Role Of Abandonment In Frankenstein

“With the cutting of the umbilical cord, physical attachment to our mothers ends and emotional and psychological attachment begins” (Azar). From the very beginning, infants need someone to comfort them when they are scared, feed them when they are hungry, and take care of them when they are sick. Without this attachment, many developmental problems occur and those children have problems coping with everyday issues. Throughout the story Frankenstein and through much more research, it can be seen that mothers play an important role in the psychological and social development of children. From conception to about 3 years of age, not only is the infant’s brain and nervous system developing, but also the psychological formation of their bodies.
First of all, Frankenstein starts out his life with his mother, and greatly depends on her for a lot of help in life. However, when she passes away, it seems like he doesn’t have anyone to depend on anymore. While he is still grieving, he takes off and goes to school in Ingolstadt. This lack of a maternal figure is the reason why Frankenstein creates his creature. He attempts to fill the void in his mother’s death by creating life. Yet, just like research has shown, it is very hard for Victor to have a relationship with his creature since he didn’t have that motherly attachment when he was younger. Because of this, he realizes that he wants to do the abandoning instead of being the one abandoned
He didn’t have anyone teaching him what was right and what was wrong in certain situations; and the creature had no one to trust in. The creature’s life is summed up in this point of research, “There is a basic lack of trust in others which leads them to sabotage their parent’s efforts to parent them and be intimate with them. They believe that nobody can care for them but themselves and their own attempts to do so are bizarre. Their lack of empathy for the feelings of others is based in the own inability to feel their own feelings” (Feinberg). Since Victor neglected his creature, the creature started to do everything he could to make Victor’s life miserable. Since the creature was lonely, he thought that he should get rid of everything and everyone in Victor’s life so that he would feel the same way--deserted and abandoned. The creature also says something very interesting in the last chapter of the book, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (Shelley 231). This abandonment made the creature feel worthless, which in turn leads him to want to die and get out of all the sufferings in the