The Role Of Guilt In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Throughout Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, I could not help think that the novel might have reflected some of the turmoil she experienced in her life. Major themes in the novel included fear of death, satisfaction of urges, and the effect of guilt on behavior. Mary Shelley never got the chance to get to know her mother because her mother died during child labor. Mary Shelley lost four out of the five of her children either to miscarriage or sickness. Furthermore, Shelley remained a widow for the rest of her life after her relatively short marriage to Percy Shelley. From a psychoanalytical perspective, the death of Victor Frankenstein’s mom subconsciously negatively influenced Victor’s behaviors and decision throughout the novel.
Victor lost his mom at the age of seventeen in volume one chapter two after Victor’s mom caught the scarlet fever from his cousin Elizabeth. I inferred that Victor feared death when he said, “I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by the most irreparable evil,” (Volume 1, Chapter 2). Victor describes death as
You get a perspective of Victor’s disengagement with social life in the pursuit of him satisfying his urge to gain intelligence in the field of procreation when Victor said, “The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit,” (Volume 1, Chapter 3). Another example of Caroline’s death being the psychological cause of Victor’s behavior is when Victor commits to getting revenge on the creature after the creature kills his wife Elizabeth. Victor did everything in his power to prevent the death of Elizabeth because his mom’s final wishes on her death bed were for Victor to marry Elizabeth. I think that if Victor’s mom did not make that request and did not die prematurely, then most likely Victor would not have unconsciously pursued his own