<p>The Circular Relationships in Frankenstein</p><p>Lori MacDonald Originally submitted: Nov. 25, 1994 Originally submitted to: Dr. Steven Bruhm English 311 Mary Shelley’s 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. Walton’s need is founded in friendship, Victor’s 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.</p><p>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 mine…I 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 Walton’s boat is struck in ice and his voyage is postponed. Both share an obsession. Walton’s 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. </p><p>Through Frankenstein’s 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 Frankenstein’s 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 man’s 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. </p><p>Frankenstein is the force of change in Walton’s 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). </p><p>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 thing’s 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 Victor’s 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 or…the 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. </p><p>As the monster slowly destroys all that Frankenstein cares about, he strips away his basic identity. Frankenstein is no longer a brother after William’s death, friend after Clerval’s death, son after his father’s death, nor husband after his bride’s 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. </p><p>The monster identifies himself in a method that is somewhat similar to Victor’s. 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 that…he 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.</p><p>The only calming of Frankenstein’s and the monster’s inner turmoil can be found in death. The monster is aware of that fact: “But soon…I 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. </p><p>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</p><p>Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Maurice Hindle. Penguin Books: Toronto, Ontario, 1992. </p>