DEADBEAT DAD Shellys Frankenstein as a Father Figure

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SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN AS A FATHER FIGURE

In the world we live in, it is nothing new to hear of young men fathering children and then disappearing, leaving the child to be raised without a father. A term for these filial flunkies has even become a part of our vernacular; the "deadbeat dad." Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a novel concerning the creation of life by a man, and his refusal to take responsibility for the life he has created. Victor Frankenstein, in his abandonment of his own creation at its "birth" and in his rejection of that creation when it seeks him out, is that parent who is not there for his child. Shelley's Frankenstein, in those passages of the creation of the monster and the monster's confrontation of Frankenstein, contain ample proof that Victor Frankenstein was indeed a "deadbeat dad." Shelley shows that Frankenstein rejects his creation, is disgusted by it and doesn't offer the parental guidance, love and compassion the creature so badly needs. Frankenstein's abandonment of a being of his own creation directly leads to his personal downfall.

When the reader reaches the creation of the monster in the novel, it is known that Frankenstein has not previously fathered a child. Fran

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley has given us a picture of a father who is so shocked by the horrible appearance of the being that he has created, he wishes to "escape" the responsibilities that creating that life entail. We know that Victor Frankenstein became the creator of life willingly, but when he was faced with his "offspring," he treated it with disgust and contempt. The passage Shelley uses to illustrate this is the creation of the monster episode. Through Frankenstein's actions and language we see that he is indeed remiss in his duties as a father. The consequences of this abdication of duties are the deaths of Frankenstein's friends and family members, and ultimately his own personal ruin. Mary Shelley graphically demonstrates the price of being a "deadbeat dad."

Shelley shows Frankenstein to be a father who is not at all happy with his child, and here based solely on its appearance. Frankenstein starts out as not only a bad father, but also quite a shallow one. And how does Frankenstein now deal with the situation? He runs away and goes to sleep as he is " unable to endure the aspect of the being I created" (p.42). This is not exactly the zenith of fatherhood. Frankenstein is visited by nightmares during this sleep, in one of which he sees his dead and rotting mother. Shelley may be telling us here that the nurturing abilities of Frankenstein himself as a father and parent are dead as well. The female, and especially, the mother, is seen as the wellspring of compassion even today, but the feeling was much stronger when Shelley was writing, as male/female roles were more rigidly defined in the 19th century. Shelley was raised without her own mother (she died giving birth to Mary), so she had first hand experience of the loss of a parent.

Frankenstein wakes to find his new creation standing over his bed and the newborn tries to speak and even smiles at his creator. Frankenstein, in recounting the tale, doesn't see this as an

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Approximate Word count = 1325
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English