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.