domestic affections
This phrase carries rich connotations in Mary Shelley's time. The
Domestic Affections, for instance, is the title of the first mature
volume of poetry by Felicia Hemans (1812), a volume in which she
first laid claim to speak as the central female voice of the
nineteenth-century bourgeoisie. The mythos of the enclosed domestic space
presided over by the "Angel of the House" had a compelling power for the
new order that came into place after the defeat of Napoleon. Quietly, in the first two
chapters of this novel, Mary Shelley has inscribed it as a nurturing space
for the growth of the Frankenstein children and even for their neighbor
Henry Clerval. A similar enclosed circle animated by the "domestic
affections" will form the nuclear center of the Creature's narrative in
the second volume. Much critical literature has concentrated on these
seeming ideals, some seeing a counter to the male Romantic quest, some
questioning just how far Mary Shelley actually goes in endorsing them.
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