failure; Victor turns away and leaves the room completely, leaving the creature, bare with his arms out reaching for guidance only to be rejected by the first person he is to see. As he is frozen in this helpless state, the creature has no way to defend himself from the foreign environment.

Victor demonstrates highly judgemental behavior, calling his creature names like “daemon” and describing him as “ugly” and “wretched” and saying, “A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch” (Shelley 36). And though this would initially prompt the creature to impress his father, as Victor had attempted as a child as well, the consistent rejection from Victor eventually leads to the unprecedented event: murder.

The creature’s “Promethean aspirations for success [over reach and surpass] his parents at the cost of everything else” (Claridge 10). Like Prometheus had created civilization from the manipulation of fire, the creature hopes to create a reciprocation of love by bringing awareness to his distress aimed at Victor.

Just as Prometheus was chained to a rock for the rest of his life as a result of his devilish act, the creature was ultimately rejected and hated even more. Because the love between the father and son is not communicated clearly (or at all) the creature grows more impatient; however, the creature is not innately evil; he is simply emotionally hurt and falsely believes has no other choice but murder to attract Victor’s attention.

The Beauty Behind the “Wretched” Creature

The creature admires humans’ ability to form emotional connections and observes them in order to help him identify and make sense of his own emotions.

The creature “allowed my thoughts, unchecked by reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my feelings and cheering my gloom” (Shelley 92).

The creature is astounded but dejected with the notion that there are no beings in the world who are willing to love him. Viewing himself as a “wretched” creature already, he feels as helpless as a blind fly. For this reason, and the loss of hope in trying to gain acceptance, in the “bitterness of [the creature’s] heart,” he curses Victor (Shelley 92). He even compares himself to Adam reflecting that “[Adam] had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the special care of his Creator,” bringing attention to the fact that the creature is not happy nor guarded by any kind of special care by his creator. Instead, the creature even considered “Satan as the fitter emblem of [his] condition”(Shelley 92). The creature’s outrage has surfaced and transformed into sour revenge.

The Creature’s Attempt at Self-Identification

As a result of the abandonment, the relationship between Victor and his creature weakens over time and leads to the creature’s struggle to identify with himself. His first attempt is seen as the creature identifies more with nature than he does with his own creator.

When he tries to imitate the songs of the birds, he was unable and “wished to express [his] sensations in [his] own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from [the creature] frightened [him] into silence again” (Shelley 72).

The creature has immense difficulty expressing himself in a way that is enjoyable and satisfactory to himself. The creature can only make a mere attempt to mimic the bird sounds, suggesting it ended in defeat. When the creature thrusts his hands into a fire, he quickly draws it back and is perplexed with how “the same cause should produce such opposite effects! I examined the materials of the fire, and to my joy found it to be composed of wood” (Shelley 72).

Victor’s traits of curiosity and thirst for knowledge have been passed down to his creation. The fact that Victor ‘alone’ can fulfill the monster’s need for love is significant; the creature is not asking for reconciliation with his creator, instead promising to flee into the wilderness if this wish is granted. In this way, the creature has come to terms with the fact that Victor will no longer consider him his beloved creation. Despite being enemies, they ironically desire the same things: love and fulfillment.

The creature ultimately relies on an “unreliable father for … romantic fulfillment, and Victor agrees that it is ‘within his power’ to bestow that fulfillment.”(Potters 13).

As mentioned before, Victor is the father of his creation, therefore he is the only being who can quench the creature’s thirst for love. This dependence on Victor will subconsciously never disappear unless Victor gives the acceptance the creature needs. Likewise, Victor cannot fully accept the creature unless he receives the acceptance from his father that he needs. This pattern may persist for generations.

Conclusion

It is clearly evident that Victor’s negligence as a father had negative consequences on his creation, just as Alphonse had on Victor. After observing other human beings and deprived of affection, the creature, unfortunately, comes to terms with society, Victor, and himself and accepts his wicked fate as the monster everyone sees him as.

Victor’s absent role in the creature’s childhood manifests in his feelings of exclusion that eventually evolves into a longing for acceptance not only from Victor but also from the creature himself. Ultimately, the creature could not self-identify with the identity society assigned him, and he had no other choice but to murder to find a sense of fulfillment. In the end, identity is just a memory, and when memory disappears, the self dissolves with whatever love was left. As Mary Shelley herself once said,

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks”

The creature was not born evil and did not seek evil; he only sought love, the most basic of needs for any living being. Love can never lead one down the wrong path; only the lack of love manifested so maliciously.

Sources

Brown, Marshall. “‘Frankenstein’: A Child’s Tale.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, vol. 36, no. 2, what th2003, pp. 145–175. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1346124

Claridge, Laura P. “Parent-Child Tensions in Frankenstein: The Search for Communion.”Parent-Child Tensions in Frankenstein: The Search for Communion,knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/claridge.html.

Lall, Ashley. “Like Father Like Son: Parental Absence and Identity Construction in Shelly’s Frankenstein.” pp. 1–47.

Potter’s Field. “Hideous Progeny, Hideous Parentage : Parent / Child Relationships in Mary whar the heeShelley’s Frankenstein.” Hideous Progeny, Hideous Parentage : Parent / Child Relationships in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, www.potterama.net/Aaron/literature/frankenstein.html

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Dover Publications, 2009.

Artwork: http://www.thedrawingclub.com/workshop/dr-victor-frankenstein-theme-photo-and-artwork/