Theme Of Childhood In Frankenstein Essay Example

When a child, your family and friends are your every need. They see and know you the best among anyone. Giving you the life you need is the most someone can give you. It gives us the benefits, but also can give us the trauma and hardship we encounter later on in our life. The book “Frankenstein” represents this emotion and interest extremely well.

Victor Frankenstein was born in Genevese. He had a brother named William, and the parents of Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein. While growing up, he had almost everything. Great parents, a willing brother, and plenty of physical attributes. Victors family had money, as he recalled… “My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics, and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business.” The point Mary Shelly is suggesting is that Alphonse was well known and respected for his work ethic, he knew his job like the back of his hand. The profession he was granted which helped him support his family.  With that, the Frankenstein family got what they needed and usually what they wanted. They all knew each other in most parts of their life. One thing that was missing among them was emotional connection and support a person needs to obtain a healthy mental state. Victor missed that his whole childhood. Yes, his family was good to him and gave him what he needed to survive but missed some signals and signs that may have shown that his future could be in danger. 

Early in Victor Frankenstein's life, he did not experience what most would say to be a normal childhood. In chapter 2, the author insisted, “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.” She implies that Victor believes he had a childhood that no one could meet up to the standard he had. He was given love and always was granted things to work on, or write/read about. Even at the age of only seven, Victor's parents highly spurred him to become a student at the University of Ingolstadt, because he was attending the schools of Geneva. His parents wanted him to be successful, Alphonse and Caroline Frankenstein saw something in Victor. But that is the thing, they only saw something in Victor, they never thought something of him. 

Alphonse and Caroline missed out on parts of his life that parents need to look up on. Such as the signals from the books he would buy, or the times he wouldn’t care about not having friends. Because they cared only about where he would be in his future education and not let a boy of such a young age live his childhood. Let alone not perceive what Victor would do in his free time. “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn all things indiscriminately. I confess that neither the structure of languages, nor the code of governments, nor the politics of various states possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.” In this quote from chapter 2, Mary Shelly makes it clear that Victor was not just made to be thought of highly by his parents, but that he enjoyed the presents of himself with the exception of Henry Clerval, a family friend of the Frankenstein’s. In this time of Victor being alone with Henry on certain occasions, they would dig into the deeper mists of what would be known as ‘supernatural’ of human existence. These abnormal penchants would lead up to the likely hood of him becoming an ill man.