Daddy Issues Impacting Victor Frankenstein

Most would say that Victor’s issue was that he had daddy issues. But why? Victor’s father Alphonse is a respectable and loving man, but has always felt as if he didn’t belong in his family and especially felt rejected by his father Alphonse.

Victor’s interests were always science, chemistry, and reanimation, but his father was more of an intellectual man and believed in modern science. Victor came close to blaming his father for being the reason why he created the creature he blames his father because when Alphonse found out about Victor reading Cornelius Agrippa his father simply told him to not be wasting his time with sad trash. He wishes his father would have explained to him why modern science was so important and and why the unspeakable science was a waste of time because then maybe his father would have convinced him and he wouldn’t have created the creature. Instead of blaming his father it is possible that he was simply obsessed on wanting to belong.

Victor had always wanted to belong to something because he never felt as if his family never accepted him, so he thought that by creating a new species others would accept him. Victor thinking to himself says, “a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their blessings to me”. This quote by Victor could prove that the only reason Victor created the monster was to have power and for people to acknowledge that he could create life. This also means that the creature was just another victim of Victor’s selfishness just like Justine, Elizabeth, and Henry. Justine could have lived if Victor had confessed that he created the monster that killed his brother William. Elizabeth and Henry could have lived if Victor had created the creature his lover or had simply not created the creature for the simple pleasure of being worshipped and belonging. The creature was Victor’s victim because he didn’t think about how using different types of parts would affect its form of living and how he would fit in. Victor also states, “I doubt whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself”. Which at the end the creature turns out to be a lot like him. The creature like Victor doesn’t accept his social status and doesn’t belong into his family and wants nothing but to be part of a symbolic order, even the creature wants to belong and feels lonely.

Let’s take this deeper and talk about Victor’s relationship with his mother, there wasn’t one. His mother died when he was a child of scarlet fever so he didn’t have a maternal presence growing up. In The Monster and the Maternal Thing, a psychoanalytic perspective by David Collings, he points out that Victors urge to create life is because he wants to bring his mother back: he states, “Victor attempts to re-create his mother in his scientific, intellectual project”. Victor also does other things to try and replace his mother. For example, Although Victor doesn’t see it he replaces his mother with Elizabeth. Elizabeth resembles his mother in many aspects probably because before she passed she cared for Elizabeth as her adoptive mother.

Works Cited

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