Frankenstein: Abandonment

Frankenchild: Critical Analysis Paper Abandonment indicates a parent’s choice to have no part in his or her offspring’s life. This includes failure to support the child financially and emotionally, as well as failure to develop a relationship with his or her child. Sadly, parental abandonment leaves a child with doubt and uncertainty about the future. Throughout his or her life, this particular child could suffer from lasting questions of self-worth. In the opposite direction, the child could learn to resent his or her parents and remain incapable of trusting anyone. Regardless, intentional negligence of children leaves them with an unbearable pain that they must carry around for the rest of their lives. Child-care and the consequences of parental abandonment are predominant themes in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the novel, Frankenstein - Mary Shelley presents an idea about the negative effects on children from the absence of a nurturing figure and fatherly love. To demonstrate this theory in Frankenstein, Shelley focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s attempt to create life, which results in a horrid monster or “child”. Victor chooses to create a monster out of his own selfish reasons and leaves him behind in a cruel, unforgiving world. Unlike the monster, Victor had a comfortable childhood. Born to parents who loved him and a wealth of people who supported him, Victor receives excessive attention, allowing him to adjust easily. Frankenstein’s mother died while he was young. She was the only character to die peacefully: “She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death (Shelley, 33).” He saw his mother with compassion and her death infuriated him; he referred to death as evil and fully intended on fixing that. When Frankenstein went away to study in college, his life drastically took a turn of events without the presence of his parents. Despite his good intentions, Frankenstein created a mess of a human being. Unfortunately, the monster

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