Elizabeth Lavenza Analysis

Til Death Do Us Part: The Murder of Elizabeth Lavenza
Modern pop culture has skewed our view of classic literature in such a way that when one hears the phrase ‘Bride of Frankenstein,’ they imagine an equally hideous female creation to match the ‘mad scientist’ Victor Frankenstein’s original abomination. Yet if we adhere to Mary Shelley’s original novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, then the title ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ falls upon the delicate shoulders of Elizabeth Frankenstein neé Lavenza, the antithesis of an unnatural horror. From the beginning of Victor’s narration Elizabeth’s portrayal is that of natural perfection: a likeness to the biblical Eve, before temptation. Passive, positive, and pretty as a picture, she exemplifies the quintessential woman of Shelley’s era. Elizabeth is shown to be the light in Victor’s life that helps him battle the guilt of creating a being capable of destruction; she stands as a nostalgic reminder of Victor’s idyllic childhood. Yet
But it is not until his last stronghold of purity and hope in the form of one Elizabeth Lavenza is destroyed by his own creation (and, he feels she died by his own hand as well) that Victor’s fate of isolation and repentance is sealed. Elizabeth was, from the start, the epitome of perfection, both in the context of the Bible as well as 19th century Europe. She remained as Victor’s sole connection to his paradisiacal childhood free of man’s folly. But when this connection was severed in the event of Elizabeth’s murder, Victor’s fate was sealed off from the prospect of redemption, and he was forced to roam the earth in isolation. The horror of Frankenstein’s tale lies not within the gruesome murders or the creation of a monster, but how redemption can be lost with a simple cross of the