Andrea Hewes
English 102
Essay #3
13 October 2011
The True Meaning of Love
Love and friendship has been depicted in works of literature throughout history, in the books written by some of the greatest authors. William Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo and Mercutio; Ernest Hemingway with David Bourne and Marita; Jane Austen with Elizabeth and Darcy, and Darcy and Bingley; and Louisa May Alcott with Jo and Professor Bhaer and Jo and Laurie, these are just of few of the authors that have immortalized such relations in their writings. Mary Shelley was not any different from her fellow authors in depicting these feelings in her novel Frankenstein. Though her own life was full of tragedy and heartache, Shelley intertwines her own experiences with ones that might have been. Being a mistress, a mother, a wife, and then a widow at such a young age she never has the kind of relationships that she describes in her novel. Mary Shelley allows the reader a small glimpse of the joy that Victor Frankenstein has with his close friends and family. Then in a matter of moments that joy is replaced by sadness and despair when his creation is brought to life. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein she takes the reader on that journey with Victor, losing his inner self, then losing his only true friends, and then finally losing the object of his love with the awakening of his creation. http://www.thefamouspeople.com/writers.php True friendship is the first relationship that is focused on at the beginning of Frankenstein. It is also one that manifests itself over and over again throughout the book. Robert Walton desires to have a friend and so speaks of it to his sister in one of his letters; “I bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans” (Shelley 10). There is no fault found in those that desire friendship. With the presence of a stranger, allowed as a passenger on Walton’s ship, that desire is fulfilled. This relationship is formed after Victor Frankenstein has created his monster and then falls victim of its wrath. Author George Levine, whom wrote Frankenstein and the Tradition of Realism, writes this about the friendship between Walton and the stranger: “Frankenstein becomes his one true friend, and he is a friend who dies just at the point when their friendship is becoming solidified. And, of course, he is the man to whom Frankenstein tells his story…to keep him from the same fate” (Levine 210). That is what friendship is all about, wanting something better for those that you love. With true friendship comes trust, which is why Frankenstein was able to allow his new friend to hear of his past. He opens his heart and recounts, to Walton, the events that have brought them together and have caused him such sadness and despair.
Friendship had crossed Victor Frankenstein’s path before, with his lifelong friend Henry Clerval. Many people can relate to this relationship between Victor and Henry, meeting someone as a child and then creating a bond. Then with time that bond is nurtured until it becomes a friendship that without it there would be an immense void. Victor says this of his friend since childhood; “My brothers were considerably younger than myself; but I had a friend in one of my schoolfellows, who compensated for this deficiency…we were never completely happy when Clerval was absent” (Shelley 20-21). With that being said, true friendship at times requires that of sacrifice and Clerval undoubtedly shows where his loyalties lie when he knows that Victor truly needs him. In Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein Anne K. Mellor writes of that kind of sacrifice, “Clerval immediately gives up his desire to attend university in order to nurse his dear friend Victor back to health” (Mellor 284). Henry is there before and after the creation, he notices the big changes in Victor yet he still loves his friend. Over and over again Henry shows Victor an unwavering friendship which so many desire. Would he be so devoted if he knew about the creation that his dearest friend had made? This is something that Shelley never allows the reader to know. Victor finds out what true heartache is when his creature takes the life of his best friend and confidante. Sometimes it is a hard lesson to learn that no matter what mistakes are made; true friendship is all about looking past the faults and mistakes of those that you love.
In the Lady and The Monster Mary Poovey says, “Frankenstein’s love for his family is the first victim of his obsession” (Poovey 254), this includes his cousin Elizabeth. As we see with Victor’s relationship with Elizabeth he starts out loving her as his cousin, then as his friend, and then as his betrothed. Of his early relationship with Elizabeth Victor says, “I loved to tend on her, as I should on a favourite animal; and I never saw so much grace both of person and mind united to so little pretension” (Shelley 20). The feelings that Victor had for Elizabeth were not one sided. Elizabeth loves and endears Victor, wanting him to be happy and have the things that he so desires even if that means giving him up. This kind of love is shown when Elizabeth allows Victor to follow his own pursuits over and over again. First, when he goes off to university, and then again when he leaves with his friend Henry for two years to see the different country sides. She too senses a change in Frankenstein, knowing that he is not the same person he once was before he went off to school. However, like Henry Clerval she shows Victor unwavering love when she “offers to release her beloved Victor from his engagement should he love another” (Mellor 284-285). That kind of sacrifice would be the hardest to give, wanting the one that you love to be happy even if that meant giving him up to another. In the end her love for Victor will be her down fall when she is murdered by Victor’s monster.
The most important journey that Mary Shelley takes the reader on in Frankenstein is the loss of Victor’s inner self. If things are not right with yourself then things cannot be right with those that are closest to you. Anne K. Mellor writes about that in Possessing Nature: The Female In Frankenstein,
“Victor Frankenstein cannot do scientific research and think lovingly of Elizabeth and his family at the same time. His obsession with his experiment has caused him ‘to forget friends who were so many miles absent, and who I had not seen for so long a time’…Because Frankenstein cannot work and love at the same time, he fails to feel empathy for the creature he is constructing…He then fails to love or feel any parental responsibility for the freak he has created” (Mellor 275).
Ultimately because he is so obsessed with himself and defying the laws of nature he is responsible for the deaths of those he loves. These deaths are what cause Victor to lose that which was instilled in him since birth. With his family and friends gone, he becomes occupied with his next obsession of finding and ridding the world of his own creation. Victor says, “I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled, and I may die” (Shelley 148). Victor Frankenstein dies without fulfilling his last obsession, he dies a mere shadow of the man he once was. He being the author of the deaths of those people that he claimed to hold most dear, he never really understands what it means to have true love and friendship.
“As long as domestic relationships govern an individual’s affections, his or her desire will turn outward as love” (Poovey 254). There was nothing common and domestic about how Mary Shelley describes Victor Frankenstein defying the laws of nature. He knows that those close to him love him; they have showed him time and time again. However, he is incapable of returning that affection because he is obsessed with his own creation. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein she takes you on the path of knowing what love and friendship really is. Then she allows you to see what happens to a human being when that love and friendship is gone, and you become truly alone. Shelley’s novel is dark and daunting, and the story of Victor Frankenstein is sad and depressing. However, she instills in the reader the importance of personal relationships in our journey through life.
Work Cited
Frankenstein Image: http://alextrenoweth.com/?page_id=77
Levine, George. “Frankenstein and the Tradition in Realism.” Frankenstein. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition. New York City, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1996. 208-214.
Mellor, Anne K. “Possessing Nature: The Female In Frankenstein.” Frankenstein. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition. New York City, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1996. 274-286.
Poovey, Mary. “’My Hideous Progeny’: The Lady and the Monster.” Frankenstein. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition. New York City, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1996. 251-261.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York City, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1996.
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