• The first few chapters of the novel focus on Victors early childhood, revealing the love, affection, support and praise he received from his family from the moment he was born, unlike the monster
• “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other families I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.” (2.3)
• The contrast between the loving upbringing of Victor and isolating and lonely birth of the monster suggest that family plays an important role in development of personality 
• "My mother’s tender caresses and my father’s smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me, are my first recollections. I was their play thing and their idol, and something better- their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven” 
• Victor had a nurturing mother and father and a praising family life

• driven by ambition
• Had a lust to be a creator/god-like being
• Blinded to immoral actions he doing
• Didn’t realise that his obsession with infusing life into an inanimate body was fundamentally wrong
• So consumed in his profession 
• “A new species would bless me as its creator + source”

• Assembled from old body parts and chemicals 
• Tries to integrate into society but is shunned for his grotesque appearance 
• The character of the monster introduces the theme of monstrosity 
• He is a product not of collaborative scientific effort but of dark, supernatural workings.

• The creator learns to read and tries to make sense of his life through stories, such as the creation story in the bible
• He compares Frankenstein creating him to God creating adam
• He is angry he wasn’t given the opportunity for a relationship or sympathy from his creator
• The creature wanted companionship and acceptance but finds it is not possible because of the way he looks and instead his creator turns into his arch enemy 
• Creatures feelings after reading Frankenstein’s journal entry “everything is related... the minutest description of my odious and loathsome person is given, in language which painted your own horrors and rendered mine indelible. I sickened as I read... why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turn from me in disgust?”

• The creature begins with feelings of kindness towards humans, but he realises he will forever be seperate from people because he will never be accepted
• "Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude... but that cannot be”

• “But now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror + disgust filled my heart” 
• ^ ‘beauty’ refers to concept of him as a creature (god-like) glory of creating life 
• ^ ‘disgust’ refers to now he has to nurture and look after it 
• Immediately repulsed by creation > realised it’s morally wrong 
• Strived for perfection + didn’t achieve = disappointment 
• “One hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me”
• ^ irresponsible, misunderstood to actions of nurturing 
  
  

• foreshadowing to future events in the novel 
• Turns the vibrant woman he cherishes into a horrific image of death
• “But as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips they became livid to the hue of death, and i thought that I held the dead corpse of my mother in my arms, a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave worms crawling in the fold of her flannel”
• Ironic - not created life, created death
• He changed natural order of life 
  
  

• May be a symbol of the parent - child relationship: It grows up nameless, unloved + moral lesson to parents of their obligation to their children 
• ^ recalls Shelley’s own tragedies losing her mother + growing up alone 
• Symbolic of human nature, an argument against original sin 
• Creatures rage is only directed at those connected to Frankenstein - or others who have hurt him 
  
  

• Throughout the novel, nature evidently has the capacity to restore and heal 
• Helps characters find peace and tranquility in their lives 
• For example, after the creation of the monster Victor is delirious and depressed, but finds pleasure in nature , “it was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine Valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and me ephemeral, because human, sorrows” 
• Frees his mind to oppressive memories 
• Nature has the capacity to heal and refresh the soul - Shelly describes many natural landscapes to be beautiful and majestical which can transport the soul to another place and time
• “By degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me, and I continued my journey towards Geneva” - after William died
•  Restores the monster:
• When rejected he retreats to nature for protection 
• Eventually uses nature to isolate himself when he discovers that he cannot be accepted by human kind 
• Uses nature to reflect mood: eg the monster retreats to areas of ice to reflect his isolation emotionally and physically 

• “Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth.” - Frankenstein immensely appreciates the
   natural landscape and is still able to admire its beauty even though he has experienced immense suffering which has ultimately altered his view of the world 
• Victor often immediately seeks solace in nature after traumatic experiences such as the death of family members 
• The natural scenery helps to diminish feelings of sadness and grief, whilst renewing hope 

• Shelley describes nature as beautiful and consoling - her goal is to represent the superiority of nature to all things man made 
• Mountains, forests, rivers etc. are hailed for their beauty, whereas the monster represents man made creations (brought to life through advanced scientific knowledge) which brings destruction and despair 
• Nature reacts with vengeance when mistreated - eg the immoral action of Victor bringing life to an inanimate being 
• Bringing life to the dead goes against the natural flow of nature, which evidently results in disastrous consequences
• When scientists interfere with nature, something hideous is created 

• Isolation is represented as a recurring motif in the novel 
• Through the theme, Shelley illustrates how isolation is a destructive force, that weakens individuals and society as a whole. 
• Frankenstein and the creature ultimately suffer the negative consequences of being isolated from society.  
• Through the character’s journey in the novel, Shelly explores the way in which forced alienation and self imposed isolation has mental and physical consequences. 
  
