Draft Essay #3

Death by Abandonment

“Frankenstein” was a book of turmoil. I found the book to be very depressing in every way possible. Although, the story was very well put together with a great deal of element. The point to detail was allowing the reader to be placed in the settings and hearing, smelling, and seeing what was really going on. Throughout the whole reading of this story you were able to sit side by side with every character and their feelings. The story itself was good, just disheartening. The theme of “Frankenstein” was simply put to me, abandonment. Abandonment, weather self-abandonment or abandonment by death flowed throughout the book. Everywhere that Victor turned he had seen ones that he loved and that he had hated leave him, and continue to further leave him lonely in this world. Excellence and companionship was always being strived for in the book as well. When Victor went off to school, he went to become a more educated human, when he began his creation of the fiend he attempted recognition, marrying his cousin for the happiness of his mother and fathers wishes, and Walton yearning for a friend while on his voyage; just to name a few. I believe that Shelley was trying to get us to understand that everyone in this world, weather they be good or evil, strives for a sense of placement in humanity. We all want to become something great and be loved, and this book shares the hardships of trying to accomplish this for the young man Victor. Ultimately causing him so many let downs that it kills him, yet his soul had been dead long before the actual mortality of his demise. “he forfeits every comfort of life, and finally even life itself.” (Anonymous 196)

The depth of despair lurks everywhere in this amazingly creative masterpiece. As stated “We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; one wand’ ring thought pollutes the day. We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep, Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free. Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; Naught may endure but mutability!” (Frankenstein, 64). Frankenstein’s nature is but sweet and honorable. He is predestined for a miserable life. He looks for a positive outlook yet always is pushed down. Frankenstein tries to obey every wish and accomplish every goal he has, all with a positive and open mind. Yet, every door he opens is slammed in his face with some type of mayhem that is to bring him down and give him the feeling of despair.

The personality of Frankenstein is continually emphasized throughout the reading. His quietness and compassion is shown when he is explaining his story to the new friend he made on the ship of which he was rescued. Everyday, growing weaker and more depressed thinking of his failure in not being able to reach his fiend to demolish his being. He stands up for his new friend when his crewmen question and demand him to go back as soon as the ice clears. As badly as he wishes to ask Walton to go after his fiend to complete his mission, he does not, in fear he too will bear the horrible outcome of life as he has. “This novel rests its claim on being a source of powerful and profound emotion.” (Shelley, 185) And even just for a brief moment shows compassion for the fiend he created he. When asked to make a companion of the opposite sex for the fiend he seriously contemplates this demand. Yet when truly having time to comprehend the possible outcome of this new creature, he refuses. He looks for the good in life but just cannot grasp it. Events that he tries to look forward to, he cant, in the fear of the bitter outcome that his fiend has promised him.

The fiend also shows great passion in this novel. He desires the companionship of a human, however with one look at his hideous features he is sworn a daemon. The compassion he shows to his friends in the cottage, by helping them gather wood and accomplishing chores for them at night when they cannot see him. Desperately asking for acceptance from the old blind man, and in turn getting beaten by the young son when he returns to find this creature with his incapable father. “…affectionate and full of moral sensibility, yet the circumstances of his existence are so monstrous and uncommon, that, when the consequences of them became developed in action, his original goodness was gradually turned to inextinguishable misanthropy and revenge.”  (Shelley 186) He so badly wanted to have a friend in the world and to be accepted. The ignorance of mankind made the creation become a monster, we must think if he could be accepted would be have turned out to be such a monstrosity or could he have kept his innocence and submissive demeanor? “-his natural tendency to kind feelings, and the manner in which they were blighted, -”. (Anonymous 191) It was if only he was treated with the kindness and compassion that he could have stayed a gentle creation and been one of the greatest inventions of all time.

“Frankenstein” is without a doubt one of the most creative novels ever written, bringing life, death and the troubling need for placement in the world. One who is banned to a solitary life style can only last in existence for so long without going insane. The acceptance from our peers is something we all strive for weather we choose to admit that or not. Shelley has, in all of her characters made a demanding need for that. And as hard as Frankenstein tries to achieve this he is always lacking the ability, and in the saddest manner it is in his own doings of why this cannot happen for himself. If Frankenstein would not have wanted so badly deify the rules of nature and continue to exceed himself in science he could have lived a long and prosperous life, with his family and the marriage of his cousin. And on the other hand if the fiend had been made successfully into the creation that Frankenstein had planned there was a chance for so much scientific accomplishment and wonder. And furthermore the fiend would not have been seen as an abomination and could have received the companionship and care that he had always wished to have with the human race, of which he was created out of. The Abandonment that Frankenstein felt was bitterly transferred to the fiend when he so eagerly abandoned the creation that he had made. The wretched sight of the creation was enough for Frankenstein to leave; he could have made the fiend such an astonishing accomplishment that was well educated and coherent showing his great knowledge surpassing that of his professors. Frankenstein had left his soft demeanor when he forsaken this hideous creation.  But nonetheless he abandoned this creation and therefore abandoning all hope for his happy and fruitful life he could have lived. Frankenstein had all of the makings in becoming something great with many accomplishments and the fiend completely took all of the hope of this away just because of the ways his creator and the other humans treated him. If shown Frankenstein’s true loving nature the fiend and he could have had an amazing partnership and continued their lives in an accomplished way.

Works Cited

Anonymous as cited in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. From Edinburgh Magazine. A Norton Critical Ed. New York, London: WW Norton & Company, 191. Print.

Anonymous as cited in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. From Gentleman's Magazine. A Norton Critical Ed. New York, London: WW Norton & Company, 196. Print.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. A Norton Critical Ed. New York, London: WW Norton & Company, 64. Print.

Shelley Bysshe, Percyas as cited in, Mary Shelley. On Frankenstein. A Norton Critical Ed. New York, London: WW Norton & Company, 185 & 186. Print.