Friendship

When the narration of the story is handed over to the perspective of Walton, we see him more and more finding a friend in Victor. He wholly believes the story shared by Victor despite its fantastical content. When the death of Victor seems imminent, worry fills Walton's head. He fears losing his new found friend because he fears abandonment. When Walton's crew request they turn back for home once their vessel is freed from the ice it is embedded in, Victor speaks wholeheartedly against their wishes and encourages them to complete their task and return home accomplished heroes. Walton sees this as motivational, the kind of inspiration a true friend could only share. Following Victor's death, the monster enters the cabin of Walton and views the body of Victor. Walton's initial instinct is to kill the monster in order to fulfill Victor's wishes of him to do so yet he hesitates and instead listens to the monster's appeal. In allowing the monster to escape, Walton is fulfilling the role that Victor needed to all along in order to resolve the issue of the monster's path of destruction: he accepts him as a person capable of things all other humans are. In this acceptance, the monster experiences forgiveness and promises to destroy himself so as to adhere to the wishes of Victor.

Dreams of Those Who Have Passed

Opposite of what it had been upon the monster's inception, sleep brings Victor to a peaceful sanctuary following the deaths of Elizabeth and his father. In his dreams, he is not only able to relive the moments of happier times but also able to speak to those who have left him. His alleged communication is a sign of his psychosis, which has surely developed even more rapidly in the harsh conditions of the frozen tundra in which he is navigating his way through.

Lunar/Solar Mother

Throughout the book, Victor makes reference to the skies and the moon as a point of reflection. He seeks these nonliving, "greater" objects for guidance in his turmoil when no other being or object can console him.

At the beginning of Chapter 23, " The moon had reached her summit in the heavens and was beginning to descend; the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture and dimmed her rays, while the lake relfected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise. Suddenly, a heavy storm of rain descended."

Not only does Victor again refer to the moon and nature in a mystical and idolistic manner here but also as a woman ("her"). This is Victor's desire to have a mother figure and, seeing the beauty and gentleness in the moon, he believes this object to be the answer. Yet a heavy storm erupts, possibly suggesting Victor has misplaced his hopes of help in a struggle he alone must resolve.

Abandonment of Female Creation = Oedipal Issues Solved

Victor destroys his female creation as it nears completion in a brutal fashion. He tears it limb from limb, mangling and distorting it even further than it already appeared. He says he cannot bear the responsibility of possibly creating something that the current creation will be able to join forces with and dominate the world. In actuality, Victor has resolved his Oedipal issues. This female creation embodies the final remnants of his Oedipal lust for his mother and his desire to bring her back to life in order to be with her. When he resolves his Oedipal issues, he destroys this creation-in-progress, as it was a representation of his mother in a subconscious, grizzly form.

Nature's Influence (Victor)

Besides the company of Clerval, Victor utterly detests all of humanity ever since the completion of his creation. The creation has opened his eyes to the worst that the human-form is capable of and how it can send one into the deepest despair. In Clerval, Victor sees a longtime friend that embodies much of what Victor used to be before his creation was completed. Clerval is eager to learn and strives to experience the world and all of its social nourishment. Victor seeks the opposite; he desires nature's isolate beauty and judgeless scenery. Throughout their travels in Switzerland and the U.K., we see Victor breathing in nature's prfound imagery. He uses his surroundings as distractions in order to procrastinate his work of creating a female partner for his creation.

Nature's Influence (Creation)

Nature plays a strong role in Victor and his creation's lives. In his earliest days, the creation is coping with the harsh effects of the nature and at one point finds consolation in the wild animals around him as they are similar to him in their instinct and survival tactics. He realizes, however, that they are of no help to him because he was the result of the work of a creator (Victor) who has abandoned him, therefore instilling revenge within the creation's heart. After the creation is later chased away from the cottage by Felix, he retreats to the woods and howls in animal-like fashion. This displays his carnal instincts, those that exist within all of man but often lie dormant and untouched.

