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Rick Sun
English 10-H
Mrs. Patton
19 October 2022
Frankenstein Essay
Frankenstein is a gothic romanticism novel written by Mary Shelley at Romanticism’s
peak revolving around the story of a scientist creating life out of the dead. Within the story, she
uses several themes to describe life and humanity. The first of these themes are nature, Shelley
uses it to send a message that nature is both soothing and destructive and that interaction with
nature has an equal amount of consequences from nature itself. She then builds the message of
how individuals consumed in vengeance will be negatively impacted and forget their morals,
using the theme of revenge. Lastly, the theme of parenthood can be found within the book
negatively impacting Victor Frankenstein and his creation, it can also be reflected back to
Shelley herself considering her historical background. Throughout the novel Frankenstein, the
author Mary Shelley introduces three of these themes to validate her messages on the power of
nature, the consequence of paying back, and the importance of parenthood to individuals.
Nature is often seen in the story as a powerful being, it is capable of healing yet can be so
ruthless in its judgments. One example of nature can be found in Victor Frankenstein, a character
who has felt both the gentleness and violence of the element. With the ambition of a great
scientist, Victor created the creature, who resembles the form of a human with distorted figures,
using deceased corpses, “...I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the
living animal to animate the lifeless clay” (Shelley 48-49). Unbeknownst to him, he has invoked
nature for trying to act above it, bringing the dead back to life. As a result of tampering with
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nature, revenge was poured upon Victor, his creation, murdered and killed off Victor’s family
one after another, “I was bewildered in a cloud of wonder and horror; the death of Wiliam, the
execution of Justine, the murder of Clerval, and lastly of my wife” leaving him desperate and
isolated (Shelley 174). Essentially, nature takes up the form of the creature, bringing
consequences to Victor for his attempt of overpowering nature. Yet when he decided to embrace
nature, he was soothed by the scenery, “The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and
maternal Nature bade me weep no more” demonstrating the peaceful side of nature (Shelley 84).
This exemplifies how nature reacts accordingly to the way its treated, able to offer tranquility but
also violence.
The second theme Shelley makes use of is Revenge, this element is possessed by both
Victor and the creature and ravages both characters. After having been rejected by humanity
multiple times, the creature vows to eradicate Victor’s loved ones, “my enemy is not
invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment
and destroy him”(Shelley 127). The creature felt the need to destroy his creator for failing to
accept and care for his own creation. In addition, the emotion drove the creature down the path
of a killer despite it contradicting his peaceful characteristic, which resulted in his decision to
commit suicide due to the great emptiness he felt after accomplishing the revenge. Conversely,
Victor was also filled with grief and vengeance to eliminate the creature from existence, “and I
devote myself, either in my life, or death, to his destruction” following his family’s passing
(Shelley 177). Having all his loved ones taken away from him, the creator dedicated his life to
the sole purpose of ending his creation. As a result of this, Victor failed to acknowledge his
mistakes in abandoning the creature but rather saw him as the root of the problem, which
consequently led to his own demise at the hands of sickness. Given these points, it can be seen
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how detrimental revenge can be to individuals, Victor was so invested in killing the creature that
he overlooked his responsibilities as a creator and died from the pursuits, while the creature
resorted to the acts of murder that he once had so detested, demonstrating the negative impacts of
revenge.
Lastly, Shelley uses parenthood to not only provide depth to the characters but also
project her own voice and story within. The creature is hateful of his parent, Victor of the lack of
acceptance that he received, “Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy monster, to whom
thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us”(Shelley 88). Victor did
not do a solid job as a parent figure, he rejected the creature due to his appearance and left him to
feel humanity’s lack of sympathy. This exposes Victor’s flaw as a character, how his own lack of
responsibilities turned the creature into a killing monster and the destruction of his loved ones. It
is ironic to think how Victor was perfectly aware of the idea of responsible parents, “My
mother’s tender caresses and my father’s smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me are
my first recollections” yet completely disregarded the feeling with his own “child”. Another key
point is how this lack of acceptance that the creature felt is also shared by Mary Shelley. Her
father dismissed her marriage and eventually disowned her after she persisted in her love, his
father’s neglect led to her running away from her family and settling with her lover secretly.
With these ideas in mind, Shelley described the life aspects of the characters with parenthood
and tied her own background with the creature.
It is clear that Mary Shelley develops her story by describing the capability of nature’s
power, the damaging repercussions of possessing vengeance, and the seriousness of parenthood
and how it can affect people. It can be seen how when Victor decided to act greater than nature,
he was brought down and suffered from it as a result, losing all his loved ones. Yet when both
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Victor and the creature embodied nature, they were able to receive remedy as a result,
symbolizing nature’s ability to both heal and spread violence. Additionally, Victor and his
creation both fell to their own demise after trying to achieve revenge, leading to the result of
death. Finally, Shelley used the relationship between Victor and the creature as well as her own
bitter experience with her parent to display the influence of parenthood. Using the character’s
interaction with these three elements as well as conveying her own experience significantly
enhances and authenticates her messages