When Frankenstein flees, it leaves the monster with a sense of loneliness and isolation because he considered Frankenstein to be his mother. When the monster is left on its own it is introduced to a world of cruelty as the only person it knows has abandoned it and he is an outcast in society. This shows some of the social influences in the novel as Mary Shelley lost her mother at a very early age and when she ran away with Percy Shelley the fierce public hospitality drove the couple to become social outcasts. The monster was never given a name, which means he has no sense of identity. As the book progresses the monster starts to learn about family. He begins to realise that he had no ‘father that doated on the smiles of the infant’ or a mother with all her life and cares wrapped up in the child. He learns that he has none of the various relationships that bind one human being to another in mutual bonds. This gives the monster a felling of abandonment.
The chapter also talks about the horrors of childbirth. The chamber and fluid in which the monster was given the spark of life symbolises the womb. When the monster emerges from the chamber Mary Shelley has given him life like a mother to a child. Mary Shelley then goes on to say that Frankenstein has done one of the most painful and unthinkable things for a woman by abandoning his creation, his child. This also shows the social influences in the novel as two of Mary Shelley’s young children died. This shows that she knows the pain of losing children and tries to portray the wickedness of what Frankenstein has done.
By creating the monster Frankenstein has tried to play God. The creator should take joy in his creations but instead Frankenstein abandons it. The monster is taught to read by the family in the hovel and as a result he is able to read the journal of Frankenstein. When the monster reads ‘paradise lost’ he learns that Adam was made ‘from the hands of God a perfect creature’. When he then reads the journal of Victor Frankenstein he discovered the ‘disgusting circumstances’, which produced him. This makes him feel that Satan is the ‘fitter emblem’ for his condition. Most animals and humans stay with their young until they are old enough to take care of themselves, Frankenstein does not do this.
The actions of Frankenstein cannot be defended as reasonable as he abandoned his creation, with no reason except fear. With this action he introduced the monster to a world of cruelty. The monster learnt to be evil by his abandonment and the society shunning him. If Frankenstein had loved him he would not have been introduced to evil.
As a whole chapter five is significant as it begins the story. The rest of the novel concludes what happened in chapter five; this shows that the rest of the story revolves around the actions in chapter five.
The language used by Mary Shelley is more applied to the gothic genre that was mostly read by men. This is because at the time the book was published the ideas portrayed were scary and grotesque.
The novel shows the historical and social influences of Mary Shelley. A particularly type of Gothicism was part of Mary’s earliest existence as almost every day she would go to her mothers grave. She learnt to read and write by tracing the inscriptions on her mother’s grave, which is like how the monster learnt to read. The monster learnt by reading Frankenstein’s journal of his own creation. This is as personal to the monster as the gravestone is to Mary Shelley. At the time Mary Shelley wrote the book electricity had just been invented. She shows this in the story as the monster was infused with life by electricity. Mary Shelley has a lot of social influence in the novel as she talks about the monster losing his mother, which symbolises the loss of her own mother. She was also shunned by society when she married Percy Shelley, which is like the society shunning the monster. When she talks about Frankenstein abandoning his creation she is symbolising the death of her own children. Also when she talks about the monsters sense of abandonment she is symbolising her life as at a young age as her mother died. She then ran away with Percy Shelley and was shunned by society and her father. Her and Percy had three children, two of whom died, and then Percy drowned leaving her with a two-year-old child and no money. The novel of Frankenstein reflects some of the pain within Mary Shelley’s life.
