Every community has a traditional value of a contented and happy family. Most individuals look for harmony and contentment within their families. In addition, the family continues to be one of the basic categories of intimate relationship in all societies. Families are therefore supposed to be joyful and humble. Families should also be able to share what little they do have. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley places a strong emphasis on the importance of family. She thinks that families ought to uphold values that set them apart from other living things. The author uses other themes, including love, identity, good versus evil, and others, to critically examine the subject of family. (Shelley 13). Most critics believe the idea and experience in the novel depicts her life experience. This paper, therefore, seeks to critically examine Mary Shelly's Frankenstein family themes surrounded around abandonment through the perspective of the monster (McLane 961). Therefore, love, peace, humility, generosity among other virtues is concepts that surround the theme of family. As result, the author identifies herself with the above virtues to construct a healthy family.
The theme of family is transmitted through Monsters from the cottagers. The readers gain access to the story because the monsters eavesdropped. Thus, it transferred from different stories, a story within a story, helps in building familial concepts in the novel. One of the ideas that assist in constructing the central concept of family is the "uniqueness" that is felt by all the characters in the story. The monster is treated as an outsider. Thus, he seems to be separated from his family and the society as a whole. Other characters in the book such as Safie undergo prejudice. Her feelings are restricted by the gender roles as dictated by the culture of Islam. Moreover, the concept of solitude helps in understanding the value of being together as a family.
Notably, most critics have contended the in the novel, Frankenstein, Mary Shelly tries to write her story. Shelly was raised by her father after her mother died in childbirth. At eighteen, she got married in England in which after seven years of marriage, her husband died in as a shipwreck. Therefore, Shelly's story embodies the subject of Solitude and poverty which signify the kind of life Shelly experienced. Shelly uses language and communication to explore the theme of family relations (De Lacey (McLane 958). Monsters beings to underhand and learn the language of the cottagers. He believes that though acquiring the language would help him feel part and parcel of the theme. Also, the subject of identity helps in constructing the concept of family relationships. Monster needs the identity that is the reason he endears himself to the cottagers. He even goes ahead to gain access into the cottage. However, his stay was short live. Thus, Shelly seeks to explain how identity is important for family relationships.
In the novel, the monster is aware of the concern and care the family displays for one another, and he feels distressed among the young members of the family. Indeed, they have nothing to eat, and they suffer from poverty. The family of De Lacey has been exiled from France to Germany. Desiring to keep the Cottagers pleased and happy, the monster helps the family by hauling woods secretly and doing repairs, all in secret. The monster goes about his daily routine of activities and passes through all the season.
Mary Shelly uses the monster as the narrator, who later tells his story to Victor. Notably, the narrator starts his narrative by remembering his old memories of his early life. After being exiled from the city, the monster lives in the forest and observes the cottagers. Thus, from the “hovel” the monster manages to view into the cottage and starts to keenly observe the life of the family of De Lacey (Reese 48). Shelly believes in a friendly family that exhibits true happiness. Moreover, she feels that our family values and standards should not be influenced by the material wealth and that everyone should be able to encourage other people.
The monster can describe the life of the De Lacey's family. Mary Shelly endeavors to establish a whole adventurous of the creature. The little family of De Lacy exhibits care, love, and devotion that every family should strive to attain. The creature sees the family of De Lacey for a longer time in secretly. The family members are unaware of his presence. The monster grows fond of the family. As a matter of fact, this is the first time the creature feels love (McLane 960). Shelly prepares her readers to view the monster as a maligned creature that deserves understanding. Besides, the novel through the theme of abandonment, loneliness, isolation love is all presented in the cottage by the character De Lacey. After unpleasant encounters with the people, the creature goes into “hovel” next to a small family of De Lacey cottage.
The seclude cottage is the universe in which the monster found peace. The monster identifies with very simple things that give him comfort in the cottage and manages to chase the best he can emulate and live within the comfort of the cottage walls (McLane 959). To get the comfort from the cottage he camouflages into the color of the wall of the cottage. Although the people who live in the cottage are poor, their home is always warned by fire and their meal, although scarce, is found the garden. In this sense, the creature’s feeling of loneliness and isolation begins to end because he got used to the daily activities in the cottage. However, hope for brotherly love diminishes after the creature gets an entry into the cottage. He manages to cross the bonders that limited him from interacting with the Cottagers. He desired to do away with loneliness in the hovel (Reese 48). He was cordially welcomed by the De Lacey who is blind. His stay was a short live one since he was chased back into the lonely world by those who live in the cottages.
In summary, the monster, we can learn that happiness, peace, and comfort are an essential element of a family relationship. He loves the peace and calmness of the cottage. It is for this reason he took longer separated by the wall on observing family. This implies that Mary Shelly values family virtues such as love happiness and unity. He drives home theme through the speaker, monster. Indeed, the novel highlights the theme of family as the significant unit in the society.
Works Cited
McLane, Maureen Noelle. "Literate Species: Populations, "Humanities," and Frankenstein." El 63.4 (1996): 959-88. JSTOR. Web.
Reese, Diana. "A Troubled Legacy: Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and the Inheritance of Human Rights." Representations 96.1 (2006): 48-72. JSTOR. Web.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Vol. 149. Ediciones Colihue SRL, 2003.
