Mary W. Shelley's novel Frankenstein

Mary W. Shelley's novel Frankenstein is in part a parable on the arrogance of human beings in thinking they can supplant God, but the story can also be seen as a story commenting on the structure, viability, and necessity of family. The Frankenstein family exists on one level, as does the family that Victor wishes to form with Elizabeth. Standing against the two is the singular family consisting only of victor and his creation, a family formed in an unholy way and not in keeping with nature. The result is horror and violence from the child directed at the father.

Mary W. Shelley's novel is not merely a horror story but is also a philosophical novel which develops a number of themes related to the virtues of nature, a Romantic era notion, and the relationship of man to God. Shelley never says how the monster is brought to life. She does not detail this massive array of equipment but only hints at the terrible things Frankenstein must do to acquire the parts he needs. The one thing he must do is go against God, to go against Nature, and for this he must be exiled. His acts lead to the deaths of several other people, and the monster he has created is the shadow he chases far into the icy regions of the north. His last contact with civilization is with the captain of the frigate trapped in the ice, and then he chases his monster once more into the wilderness, as far from civilization as he can get. Frankenstein has no expectations of what leaving civilization will mea

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a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? (Shelley 170). The monster at this point wants a family of his own--he has never been a child and has not been fully educated to what family means, but he knows that this is the human way to live and that he can be human if he has a family: You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede (Shelley 207). The importance of family to Victor is evident in the opening line, for he refers to the fact that he comes from a family that is distinguished in the region (Shelley 1). He late explains how Justine Moritz joined the family and so became part of his family (Shelley 82). Her role as a member of the family is emphasized again during her trial for murdering William, and the family protests her innocence because she is one of them and they know she did not do it. Indeed, it is the member of the family that they do not know, that only Victor knows, who is the guilty party. Having started on his task of destroying the Frankenstein family, the monster is exposed to other family groups, such as

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