Responsibly to his already exiting family is another major point how Shelley keeps Frankenstein falling outside social expectations. One of the most tragic events in the novel is when William is murdered, this is a key pint in the novel as it is where Frankenstein falls way out of his depth, before this point Frankenstein could put things right but now he can only improve the already very tragic situation. From whichever way you look at it Frankenstein has a responsibility to be honest with his family. Yet Shelley chooses to make the character more to blame and in some ways more interesting by him holding the truth away from his family. He has a personal and social responsibility to admit at least some fault in Williams’s death, consequently saving Justine’s life. At one point Frankenstein almost comes clean “ You are all mistaken. I know the murderer. Justine, poor, good Justine is innocent” at this point Shelly lead’s the reader into the thoughts that maybe her Character is going to fulfill his responsibility’s and act the way society expects him to act be honest. Alas he does not and justice proceeds on Justine. Shelley persists in representing Frankenstein as feeling genuine heartfelt remorse, “ A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine” but this is not as genuine as it may seem as Shelley dose not proceed to describe Frankenstein’s sorry with a confession. Instead he goes on with more lies and deceits. I think Shelley meant These chain of events to be the worse behavior of Victor Frankenstein, although more people go on to die and in arguably a worse fashion, on this occasion he lies to his friends, family, the court and just about fails on every social expectation that lies upon him.
Shelley explored many themes in her novel and I think one of them was whether us, as a society have to take on the responsibility of caring for and looking after those weaker or less fortunate then ourselves. Even now we like to think of ourselves as excising this idea, and if we as a society agree to practice it then Shelley has most defiantly used this as a way to show how Frankenstein is out side normal social expectations towards his treatment of the creature. It is clear that Shelley wanted the creature to be mentally weaker than and in almost every way less fortunate than Frankenstein. And even more clear is that Frankenstein din neither care for or look after the creature, the fact that it was his creation made it worse, but even I it hadn’t of been I think Shelley was trying to say that this would still have been wrong. He ran away and left it to fend for itself. Because of the way it looked everybody rejected it and none give it any care or thought.
Another way Shelley keeps him out side the social expectations are his judgment on the creature through his looks. Shelley shows us in the example of Frankenstein how he cast the creature aside because of its “ yellow skin scarcely covered the work of its mussels and arteries beneath” he goes on to describe how “ horror and disgust filled my heart”. This is not the thought a loving mother has when her baby, no matter how deformed or ill, is born. I think Shelley is saying no matter how aesthetically unattractive living things are we must give them a chance. It was popular beliefs in this period that baby’s are born with good intentions in their heart and are turned by society, I think Mary Shelley agreed with that and was saying because of the ignorance of people like victor Frankenstein people turn to violence and theft. Shelley once again keeps Frankenstein outside normal social expectations by showing how he leaves the creature because of its looks.
Finally the novel spends much time on the point of abuse of science. The question is defiantly raised about humans playing god. During Frankenstein’s creation of his creature he takes on the role of god trying to make life and also playing mother, reefers to the period of creation as “time spent in painful labor” and “ Winter, spring and summer passed away during my labors”. This is clear that he thinks of himself as the creator of life, God, and the birth giver, the mother. The fact that he dose not behave in a manor that resembles a mother and certainly not God, is bad enough.
But he abuses his place in the college and his place as a trusted member of science and society. This is just yet another example of how Shelly keeps Frankenstein outside the normal social expectations in the creation of the creature.
Overall Shelley has achieved what I believe to be her aim which was criticize points in society which she felt need to change I think still need to. She has done this using a variety of themes and methods in an interesting and epic story with brilliant Charactors and a strong plot.
