Mary Shelley's Frnkenstein Case Study

In Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", Victor Frankenstein and his creation have many differences from each other. The creature had the misfortune of being abandoned at his birth. Unlike his creation, Victor had a loving family and a place in society. Both characters childhood experiences account for their problems as adults which ultimately cause the death of others as well as their own.

The way we are raised as children contribute to the person that we become. While Victor experiences a joyful childhood, the creature is faced with constant refusal from the moment he is given life. Victor Frankenstein was raised in a family where, to his parents, he was “-their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery...”(27). However, The creature had the very opposite of a childhood. He enters life at eight feet tall and enormously strong with the mind of a baby, and is then forced to deal with his affliction of being abandoned. Victors’ parents deeply cared for him but he denied his creature all of the love that he himself was fortunate enough to have, and regards the monster as a "wretch" and was glad he was gone (48). The creature changed from his naturally kind state as a child to a bitter adult because of his neglected childhood.

As a result of each character's childhood circumstances, every problem they encounter as an adult is accounted for. Since Victor was never denied anything as a child, he becomes a selfish adult who does not understand consequences. Victor should be the creature's father figure, but he fails to face up to his responsibilities and makes him blind to see the creature's natural kindness. This in turn makes the creature bitter and resentful, he states “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days..”(102). Then, seeking revenge on