The Monster's Development

The monster's early days act as a crash course through the stages of childhood development. His experiences allow him to be on par with the human race, even if he is not accepted as part of it. He is rejected and abandoned by not only his creator but by all others whom he comes in contact with. For this reason, he watches in hiding the family in the cottage. He learns many aspects of human life from these cottagers, most importantly the emotion shared among a family. This family is not at all barbarous as other humans he has come in contact with, which leads him to feel as if they are in fact his family. He spends almost all hours of his days watching and learning from them, becoming a member from the outside. He desires to ease them of their burdens by collecting firewood for them and performing other tasks which he sees Felix, the son, perform. The example set by the cottagers gives the monster a sense of life and what it is to function as a family. His abandonment has given him a desire to be part of a family and thus far, this is the only way he can safely do so.

At the end of Ch. 13, there is mention of the monster coming to understand the difference of sexes and the wonders of childbirth, proving his advancement through the psychosexual stages (Genital stage).

Face to Face

Victor finds an escape from his turmoil in the mountains which he travels through. They are unhindered by science and man and exist solely as nature. Nature is the only sanity that Victor can grasp in light of recent events that have led him to feelings of guilt, revenge and hopelessness. It is not surprising then when we find Victor's monster lurking in the same mountains. This is a classic "like father, like son" scenario. Only something created from the vision of Victor would seek the same refuge as he. It is perhaps not only Victor's curiosity to hear the monster's story that causes him to hold himself back from attacking but also an unconscious realization of how the monster has come to the same place as Victor, possibly proving worthy of Victor's acceptance. Both Victor and the monster are at peace in a place untouched by the harsh detests of humanity.

Victor as Murderer/Neurosis

Upon being convinced that his creation is the true murderer of William, Victor suffers further in his state of neurosis. He speaks of grinding his teeth and moaning while reflecting on the consequences of his creation. The death of William and the death of Justine, although by trial, are taken by Victor as his own fault. He has created a murderer, which in turn makes him a murderer as well. He speaks later of the pleasures of life which he enjoyed as a boy now torturing him. He seeks solitude and isolation to contemplate his misery. He finds this isolation while out on the lake, where he contemplates suicide. He cannot bring himself to commit his own death because of his role as protector of his family against his monster. The vengeful spite instilled within him fuels a desire to murder that which he has created.

Letters, Ch. 1-5

#1: At the end of Chapter 1, we see Victor's love for Elizabeth as a possessive, protective role in which he believes he must fulfill. Although his parents tease that she is a gift to him, he takes this quite literally and feels ownership of Elizabeth. This idea of eternal love for family burns deeply in Victor; his family brings about pure happiness within him, never anger or discontent as he witnesses other family's do to certain members within. Victor is more or less a loner to all except his family and Henry Clerval, which parallels Robert Walton's claims of having no one to be able to talk to as one would discuss life with a friend. Walton also obviously has a strong bond with his family, in his case his sister, because of his communications during his journey to the North Pole. The similarities between Victor, the stranger in the fourth letter, and Walton are so apparent that it is certainly more than chance that Walton found Victor, took care of him and was able to confide in him as he had not be able to do with others, finding a true friend.

#2: Victor's studies of natural philosophy are constantly called useless and outdated by his superiors, beginning with his father upon his earliest studies of these theories. M. Krempe brings to light Victor's persistence of these studies. Although they are useless, Victor knows their potential is far more grand and useful to the world than the modern scientific studies that he sees as having little use in the world. He desires to be the greatest and to achieve this, he must recreate and affirm these great studies of the past, no matter their inadequacy to modern science. He wishes to create life or bring back life. This could possibly be Victor still mourning the death of his mother and searching for a way to bring her back to life or bring back those in his future whom will die.

#3: While being consumed in confinement by his occupation (the monster), Victor does not keep in touch with his family or friends back home. He is reserving his emotion for the final product of his work. He is reserving his humanity, his affections and energy for his lifeless creation which needs these traits he has in order to be completed. Victor must transfer his affections to his work in order for it not only to be created but also to survive. Upon the creation of the monster in Chapter 5, Victor is struck with the inescapable horror of his wrongdoing. He has created the ultimate evil, possibly a result of his "evil studies" which he previously realized to be so. Desperately in need of rest, he falls asleep and has a dream. In this dream, he sees Elizabeth and goes to embrace her yet she withers away in his arms, resembling the corpse of his dead mother. This dream is the culmination of Victor's neglected affections for his family and the monster itself, which now has consumed every inch of his world. He sees those he has pushed to the back of his mind and sees how his work has changed his connections to them.

Frankenstein: Cheerio Analysis

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