Oedipal Struggles in Frankenstein: Victor's Desires, Dreams, Demise

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In the book, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor struggles with the powers of his oedipal complex which ultimately leads to his demise. Victor developed unconscious desires for his mother. The desire was not accepted by society this then lead Victor to replace his desire with interestan in natural phenomena, such as lightning. The superego repressed this feeling by reflecting on social norms or standards learned from his parents. Victor, then, subconsciously connects Elizabeth to his mother's death. Elizabeth is physically like his mother and had a past like his mother.

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“...but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms.” (Shelly 27)

Victor dearly missed his mother and this made him subconsciously connect Elizabeth and his mother. Victor could never separate feminine sexuality and the mother he lost, as soon as Victor believed that he was touching Elizabeth and taking pleasure in her body, in his dream, the figurative substitute for his mother returns to her physical form.

Society would not accept the taboo relationship that Victor desired with his mother, trying to move past it he creates a sexual desire for his sister which is related to his id complex. The creature is embodied by Frankenstein’s subconscious mind and the dark aspects of himself. Frankenstein’s creature shows the socially repressed elements of Frankenstein while Frankenstein himself wishes for his mother, while the creature wishes for a mother.

The creature shows traits that society suppresses or should suppress, murderous thoughts and actions, villains, revenge, etc., Frankenstein had these traits but his superego suppressed these thoughts. Although the monster is embodied in the dark aspects of Dr. Frankenstein, it is argued that the monster does all the wrong things for all the right reasons.

An example of this would be Victor’s relationship with his sister Elizabeth. Victor knew that the monster would be coming for him or his bride on his wedding night, during one point in the night Victor leaves Elizabeth alone. In reality, Victor’s superego got the best of him and he regretted the relationship he was about to enter because it would be a taboo relationship, so he let the monster do what the monster came to do murder Elizabeth. The only reason the creature decided to kill Elizabeth was to prevent Victor from entering a forbidden relationship. Not able to fulfill the oedipal complex with Victor’s deceased mother, he looks to chemistry and alchemy to figure out how to reanimate life. Victor was driven by a fantasy that his mother's death was not irreversible by trying to create a living being. An idea of the such may seem very grotesque. Evidence in Shelley's book shows that Victor knew what he was doing and why he was trying to do it. For example, “When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning how I should employ it” (Shelley 32) Victor had known the outcome of his soon to come work and spent some time contemplating, arguing with himself, whether or not to follow through with his work. This argues that Victor’s conscience knew that the task at hand was rather perverted and sinful, yet the inclination to be back with his mother and his sexual desires drove out his unconscious the. Victor says, later in his experiment, “One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I dedicated myself” (Shelley 33).

The one reason Victor was attempting to reanimate a corpse was not known by anyone. Victor allowed himself to work in isolation so only he was bare to his wretched project. The achievement of Victor’s venture conveyed that he would be able to successfully reanimate the corpse of his mother and shock life back into her so he would be able to exist in his disgusting fantasy. The death of Victor’s mother was the root of the unconsciousthei sexual fantasies asleep in Victor. Grief, dealt with improperly, made Victor confine himself. Evidence in Shelley’s book shows Victor’s attraction to his mother’s body and personality. This meant that, he was not able to achieve the Oedipus complex, Victor dove into the realm of chemistry and alchemy attempting to reanimate his mother. All of this to requite not having a sexual encounter, Victor’s spiral into chemistry and alchemy was solely on the grounds of pleasuring the fantasy he had with his mother. This illustrated the outcome of someone not being able to cope with sexual desires without a fine venue to note comfort from them.