When Walton and Victor meet, Victor tells Walton about his childhood. He grew up in Geneva and his family were wealthy. From what Victor says about his mother and father that he loved them a lot and he had a very happy childhood.
“No Human being could have passed a happier childhood than I could”
Victor’s father was very loving and caring towards him. He had given up his job when Victor was born so he could dedicate himself to teaching Victor. Although studying was not forced onto Victor, he read many different kinds of books. When Victor had shown a book by Cornelius Agrippa to his father, he told Victor that it was “trash”. This lead Victor to read these books even more even though his father had told him it was trash. We can see that like Walton, Victor disobeyed his father. But in the case of Victor it was probably because his father was liberal and didn’t show enough discipline to stop him.
Victor’s relationship with his mother was very strong. He loved her very much and she spoiled him as well. Victor’s mother was dedicated towards all her children and she died from scarlet fever, which she caught from Elizabeth when she was sick with the same serious illness. Victor had been heart broken from his mother’s death. So creating the monster was a solution for him. The monster to Victor would be someone/thing that would love him like his mother had.
Caroline had been the daughter of Beaufort. She came from a poor but dignified family. Her father loved her very much be he too could be considered as a “bad” parent. Beaufort was extremely proud of his status and therefore would not change to a job of less “importance”. This forced Caroline to go out and work to help support the family. This did not stop Caroline and her father loving each other and when Beaufort was dying Caroline had sat with him until his death, leaving her an orphan. We never hear of Caroline’s mother and Caroline grew up without a “mother figure”. Caroline agrees to marry Alphonse after her father’s death. Alphonse is somewhat old when the two marry, but never the less they had a happy marriage.
Elizabeth is a poor orphan girl that the Frankenstein’s adopt. Both her parents die, and so she is taken into he care of the Frankenstein’s. Victor seemed to think a lot of her, which we can see from when de first describes her to Walton.
“None could behold her without looking on her as a distinct species, a being heaven-sent”
Elizabeth is the “ideal” woman, which is help from her “mother” Caroline. Caroline is devoted to her as if she was of her own, and this devotion eventually leads her to her death from scarlet fever. Elizabeth recovers from her severe illness, Caroline’s last words are of her hopes that Victor and Elizabeth will get married. This “arranged” marriage is another example of Victor’s parents trying to organise everything for him, and not letting him experience things for himself. This might be a reason that Victor feels the need to create the monster; he needed to feel that he could create something by himself for himself without the aid of his parents.
The monster’s parenting was quite similar to the other examples in the book. The creature has no mother figure and when Victor creates him, he leaves him straight away on the realisation of what he has just created. The monster’s “childhood” was a lonesome one. Although it is only compressed into a matter of a few months, Victor has left him alone in a world, which he has never experienced before and has to experience alone. His first experience of a “parent” is Victor, who immediately rejects him and everywhere the monster went from then on, he was rejected in the same way.
The monster flees from the presence of man and goes into “hiding” in a wood near Ingolstadt. His education is similar to that of Victor’s; the creature was forced to learn everything by himself. he acted the same as a small child, learning things by what effect they have on him. He soon learns that firs are not to be touched because they hurt. The creature also learns how distinguish different foods.
“I distinguished the insect from the herb, and by degrees, one herb from the other” page 81
The monster also learns how to love; he feels love for the De Lacey family and helps them by gathering firewood and harvesting some of their crops for them. He experiences this love for a family but at the same time he is unloved.
The theme of parenting in “Frankenstein” is very strong, but is ironic in the way that none of the characters have a mother figure. Mary Shelley might have done this because when she was 10 days old her mother died. Justine is given a mother but her mother is mean and unloving towards her. This might represent Mary Shelley’s stepmother. She was constantly trying to pull apart Mary and her father, so the only mother figure in the story is portrayed as being callous and uncaring. From the story we can see that it is wrong to abandon your child because they will turn out evil and come after you for revenge.
