A number of the relationships described in this chapter are structured as a relation between a caretaker and a cared-for: that between Caroline's father and Caroline; Victor's father and Caroline; the Frankensteins and Elizabeth; and between Victor and Elizabeth, to name a few. In this way, Shelley suggests that human connection and, to state the case rather more plainly, love itself is dependent upon one's willingness to care for another person particularly if that other person is defenseless, or innocent, and thus unable to care for themselves. The elder Frankenstein takes Caroline in after she is left penniless and an orphan; similarly, the family takes in the orphaned Elizabeth Lavenza to save her from a life of bitter poverty. Shelley subtly argues that there is nothing more wretched than an orphan: one must care for one's children, since one is responsible for bringing them into the world. This idea will become extremely important with the introduction of the monster, in that Victor's refusal to care for his own creature will say a great deal about the morality of his experiment.
Elizabeth is positioned here, quite literally, as a "saint." It is her gentle, feminine influence that saves Victor from his obsession during his time at Geneva. The influence of women, and of femininity, is thus presented as offering hope of salvation it inspires one to temperance and kindness.
Caroline's decision to nurse Elizabeth even though it means losing her own life serves to indicate both Caroline's own selflessness and the high value placed on self-sacrifice in the book as a whole. Caroline on her deathbed is described as being full of "fortitude and benignity"; the irreproachable manner in which she has lived her life means that she can die peacefully, certain of her eternal reward. In telling Victor and Elizabeth that her happiness was dependent upon their union, Caroline makes their marriage a consummate symbol of earthly order and joy. The centrality of this event to the novel's trajectory thus becomes clear.
The fact that two years pass without Victor's visiting his family speaks poorly for his character. Though he knows his father and Elizabeth long to see him, he remains completely absorbed in his work. This indicates that Victor's capacity for altruism and benevolence has been utterly destroyed by his obsession; it also suggests that his character itself is deeply flawed. There is something fundamentally selfish in Victor, and his scientific pursuits are themselves the product of a desire for gross self-aggrandizement: he wants to create men who will worship him as their god.
At the moment of his birth, the creature is entirely benevolent: he affectionately reaches out to Frankenstein, only to have the latter violently abandon him. Despite his frightful appearance, he is as innocent as a newly-born child which, in a sense, is precisely what he is. Victor's cruel treatment of the creature stands in stark contrast to both his parents' devotion and Clerval's selfless care: he renounces his child at the moment of its birth.
With Elizabeth's letter, we realize how utterly Victor has been cut off from the outside world. His narration of his first two years at Ingolstadt mentions few proper names, and concerns itself not at all with anyone else. The reader realizes how much time has passed, and how much has changed in faraway reader. We learn the names of Victor's brothers, and of the existence of Justine. Elizabeth's relation to Justine is much like Caroline's relation to Elizabeth: she cares for the less fortunate girl and heaps praise upon her, calling her "gentle, clever, and extremely pretty."