Family and domestic affection

How are family and domestic affection explored in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein? Shelley's portrayal of childhood and domestic affection are explored by the use of her characters in the novel. She does this by setting the scene of the story in a town called Geneva. Geneva was a residence taken up by free thinkers and writers, of which she was one of them. Shelley describes the Victor as Genevese by birth, and relates his family and personal history, describing his parents and his childhood.

Shelley describes Victor's childhood as perfect, "No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself".

Shelley here uses Victors parents to show their love and affection upon Victor. They themselves saw Victor as " a helpless creature, bestowed on them by heaven" Victor then goes about describing the circumstances of his cousin 'Elizabeth' and how he looked upon her as his to "protect, love, and cherish" This gives me incite that Victor is having his first real experience of what caring for another, in a loving way is like.

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Victor then describes his own youthful character and charisma as well as those of his companions.

Elizabeth is seen as calmer than Victor and appreciates poetry and the beauty of nature, while the passionate Victor is "capable of intense application and was more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge" This thirst for knowledge became apparent when he was a young boy where by he was intrigued by science but his dad would not let him read it.

"My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this: it is sad trash" This disregard and dismissal of knowledge that Victor so badly required was one of the reason Victor created the horror that he did.

When Victor reached the age of 17, his parents resolved that he should become a student at the University of Ingolstadt. Victor's complete dedication to his studies soon makes him the most skillful of students; he pursues knowledge like a man infatuated. Victor's fascination soon fixes upon the work of Cornelius Agrippa, an alchemist who attempted to discover the sorcerer's stone and the elixir of life through pseudo-scientific practice, whose works he discovered while vacationing in an old inn.

Cornelius Agrippa was a man of great understanding, a man who every budding scientist would look up to, and admire. Victor does just that, and Cornelius takes a shine to the boy with a new found interest in his studies. Victor is so fascinated by his work, he takes it upon himself to talk to the man, and confer the troubles that he was coming across with his studies of the human body. In another sense, Cornelius became a father that Victor never had, someone who shared an interest in him, and someone who would inspire him to fulfill his potential.

This potential was unleashed when Victor one dreary night in November shaped a monster, which he named Frankenstein. Victor did not act in a way a creator of life ought to act, when he see's his 'creation' for the opening time. Victor was disgusted and terrified at what he had done, creating something so hideous, yet so impossible. So he himself was split between ecstasy of the creation of an extra being, and fear that this being could potentially eradicate him. With the birth of the monster, Victor realises the scale of his actions.

He has assumed the powers of construction, and his creation is entirely unnatural. Although he took great care to choose handsome features for his creature, the being is now nauseating to him. "Abhorred! That it was the wretch whom I had created" Victor now has the realization that creating the monster brought a vast amount of responsibility he hadn't prepare himself for. Shelley some what shows the struggle and will power needed to raise one of your own, even if it was utterly abnormal and very precarious.

She raises the issue that you cannot choose what your baby looks like, and how you should never be sickened with your making, as it will have serious affects on the child itself in later life. The creature as you have seen him was brought up in a life where he was automatically dismissed at birth (if you may call it birth) and without the love and affection the new born needed, he was doomed to fight back against the disapproval. "All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!

Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us". Here the creature is expressing his views on the situation that he entwined in, and how Victor's response only exacerbated things. "Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind" Shelley has put this in to show the comparison of the monsters upbringing, and that of Victors.

She implies that Victor is not doing the duties a creator, or parent should do for one's offspring. The creature's first experiences were of his designer, cowering away from him, shouting abuse as if he was a spawn of the devil, and cursing his very existence. The monster flees from Victors abode, and tries to get as far away from the public eye as possible. The monster's early days are unclear to him as he tries to gain control over the knowledge of his body and senses, as according to Victor he is a "poor, helpless, miserable wretch",