Theme article

Don’t rely on others to provide your happiness; you have to find it yourself.

This theme can be found in many scenarios throughout the book. For example, Elizabeth Lavenza didn’t have a great life growing up, but she found her own happiness through her adopted family. Both of her parents died so she was left to be raised in a foster home. After being adopted by the Frankenstein’s, she started to have a great life. She never let her bad past destroy her happiness she has now. The book talks about her history saying “…the daughter of a Milanese nobleman. Her mother was a German, and had died on giving her birth.”(Shelley 30) This quote explains how Elizabeth’s past is like, but it also shows how she never let that control her happiness.

Also, this theme is shown through the monster’s story. He is telling Victor of his time spent watching the de Lacey’s and how he felt like they were his friends, saying “…but allow me now to return to the cottagers, whose story excited in me such various fellings of indignation, delight, and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love and reverence for my protectors…”(Shelley 108) The monster had never met the cottagers at this point in the story, yet he had this feeling of love and compassion for them. He viewed them as his “protectors” even though they didn’t know he existed. When the de Lacey family found out about him, they moved. The monster, enraged by the feeling of betrayal, burnt the cottage down. He built his happiness solely on the cottagers and their presence. When the cottager were no longer around, he lost his happiness and acted out.