our domestic circle
Here Mary Shelley introduces another theme that will continually surface
through the course of the novel, what Percy Bysshe Shelley in his
preface to the first edition termed "the amiableness of domestic
affection" (Preface 2). Later, when
Victor must confront how far as a student he strayed from bring content
in his family circle, he will inveigh against his folly and even link it
politically to the imperialistic exploitation of unoffending innocent
peoples (1.3.8). As with a number of
elements in this novel, however, the further one pursues the central value
of the domestic affections in Frankenstein, the more ambivalent
appears their representation. For example, there is no small irony in the
fact that what makes Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton interesting as
characters and helps to bond their friendship is their inability to find
satisfaction within such narrow limits of endeavor. And the same might be
said in 1816 for the
unsanctioned alliance of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
- Critical Approaches:
- Themes:
