Teo Kyrazis
Frankenstein Oral
What the heart can believe and the mind can conceive, the body can achieve. Just do it.
I.
Introduction
In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley illustrates the theme of abandonment
and nature’s retaliation towards it from experience in her own personal life. She uses
the theme of abandonment in the novel to show how a morally correct society should
be more compassionate to life and all that is living because it is a part of a larger
whole which is the natural world we live in.
II.
The Abandonment and the Consequences of Nature
A. Victor’s social Abandonment- Victor leaves for university at 17
 Victor abandoning the family to go to school right as Madame
Frankenstein died
 Not helpful to the family
 Abandons his support base- the ones who he can trust and rely on
 Mother dies trying to save Elizabeth because she is sick
 Helps Elizabeth recover, Contracts Scarlet Fever
 Mother’s last words were a plea for Victor and Elizabeth to marry
o Parallels to Mary Shelley’s personal life in that she moved away
from her family as a young teen
o Inverted- Felt rejected by her family (Victor’s family openly
loved him) BECAUSE of the introduction of Mary Clairmont
(stepmother)
o Introduction of Mary Clairmont is inverse to Frankenstein’s
mother in that she is the birth of a matriarchal figure while
Madame Frankenstein is the death of one
o Possibly interpreted as Mary Shelley rejecting the introduction of
a new mother hoping she will die like Madame Frankenstein
o Another possible interpretation is that Madame Frankenstein
represents Mary Shelley’s own mother Mary Wollstone Craft
who died after giving birth to Mary Shelley.
o Elizabeth is being nutured by the mother (like Mary) and the
mother dies trying to save her child respectively
o Writing from experience
o Abandonment of family cause natures retribution
B. Abandonment of Elizabeth
 Victor’s love (1831 edition, cousin in 1818 edition)
 Introduced to Elizabeth at a young age
 Madame Frankenstein rescues her from a family in Italy
 Abandons her when he goes off to school
 She passively but impatiently waits for him to return for her to claim her
 Consumed by his idea of creating a monster
 Dies by the creature waiting for Victor to marry her
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Ironic= Victor finally is going to claim her as his wife, but the creature
takes her life, abandoning Victor of his love
o Mary Shelley feels like a passive lover towards Percy Clerval in
that he was married and she was waiting for him to marry her
during the original publication of this work
o Waits for him to marry her
C. Main Example of Abandonment- The Creature
 Victor consumes himself with the idea of life
 Selfish
 Abandons all others while working on his creature
 Does not contact family in any way during his creation period (including
Elizabeth)
 After creating the creature, Victor immediately abandons him because of
his unaesthetic appearance that makes Victor repulse him.
 Monster is instantly rejected and abandoned, Victor runs away
 The monster feels lonely and hurt that Victor rejects him as his creator
 Creature wants to be loved by Victor
o Effects
 Majority of novel details repercussions of abandoning
the monster
 Monster retaliates by killing the family members of
Victor who he has abandoned (Ch 7 kills William,
younger brother of Victor, first murder, Monster plants
evidence on Justine (Ch 7) as well, convicting her of the
murder of William. She is executed (Ch 8) Creature
Kills Elizabeth and Alphonse Frankenstein dies from the
grief of it all)
 He kills because he wants to hurt Victor like he was hurt
since he was abandoned
 Ironic in that had Victor stayed in contact and not
abandoned his family, he would never have had time to
brainstorm or create his monster.
 Would not have been isolated by himself and could have
protected his family.
