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Frankenstein: A Digital Edition

Source

Lepore, Jill. “The Strange and Twisted Life of ‘Frankenstein.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 31 May 2018

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The Role of Parenthood within "Frankenstein" and in the Life of Mary Shelley
Introduction

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is an evaluation of human nature that can be identified as an allegory, fable, epistolary novel, and autobiography due to its parallels of Shelley’s own life. In three volumes, Shelley explores the darkest aspects of humanity through scientist Victor Frankenstein, who seeks to create a living creature, only to abandon it once it is created. Through the relationship of Frankenstein and his creation, Shelley demonstrates the importance of parents in the development of a child, while literalizing her desire for a parental figure through the dynamics of Victor and his parents, as well as the creature and Victor. These concepts are identified in this essay by identifying the role of the father and the mother within Frankenstein, with historical context of the relationship Mary Shelley had with her own parents, and herself as a parent.

The Role of the Father

From the moment the creature awakens, Shelly parallels its actions to that of a newborn. The creature “breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” similarly to a baby gasping for its first breath; and had “one hand stretched out,” muttering "some articulate sounds, while a grin in his cheeks” (Shelley 36). These descriptions match the actions of a baby after it is born, identifying the relationship Victor has with the creature as that of a father, rendering the creature his responsibility. This is additionally supported by the fact that it took around nine months for Victor to create the creature, which is the amount of time a baby develops in a women's womb.

Unfortunately, shortly after the creature's "birth" Frankenstein fails in his role as a father as he experiences a form of postpartum depression. Horrified by his Creation, Frankenstein “rushed out of the room” (36) after the creature awakened, and has dreams foreshadowing the fate of Frankenstein’s loved ones due to his abandonment of the creature. This illustrates Shelley’s theme of stressing the importance a role of parent plays in the development of a child, and because the creature has no mother, the father's importance.

As consequence of Victor's upbringing, he has a poor role model of a responsible father. When referring to Alphonse, Victor states that "a more indulgent and less dictatorial parent did not exist upon the earth" (109). Meaning, his father was very lenient throughout his life, which did not provide Victor a structured development. This serves as rationale for Frankenstein’s inability to parent the creature, but does not excuse his complete abandonment. For, although not dictatorial, Alphonse “relinquished many of his public employments, and devoted himself to the education of his children” (19) after becoming a father. This is where the main difference lies between Alphonse and Victor--Alphonse gave up his work to care for his children, whilst Victor never recognized his parental responsibility.
As a consequence of Victor's abandonment and empathy for his general appearance, the creature isolates himself from society and eventually leads to destructive behavior as his only source of information comes from observations of a small family and through literature. This illustrates the detrimental effects the failure of parenting can have, and stresses the importance of doing this task well, which apparently, fathers within Frankenstein did not.

The Role of the Mother

In our essay, we argue that the creation of Frankenstein’s monster literalizes its creator’s subconscious desire for a maternal figure, a desire which, like the Creature, is never fully realized or fulfilled. This is reflected in Frankenstein’s three major voices: The Creature, the monster that was abandoned by his sole creator, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who often suffered from loneliness and isolation as a child and whose mother died at a young age, and Shelley herself, whose birth resulted in the death of her mother, and who also wrote Frankenstein following the death of her child. The novel examines themes of loss and bereavement, anger and the psychology of need, and parental abandonment and neglect, most clearly seen in Frankenstein’s deletion of female characters.

While closely examining the role of the mother in a story centered around two men may seem paradoxical, the novel’s female authorship, especially in the context of 19th-century England, merits careful consideration. Of the novel’s four female characters, two are killed--one murdered, one martyred--and two are given no attention outside of Volume II. None bear any significance to the plot outside of their interactions with male characters, nor receive anything more than superficial and subjective characterization, but perhaps most interestingly, all female characters display a startling lack of agency. They have no control over who they marry, how they spend their time; even matters of life and death are decided by decided by male characters. When you consider that Dr. Frankenstein literally created life, traditionally seen as the purview of women, any potential “value” these female characters could hold is dismissed.

