“This breeze, which has travelled from the region towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climbs.” Letter 1 Pg15
This is just one example of Walton’s ambition; any audience would find this want of success and fame commendable. If Shelly did not include these letters his actions would be view as arrogance. This entices the reader as they will try to relate to this situation and will ask themselves what actions they would take if they were in a similar situation.
The reader will also acknowledge that there are no specific dates set for these letters of this novel alone. This is done for a few reasons, a practical reason is that if Shelly does not limit herself to a certain time period then she is able to create certain advances in technology that if combined with others may stretch over many time periods yet in this novel are related together. It also implies that Shelly intended this novel to appeal to readers for many years to come, not just her era. This method alone displays Shelly’s unique ability to appeal to any vast audience.
Shelly romanticises both of the strong male characters, (She also romanticises the relationship between Frankenstein’s Mother and Father
“Everything was made to yield to her wishes and convenience.” Chapter 1 Pg 37
Yet, this is somewhat subdued, and dissolves after Frankenstein’s mother dies. In the same way as Frankenstein, Sir Walton has a strong, emotive, and somewhat questionably incestuous relationship with his sister, Margret,
“And now dear Margret.”
Victor has a very similar relationship with Elizabeth, his adopted sister,
“The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine dedicated lamp in our peaceful home.”
Shelly exaggerates these displays of love (Especially the love between the family) to emphasise to the reader at what costs Victor is making sacrifices.
With both of Victor and Walton’s relationships, society has boundaries preventing their love for one another, Walton and Victor could both be condemned for there feelings as these are viewed against the “natural law.” The surrealism used by Shelly creates an amount of disbelief in the audience, but will entice them further more, as all beings require recounted love from one another and the company of one another. Walton and Victor are good examples of these boundaries but even more so the creation is a perfect example, he is denied friendship, parentally love or a mate. The monster is denied these due to his physical appearance, he is discriminated against, and people jump to conclusions just because of the way he appears to others.
In today’s society, these opinions are still present in near enough everyone! People with disabilities can be discriminated against, verbally or physically abused just because of the way they look, talk, or act. The only difference in today’s society is that people that do this are aware that this is viewed as wrong in society yet, still the majority of people discriminate others who are different. There is still racial discrimination in today’s society, most of the bullies in this situation are adults, and the generation of today are bought up as equals to racially different people. This can be compared to the relationship between Justine and Victor in comparison to that of the way Alfonse views Justine,
“My aunt received great attachment for her by which she was induced to give an education superior to that which she had at first intended.” Chapter 5 Pg 65
The problem with society out casting people who are different more than often end up making mistakes this was true in the Creations case as the towns people believer he was evil, as he looked ugly.
The majority would try to argue that in today’s society it is very unlikely for people to act upon their misguided opinions. Last week there were terrorist attacks on America and the key suspect being Osama Bin Laden, who claims all his actions are for Allah (the Muslim god). A few days later a taxi driver was murdered by an English man, he though that the taxi driver was a Muslim. The English man had assumed that if the taxi driver was a Muslim it gave him the right to kill this person (Even if he was not remotely related with the attacks on America.). This was wrong and a disgusting act yet even more so the Taxi driver was a Sikh!
People need to learn to be able to understand each other and to be able to sympathises with others actions. Especially after recent events in today’s world, people can relate to the gargantuan situations that are part of today’s reality with events in Shelly’s book “Frankenstein,” Shelly’s unbelievable ability to write such a poignant and heat touching novel can still make people look back upon their actions and question their lawfulness, and whether the acted justly or not.
In “Frankenstein it is hard to differentiate whether the characters love each other or are just obsessed with one another. Victor try to re-create the love between him and his mother through his and Elizabeth’s relationship, I don’t think that Frankenstein actually loves Elizabeth I think he is obsessed with trying to replace his mother and Elizabeth is the best person to do that. All the characters have an obsession, so milder than others but are still present, Alfonse and Victors mother are obsessive over Victor (This may be where the root of Victors obsession is created). Victors mother is also so obsessive over Elizabeth that she sacrifices herself to save Elizabeth from dying by nursing her. Ironically, as Victor is obsessive the creation is obsessive over his father (Victor). The root of the problem in this family is that they view each other as objects not breathing, thinking human beings.
