Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be interpreted as a narrative that highlights the conflict of love, and this is reflected by both Frankenstein and the monster he created and named after him. As the story begins, the reader is introduced to Frankenstein, who is in pursuit of the monster. During his time on the ship, he highlights how his love for creation led to the creation of the monster. Shelly observes how Frankenstein yearned to learn to create living things (5). He was motivated and disciplined in his pursuit, so much so that he left his family at a vulnerable time in order to further his studies. However, as the reader soon finds out, his love for his work leads to the creation of a monster that he is not proud of. Even though the result was not what he expected, he had successfully created a living being which also yearned to be loved. In such a situation, the conflict of love is highlighted. His love for his work drove him to hate and isolate his creation, and his loved ones paid the price; while his creation was essentially an abomination to him, he also resulted in hating it. Ironically, in Frankenstein’s failure to love the monster, he loses some of the people he loves the most. The conflict of love is also highlighted through Frankenstein’s monster. Through no fault of his own, the monster was created by his master but denied love and isolated from others. In his turmoil, he takes revenge on Frankenstein by killing his brother. Ironically, the monster’s actions were fueled by the love he yearned to obtain from Frankenstein. As the monster was deprived of this love, his atrocities continued, and Frankenstein continued to deny him, love. In this way, the dysfunctional cycle between Frankenstein and his monster highlights the conflict of love. The following essay evaluates Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and argues that in the societal pursuit of the meaning of life, society creates monsters by failing to show compassion and acceptance towards those who are different or marginalized, thus driving them to seek vengeance and causing a cycle of violence and tragedy all which fall under the conflict of love.
The social construct that defines human abilities and disabilities while arbitrary has increasingly become a key focus in how people perceive the rest in society. People with disabilities are generally underrepresented and shunned from accessing social, economic, political, and cultural capital. They, therefore, feel discouraged from conventions that define socialization processes. In a sense, this is seen in the story of Frankenstein, which can be seen as a cautionary tale that is used to explain how society contributes to the creation of monsters. While not a monster, Frankenstein’s creation is increasingly marginalized, abused, and feared, slowly driving him to become atrocious towards others and essentially a villain. Frankenstein works to provide readers with the context of what shapes the discourse of disability in society and how it is often defined in the context of humanity. How people treat others has a greater impact on them and those they interact with (Harris). Younger persons are the most vulnerable. Their ill-treatment from a young age impacts their mental, physical, and emotional balance as they grow and inherently shapes their characters for better or worse.
As much as Frakenstein’s creation became a monster, the lack of love reflected by zero sympathies and connection to his creation makes Victor the main antagonist in the story. Shelley provides critical background into their upbringing of Victor to show that overall, his poor social environment growing up might have contributed to leading him to create a monster and also introspectively become one. Although his parents were good people and often even adopted orphans into their homes, Victor felt distanced from them, which undermined his overall perspective of doing good with his knowledge. From this background information, the reader comes to recognize the crucial conflict of love (lack of it thereof) that led to Victor creating the monster. The narrator explains, “Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow creatures and rendered me unsocial, but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart” (Shelley p75). Outlining that the idea of academic excellence and lack of proper parental guidance propagated Victor to find other means to enjoy life and find love. This also led him to become socially withdrawn. Victor points out that his”father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child’s blindness, added to a student’s thirst for knowledge” (Shelley p36). Outlining that he was often isolated and impactfully felt less supported by his parents. His quest for knowledge replaced the need for parental validation and love. A yearning for science filled the hole. As the narrator effectively puts it: “It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever” (Shelley p40). The loss of his mother further contributed to the existing lack of love and fuelled a need to create his own entity that would love him.
Conflict of love can be defined as a lack of love where it is needed most. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from the story of Frankenstein. One significant lesson is that those who lack love can never create love, as they may fail to grasp the idea of what true love is. This is essentially a key aspect in the theme of conflict of love, as presented by Mary Shelley. Geoghegan highlights that the lack of social validation through love cannot be fixed by science. There are limits to science, and precautions should be applied by society as a whole to prevent the creation of monsters by people like Frankenstein. Victor was, from a young age, denied the capacity to be loved and loved back, and this led to greater social isolation. When he finally created the monster, he was disgusted by what he did and essentially acted out of hate towards it instead of love, giving it the social dejection he had been receiving. The monster traveled far and wide around the world in search of friendship but was treated like an abomination. He also failed to create any significant human connections and friends. Geoghegan emphasizes that human beings and their treatment of others help create monsters in society, and this works to fuel their rage and anger towards others and essentially leads them to become the monsters society created.
Effectively, the concept of the monsters that society creates helps unravel the complex dynamics of psycho-cultural issues that are important in defining social problems within the context of socialization. In this case, Mary Shelley’s conceptual definition of Frankenstein outlines a conflict of love that might emerge through a lack of affection where it is most needed. The use of “monsters” as a concept has provided the reader with the capacity to define experiences and understand other people and societies. The concept is symbolic, and it exposes the readers to unfamiliar issues and topics, helping improve their conceptual understanding of their society.
Conclusively, society as a whole can be held responsible for the manifestation of monsters. Monsters are a creation of societal neglect and abuse. This implicates many. The conflict of love, where an entity seeks sociality with others as all humans do, comes to manifest when they do not find it and instead find hate. The emotional, physical, and mental impact of the lack of acceptance in society may lead to a loss of humanity in them and essentially makes them embrace hate and perpetuate monstrous activities. Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein explains how society is implicated in the conflict of love and the creation of monsters through the story of Victor, who lacked social support and never belonged, which resulted in his loss of humanity. He created his own means to find love, and since he lacked an understanding of love. The monster that Victor created in the laboratory provides a symbolic explanation of the impact of human activities within conventional socialization spaces and how they can affect others’ emotional, physical, and mental wellness.
Works Cited
Geoghegan, Tom. “10 Meanings of Frankenstein.” BBC News, 14 Mar. 2011, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12711091.
Harris, Jason. “The Frankenstein Effect – Society is Creating Its Own Monsters.” Jason’s Connection, 26 June 2014, www.jasonsconnection.org/blog/the-frankenstein-effect-society-is-creating-its-own-monsters/.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Oxford UP, 2014.
write