How strange it is, then, that a female author could be so dismissive of women in her own work. One potential explanation for this is that Shelley seeks to “[portray] the consequences of a social construction of gender that values the male above the female” (Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein, 221). Barbara Johnson’s “My Monster/My Self” proposes that the depictions of human monstrosity in Frankenstein are rooted in the struggle for female authorship, authenticity, and personhood, a conflict with and demonization of self. In this way, Frankenstein can be viewed as a protest against the male-dominated literary establishment, a struggle for legitimacy, or a conflict with the gendered matriarchal construction of motherhood, a construct Shelley herself suffered from.

The Role of Shelley’s Parents
The influences of a parent create the morals and foundations that a child lives out throughout their life. Having the presence of both parents is not necessary, yet it provides more support and a sense of better guidance through two individuals. In Mary Shelley's case, the loss of one parent opened the opportunity for a stronger relationship with the other. Shelley lost her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, in September of 1797 due to birth complications she had with Shelley in late August. The absence of a mother as a young child and, more importantly, a girl growing up in this time period was a drastic loss. The effect of her mother's absence is shown within Shelley’s writings as a dark theme overlaying her novels and haunting the characters she creates, the same way it haunted her. Youngquist in "My Hideous Progeny": Mary Shelley, William Godwin, and the Father-Daughter Relationship writes, “the case of a daughter working through ambivalent feelings toward the mother whose death she inadvertently caused and the father whose love she ambiguously inherits.” In this case showing the so-called love Shelley takes on through the loss of her mother. This type of loss is seen throughout Frankenstein as loss is replaced with something to fill that void. A love for something new or pushing that love to something real. Shelley leaks this part of her life through her writings, filling Victor’s love and passion in science through the creature as all of Victors losses leave him with great remorse. Since Shelley lost her mother, she tried building a relationship with her father. Although her mother's fatality caused so much blame and confusion for Shelley, her father-daughter relationship became more influential than expected. Shelley’s past not only drove her from her house at a such a young age, but created the monster she never called upon. Through Godwin's cruelty, duplicity, and selfishness, Shelley was tormented with pain her entire life by always loving and caring for her father, yet never getting it in return. Her past of banishment, incest, and emotional manipulation tore Shelley and her father apart. In other words Shelley’s desire for a parental figure, a desire, like the creature in her novel is never fully fulfilled.
Shelley's Role as a Parent
As pain and agony controlled Shelley’s past, her relationship with Percy Shelley continued it. History tends to repeat itself, in her case death and loss continued throughout Shelley’s life. Writing Frankenstein when she was sixteen years old, only years after losing a child she never came to name. Continuing to try and fill this desire that is never fulfilled as a child and as a parent, Shelley expected her third child while finishing Frankenstein. The roller coaster of Shelley’s motherhood is a novel in and of itself--giving birth to four children, burying three, and losing her unnamed child to a miscarriage. Thus, Shelley’s hardships as a mother are just as haunting as her childhood. Jill Leopore breaks down Shelley’s truth in the in The Strange and Twisted Life of “Frankenstein”, she writes, "Like the creature pieced together from cadavers collected by Victor Frankenstein, her name was an assemblage of parts: the name of her mother, the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, stitched to that of her father, the philosopher William Godwin, grafted onto that of her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, as if Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley were the sum of her relations, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh.” Shelley, influenced by each individual her name attaches itself to brings together the similarity within the creature being built with the same influences of Victor and inheriting the pain he is filled with. That same pain Shelley inherits through her influences and the loss she so desired to fill with love in her children, novels, and her father. Created not only the creature in Frankenstein, but the creature that kept Shelley from her own parental figure.

Conclusion

Art imitates life, life imitates art. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein transcends the traditional understanding of genre by functioning as a critique of gender, a work of fiction, and an autobiography, as well as being the standard of Gothic fiction and the prototype for science fiction.