  

• Frankenstein’s ambition and lust to acquire all knowledge drives him to isolate himself from his friends and family. His alienation from society is self-imposed 
• Victor rejects the family and friends who love him. He claims that this is necessary in order to pursue his quest for the secret of life. He chooses to completely separate himself from society in order to complete his research (at the beginning of the novel)
• The sufferings of Victor is primarily caused by his alienation from society
• His isolation from the loving people in his life causes him to become obsessed with his scientific research. As a result of this, he loses sight of the responsibilities he has to society. 
• Once he has learned that the creature is responsible for the death of his brother, he further isolates himself to protect his family and friends. 
• His isolated journey to destroy the creature, who happens to be on a path of destruction, ultimately leads to his own demise. 
• “Feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had no seen for so long time”
• This quote from Frankenstein is revealing for how Frankenstein chose to neglect and isolate himself for such long periods of time, while he worked on his scientific research. As a result he suffers from feelings of loneliness and detachment, which consequently have an emotional impact on him. 
  
  

• Once Victor realises the horrid appearance of his creation he fled in fear after he created him → leaving creation alone without any understanding of the world he was brought into
• Victor’s disgust at the creature is shown in the quote “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceed moderation; but now I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” 
• Furthermore the creature asks for Victor to create a companion similar to himself so he can be freed from his isolation that Victor as caused as a result of rejecting him
•  “My companion must be same species and have same defects”  the quote demonstrates the creature’s urge for another like him so he is no longer in seclusion since humanity won’t accept him as a result of his terrible appearance
• Victor denies him the opportunity of freedom from his alienation further embedding the creature in isolation a destructive decision since it can be seen as the catalyst for the creatures need for revenge/turn to evil  
• “Shall I create another like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world...you may torture me, but I will never consent,” The language used “torture” describes the extent to which Victor is opposed to manufacturing another creation, it exposes the degree to which he despise the creation. 
• Thus, Victor alienates the monster by abandoning the creature on the day of his formation, leaving him alone in a world unknown to him
• Additionally Victor rejects his proposal/solution to free him from the isolation and remoteness he is suffering and therefore further implants the monster in seclusion from society and mankind 

• From the moment the creature was created he didn‘t experience any sort of kindness or benevolence from his creator who fled, due to the sole reason that he was hideous and monstrous, which reveals its isolation from society
• Due to his traumatic experience of coming into the world abandoned, alone and confused, the creature has no one to help or guide him in “I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I?.
• This experience has led him to not even recognise what he is, which makes him feel even more isolated, as human infants come to understand their identity by being surrounded by humans, although the creature has no one else like him
• This has led to his loneliness and isolation from society where his desire for companionship and love was returned with scorn and hatred from others due to their fear of the horrendous appearance of the creature
• This expresses the extreme cruelty of living a life of complete loneliness and isolation, to the point where the creature comments that “Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him; but i am solitary and aborred”, where a figure that is viewed as the embodiment of evil was still not sentenced to live completely alone, where the creature, innocent and warm hearted was
• The monster turns vengeful not because its evil, but because isolation fills it with overwhelming hate and anger 
  
  

• Directly translated as ‘double goer’, the term Doppleganger was first introduced by Jean Paul in his 1796 novel Siebankas, and has since been extensively developed and examined, both as a theoretical concept and a narrative device.
• The appearance of the Doppleganger invites much psychoanalytic investigation, as it is a figure that represents the externalisation of the repressed aspects of the human psyche.
• Through the use of such a haunting Doppleganger, whose existence is inextricably linked to their own, characters are either allowed or forced to confront aspects of the self that they cannot or will not acknowledge. 
• The creature in Frankenstein, though referred to by his creator as ‘most hideous’ does in fact, function as a parodic mirror image of Frankenstein’. 
• They are both living in a ceaseless cycle that both corrupts and consumes the rest of the narrative world. The pervasive nature of their relationship is indicated by the manner in which the characters appear to continuously haunt one another.
• Frankenstein, wandering aimlessly around the city streets in hope of evading the Creature, compares himself to Coleridge’s Mariner, because he too walks "in fear and dread,/...Because he knows a frightful fiend/Doth close behind him tread" (p.47). As Maria Mahoney argues, this specific state of fear, that there is constantly "someone or something behind you, an ominous adversary dogging your footsteps”is a direct result of a neglected Doppelgänger relationship, and thus also of the refusal of the self to acknowledge it’s darker counterpart.
• There is a recurring suggestion of some hidden bond between the two, an obscure affection or at the very least, a longing for it.
• Although the creature claims that all his own vicious crimes are born from a desire to destroy Frankenstein, Victors eventual death renders the creatures existence empty and meaningless.
• Lingering in an ironic state of despair over his creator’s corpse, the Creature cries ‘oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me?” (p.167). In the light of Frankenstein’s death, the creature resigns himself to death too, and in explaining so he aligns their being as if he himself were the final part of Frankenstein’s existence: “he is dead who called me into being; and when I shall be no more the very remembrance of us both shall speedily vanish” (p.169) + spiral into one against through death.
• The monster is something completely internal that may be simply solipsism itself, or an unhappy form of narcissism, an aspect which Frankenstein cannot or will not come to terms.

“Here then I retreated and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man”