The Circular Relationships in Frankenstein

Lori MacDonald
Originally submitted: Nov. 25, 1994
Originally submitted to: Dr. Steven Bruhm
English 311

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is a complex novel, with many facets. However,

there is certain circularity in the relationships of the main characters Walton needs
something from Victor to fulfill his life; Victor needs the monster to give him both a
purpose and an identity; and the monster needs a similar (but not identical) link with
Victor. Waltons need is founded in friendship, Victors is founded in an antagonistic
relations, and the monster, devoid of the possibility of a love connection to Victor, turns
to rage and hatred. All of these characters have the potential of learning something, and
all show that connection, the need to be connected to someone, is inherent in basic human
nature, even if that being is a monster reanimated from dead tissue of various individuals.
The book begins with Walton. In a letter to his sister, he laments the absence of a
friend on his quest to charter parts of the North Pole never before touched or seen by
men. He tells Margaret what he desires in a friend:
I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me,
whose eyes would reply to mineI have no one near me, gentle
yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as a capacious
mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my
plans. How would such a friend repair the faults of your poor
brother. (17)
The friend that he receives is Frankenstein, who arrives while Waltons boat is struck in
ice and his voyage is postponed. Both share an obsession. Waltons is to be the first
explorer to charter the North Pole. Frankenstein has completed the work that was his
obsession, and is now obsessed with destroying that which he created.
Through Frankensteins story, Walton is able to learn a lesson - to risk everything
in his adventure and gain possible glory, or to turn back before everything is lost. He is
also able to join in Frankensteins obsession vicariously and to recognize the
characteristics that belong to them both. Frankenstein talks of his younger days when he
believed [himself] destined for some great enterprise (203). This is the position that
Walton is in when the novel begins. He asks his sister, And now, dear Margaret, do I not
deserve to accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and
luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path (15) . It
is possible to see Walton as a young Victor, and it through Victor that Walton can see
himself if he continues on the path that he has chosen. It is after Frankenstein tells his
story that Walton mentions, for the first time, the possible negative consequences of his
journey: There is something terribly appalling in our situation, yet my courage and
hopes do not desert me. Yet it is terrible to reflect that the lives of all these men are
endangered through me (205). This statement reflects a man greatly different from the
Walton in the beginning of the book, the one that feels that one mans life or death were
but a small price to pay for the knowledge that he seeks (27). He is now marred by
indecision and confusion because he is considering someone other than himself.
Frankenstein is the force of change in Waltons life; he allows Walton to make of
choice to learn from this lesson that Victor has shared (but not quite learned himself).
Frankenstein does repair the faults in Walton, whether he consciously intends to or not.
Walton returns home, his crew advocating very strongly their departure blasted by

cowardice and indecision (208). He has not only lost his quest, but he has also lost a
friend. Walton is not completely despondent though. He has a family to return to, and he
hopes that on his return he will be able to find consolation (210). Frankenstein and his
story give Walton a second chance, a chance for him to realize the value of what he has.
Through Victor, he has given a glimpse of his possible future: if he fails (or even if he
succeeds), he could lose everything that ever mattered to him, all because of something
[that is at] work in [his] soul, which [he does] not understand (19).
Victor Frankenstein defines himself and his path in a much different way. In the
beginning, Victor is defined by his obsession for knowledge, and for creating what he
thinks will be the ultimate being. Once he does this, though, Victors rejects the monster
(or daemon) and then sees himself as that things enemy:
My abhorrence of this fiend cannot be conceived. When I thought
him I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently
wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly
bestowed. (89)
For Victor, the monster is the antithesis of himself, the opposite to which he compares
himself. Yet, this is one of Victors many self-deceptions. He and the monster have more
in common than he would admit. Victor warns Walton that the monster is eloquent and
persuasive; and once his words had even power over my heart: but trust him not (202).
Just a little while later, Walton uses the same terms about Victor:
Even the sailors feel the power of his eloquence; when he speaks,
they no longer despair; he rouses their energies, and while they
hear his voice, they believe these vast mountains of ice are
molehills, which will vanish before the resolutions of man. (206)
In one of the most hypocritical speeches in the book, Victor even uses his verbal ability to
make the sailors feel ashamed for trying to mutiny. He lectures them on being cowards
and running away at the first imagination of danger orthe first mighty and terrific trial
of [their] courage (207). Both the monster and Victor have the ability to affect people
with their words, and to change resolute minds to their way of thought.
As the monster slowly destroys all that Frankenstein cares about, he strips away
his basic identity. Frankenstein is no longer a brother after Williams death, friend after
Clervals death, son after his fathers death, nor husband after his brides death. All that is
left is the connection between him and the monster. Where he will not fulfill the duties of
father, or creator, he becomes destroyer: They were dead, and I lived; their murdered
also lived, and to destroy him I must drag out my weary existence (196). He refers to
this endeavour as a holy voyage, although it is difficult to ascertain exactly how his
purpose was assigned to [him] by Heaven, when what he was doing was usurping the
power of God and of creation (208). Victor only allows himself finally to die when he
feels that Walton has taken on his responsibility of destroying the monster.
The monster identifies himself in a method that is somewhat similar to Victors.
Time and again, the monster tried to reach out, not only to Victor but to the DeLaceys and
others, only to be continuously rejected. Every good emotional bond that he tries to

fashion is severed violently, both physically and emotionally. As the monster tells Walton,
he is felt with only one course of action:
when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and
its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for happiness thathe
sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the
indulgence of which I was forever barred, then impotent envy and
bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for revenge.
(212)
Love, happiness, and all methods of enjoyment are lost to, or kept from, the monster.
Therefore, the only feelings available to him, and the only way through which he can
identify himself, are hate, rage and revenge. He clarifies though that this did not make
him happy: For while I destroyed his hoped, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were
forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned
(213). The only way for the monster to fill in the emptiness that exists within him, due to
the love kept from him, is to fill that space with rage and hate. Nevertheless, these
emotions are not enough and they cannot erase the innate desire to be loved and accepted.
The only calming of Frankensteins and the monsters inner turmoil can be found
in death. The monster is aware of that fact: But soonI shall die and what I now feel
[shall] be no longer felt.... My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely
think thus (215). He finds a similar solace as Victor; both see death as their salvation.
Victor can be reconnected to everyone that he has lost, and the monster no longer has to
suffer from his severed connections with people.
Mary Shelley has captured one of the essential aspects of human character in
Frankenstein the desire to have other people to and with an individual. Each of these
characters is defined with other people, their feelings and their experiences. If
Frankenstein, or everyone else, had not rejected the monster, he would not have become
the violent person he became. He had the possibility of being a wonderful, caring
individual, but that was driven out of him. Walton, if he had not met Frankenstein, would
probably have kept going north and the majority, if not all, of his crew would most likely
have died. If Frankenstein had accepted the monster, he would not have suffered in the
manner that he did, nor lost every individual that mattered to him. The fact that their
paths went the way they did makes Frankenstein a compelling and eloquent work that
pulls at the emotions of the reader.

Works Cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Maurice Hindle. Penguin Books: Toronto, Ontario,
1992.