Passivity and Impotence in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein

Passivity and Impotence in Frankenstein There are many ways to interpret a literary text, especially one as laden with ethical questions and literary allegory as Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. Shelleys complex family dynamic - her conflicted relationship with her father, her need to please her mentor/husband with literary success, her infants deaths - enhances the intrigue of the novel and suggests multiple themes and layered meanings. One discernible theme in Frankenstein is illuminated by the bold line that separates male character from female: The men inevitably fail the women whom they claim to love, but the women are maddeningly passive, seemingly blind to the mens inadequacies. Here, however, this passivity is a†¦show more content†¦Though weak, she has enough intelligence to realize which choice will serve her better. Elizabeths lack of force and tepid presence in the book - Victors descriptions of her generous nature notwithstanding - mirror Victors weaknesses. His follies are the meat of Frankenstein, and though his initial failure to study the right books can be blamed on Alfonse, the rest of the books mayhem lays squarely on his shoulders. Victor glorifies his own childhood and his parents responsibility for his happiness when he describes it, With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life...I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-control... (33). Unfortunately, he absorbs none of their parental talent or compassion. When Victor creates the hideous Monster, he abandons the Monster and essentially abandons the world on which the Monster is unleashed. Victors failure as a father to the Monster is the second link in the chain of death swung by the Monster at William, Clerval, Elizabeth, and by default, Justine. Like Alfonse, Victor excels at female worship but falls a step beyond Alfonses well-meaning ineptitude into a deep crag of impotence. Throughout the novel, Victor speaks of Elizabeth in