Frankenstein

10 Pages 2553 Words

Frankenstein
In this essay, I shall be examining the two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature, and considering what Shelley could be telling us about parenting, child development, and education through their experiences.
As a young child, it could be said that Victor Frankenstein is indulged and spoilt by his parents, and later on by his adopted sister, Elizabeth and his friend, Henry Clerval. In the first chapter, as Frankenstein is recounting his story to the mariner, Walton, we learn that he was born into a wealthy family from Geneva, and lived in Italy for the first part of his life. His mother was the daughter of his father’s friend, and, therefore much younger than he. We are told that she was caring and dutiful, that she, "possessed a mind of an uncommon mould" (page 32), and had nursed and kept her own father during his illness until his death. Frankenstein’s parents are very much in love, and he was an only child for the first five years, doted on by them as we can see when he says, "they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from a very mine of love to bestow them on me." (page 33). Victor’s first recollections are of his, "mother’s tender caresses", and his, "father’s smile of benevolent pleasure" (page 33). They regard him as being, "bestowed on them by heaven", and recognize that his future, "was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery". He also tells Walton that his mother and father felt that they, "owed" something to him because they had given him life.
At the age of seven, having moved to Geneva with his family, he meets Henry Clerval with whom he becomes great friends, although it is interesting to note that he chooses not to mix with the other local children. At the beginning of chapter two, Victor describes his childhood thus:

No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence....