Who Was The Real Monster In Frankenstein

The Woeful and Horrendously Sad Tale of Frankenstein

Who was the real monster in the book Frankenstein? In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we see the main character, Victor, create a being out of body parts and bring it to life. Over the course of a couple years, this experiment dramatically changes the course of Victor’s life. His creature was not as he intended it to be, so he hated it. Shelley uses Romantic and Enlightenment thought in her horror novel to explain and demonstrate the different emotions of her character. In Frankenstein, Victor is unable to successfully “mother” his creation the way he had envisioned it because he never learned to truly care for others. First, Victor is unable to successfully “mother” his creation because he lost his mother when he was young. “She died calmly; and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I
These were the words of Victor after his mother died from an illness. He was only seventeen. At such a young age, it must have impacted his life dramatically because he now no longer had a mother figure in his life. He had a void that nothing could fill. He no longer had a mother to take care of him, or a mother he could care for. These are one of the parts of Frankenstein where Shelley clearly and powerfully demonstrates Romantic thought and this idea of deep emotion. Though Victor does not show it so much on the outside, he is deeply crushed by this event occurring. There is nothing on earth like the love a mother could show to her son. “Frankenstein’s mother symbolizes Victor’s desire and lust for the maternal features he is unable to attain because of her death” (Barreto). Here, Victor shows he must continue his life through this tragedy. This may even be what later motivates