Frankenstien (Vintage classics)

Mary Shelly announces in the introduction to the book she wrote Frankenstein as part of a contest to write a scary story. However, Laura P. Claridg... (show more)

Mary Shelly announces in the introduction to the book she wrote Frankenstein as part of a contest to write a scary story. However, Laura P. Claridge claims the story spurns from Shelly’s subconscious dissatisfaction with her own parents because nearly every character in the novel has some type of familial dysfunction. Claridge insists every child in the book revolts against the parents’ wishes because Shelly’s personal connection to her parents is “translated into her fiction” (Claridge 3). Shelly states she should have thought to write earlier in life, seeing as both her parents were authors; yet if this is the case, one could not explain any character’s rebellion through her theoretical uprising (Shelly 1). No character in the novel is said to show a healthy parent-child relationship; familial shortcomings are illustrated mainly through Victor’s terrible relationship with his creation. The deeper one looks into the novel, “critical shortsightedness” disappears and even the relationships appear loving and functional on the surface turn problematic (Claridge 3). However, the relationship between De Lacy and his children appears to be fine, despite Claridge’s attempts to make it seem dysfunctional.
The reader’s first impression of Alphonse and Caroline, Victor’s parents, is they shower him with affection “from a very mine of love” which is unending and tender (Shelly 29). However, within only a few sentences, Victor admits to being “their plaything and their idol,” which Claridge proposes means Victor is merely a recipient of his parents love and does not get to be a participant in it (Claridge 4). Later, we see being an object of love within this family is a theme, because Victor’s mother brings home Elizabeth as “a pretty present for [her] Victor,” which denotes she is an object of affection as well (Shelly 31 and Claridge 4). Later, the reader sees Alphonse as discouraging and seemingly unsupportive when he calls Victor’s readings and research for his dreams “sad trash” (Shelly 36). It hardly seems coincidental this would be repeated twice in the description of the family without Shelly implying the Frankensteins have some sort of parent-child relationship flaw. This dysfunction may even have some effect on why Victor becomes such a bad “father” to his creation.
Incidentally, the most obvious broken bond is between Creator and monster; Victor immediately abhors his experiment even though he had previously claimed he had picked the most beautiful body parts and his creation would give him much gratitude and he would claim aforementioned gratitude “completely” (Claridge 6). Victor is supposedly attempting to “usurp his parent’s powers as creators” and is compensating for his “sense of smallness” by creating a massive creature (Claridge 6). It is clear he does not do a good job of letting the monster be either an object or a participant in his love; he has no love for his “child” whatsoever.
Shelly does not limit the dysfunction to only central characters; other figures in the book who seem to have no positive parental influence include Safie, whose father was a “treacherous Turk” and a “traitor to good feeling and honor” (Shelly 124, 125). Her mother died when she was young and he is a man who is ungrateful for Felix’s help and tried to keep his daughter away from the man who she loves, so she decides to run away and live without him. Likewise, the initial narrator, Walton, evidently grows up without his parents as well. His sister Margaret becomes his parental substitute, and he constantly tells her he is trying to “accomplish some great purpose” and tries to prove himself worthy of approval because he views himself as a failure (Claridge, 4). And lastly, Justine’s father dies and leaves her with a cold hearted mother and Henry Clerval’s father tries to thwart his son’s plans for an academic life (Claridge 4).
Subsequently, Claridge suggests Walton is a parental figure to his crew; they look up to him and turn to him for guidance when they run into problems aboard the ship and he feels a moral responsibility towards them because they are his family (Claridge 9). They approach him as their “surrogate” father and seek him out for protection. In conjunction, De Lacy has a loving relationship with his family; he has a “countenance beaming with benevolence and love” (Shelly 107). He plays his guitar sweetly for his daughter, cares tenderly for Felix, and looks after Safie as if she were his own. The children return the blind elderly man’s sweetness by caring for him in his old age. So surely, Claridge is incorrect in stating this relationship is dysfunctional simply because his children see the monster and reveal to De Lacy how hideous he is since he could not see him initially. When De Lacy treats the monster with kindness and the children ruin its chance of kinship, it would be false to say the family fails.
Claridge also claims every child rebels against their parental figures in defiance because Shelly felt her life was similar; Victor and Henry both study things against their father’s wishes, Safie escapes her father, Walton sets sail and disobeys his father by doing so, and Justine wishes to stay with a host family who seems to care for her more. The monster tries extremely hard to inject himself into society partially because Victor spends all of his time in isolation (Claridge 9). However, Claridge gives no example for this in the De Lacy family and if Shelly was truly opposed to her parents, one doubts she would admit to following in their footsteps as an author.
It may be believed Shelly wrote about the lack of paternal figures because of the death of her own mother, and it is certainly true Shelly represents most family ties as conditional and many children are rebellious and strive for independence. But, there is no evidence that need for independence is a reflection of Shelly’s home life. Clearly, Claridge has some excellent points regarding the failed attempts, and lack thereof, at successful parenting and the consequent child rebellion, but fails to see the innocence and love some show, mainly in the De Lacy family.

Sources Cited
Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Fine Creative Media, Inc, 1839

Claridge, Laura P. “Parent-Child Tensions in Frankenstein: The Search for Communion."
Ebscohost.com. February 28 2005. Literary Reference Center. February 16 2009. (show less)