 Ironic= because of abandonment of monster, monster
kills Elizabeth on Victor’s wedding day, retaliating
against Victor who is now abandoned of love
o Mary Shelley compares herself to the creature
o Father, William Godwin, neglected her after a few years much
like Victor neglected the creature after creating him
D. Societal Abandonment of the creature
 Creature feels rejected by Victor
 Wants to fit into society
 Observes Delacey family
 Learns rudimentary skills by observing
 Surprisingly speaks eloquently
 Learns the bonds of family and love through observing Safie and Felix’s
elation with her
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Presents himself to blind family member, other family members drive the
monster away
Share Victor’s reaction, run from the creature
Although he learns all about society he is still rejected because of his
appearance
o Effects
 Creature realizes society will abandon him and reject
him no matter what he tries to do to please them
 He is too different physically to ever be accepted
 Nature’s cruel retaliation on his acceptance
 Abandons hope of fitting into society
 Wants a mate so that he will no longer be abandoned
o Compares to Mary Shelley’s view of her own life
o Felt isolated and abandoned by her father who she adored
o The creature adored his creator even though he was rejected by
him
o Wanted to please society but felt like she did not fit in
o Wants a mate who will love her for herself
E. Abortion
 The creature comes to Frankenstein pleading him to create a female who
will love the monster (Ch 17)
 Victor agrees to create a female monster
 Victor agrees but has second thoughts and abandons the endeavor
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“When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became
inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had
so thoughtlessly made.” (Ch 3 after first creating the monster)
“I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned
at, and kicked, and trampled on.” Creature said, (Ch 3)
Creature shares Victor’s views of regret that he exists
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Victor Has doubts about the female creature (Ch 20)
What if she doesn’t love him back?
What if she is a killer?
Will she find him hideous like the humans do and will he find her
hideous as well?
He is afraid they might reproduce creating, “a race of devils . . . on the
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earth.” (Ch 20)
The monsters are abnormal beings that are supernatural
Victor truly believes they should not procreate or they might start a new
society of monsters
Victor performs a form of abortion
Throws the body parts into the ocean
Does not appease the creature’s request
Nature retaliates in the form of Victor getting charged with murder (Ch
20)
o Mary Shelley writes about abortion because of her own fears
with childbirth
o Had 4 children die before adulthood
o Had one miscarriage
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She feels that she is not a fit parent and that these lives were
aborted
Can relate to Victor, (unintentionally though) aborted her
creations and internally takes a toll because she wants the new
life of the babies while Victor does not want to create life and is
publically accused
Motif of revulsion of newborn life
By Victor creating the monster, he is eliminating the need for a
female to reproduce
Shelley might desire the idea to create a child
Nature’s form of retaliation- taking away the ones you love by
abandoning the prospect of human (or monster) life
The evil that befall them is a consequence of maltreatment of life
Shelley and Victor both blame themselves for that maltreatment
F. Abandonment of the Natural
 Gothic Literature- Exotic setting, Extraordinary characters, frees the
reader’s mind from the natural
 Female Gothic Literature- Work women have dine since the early 18th
century
 Creation of life through science
 Fantasy dominates over reality
 Shelley’s fantasy occurred in her dream which she
 The supernatural are introduced and are not accepted by the natural
 Mary Shelley’s structure of writing using women as a passive symbol
 Women in the novel suffer calmly and die or otherwise expire
 This writing style of more male dominance contradicts the natural way
women of the time period wrote
 Shelley creates first work of this kind by bringing birth to fiction
 Exclusion of female for birth (supernatural form of creation via science
and electrical current)
 Nature’s retribution against the supernatural through denial and rejection
of the creature and Victor from society
o Mary Shelley’s own experience with fantasy may have allowed
her to extrapolate on this topic
o Her dream of creation she had which she contributed to the idea
of the novel
o Recorded in her journal on March 19, 1815, "Dream that
my little baby came to life again--that it had only been cold
& that we rubbed it before the fire & it lived."
o Supernatural version of rebirth using heat
o Shelley viewed Nature’s repercussions were taking away
the lives of her babies
III.
Conclusion
Through the use of the theme of abandonment and nature’s retaliation towards it,
Mary Shelley creates a work that reflects her own personal experience and view
of how a society should function acceptably within the boundaries of the natural
world. Using the creature and birth as the ultimate form of abandonment, Shelley
relays this message in her novel Frankenstein.