Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay

889 Words4 Pages
This analysis paper looks into Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Works involving several specialists like Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud are included to further understand the literature on a more psychoanalytical level that occurs between the characters, Mary Shelley, and the readers. The piece will delve into the Oedipus complexes of both Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the importance of mothers, and the concepts of the Imaginary and Symbolic worlds as well as how the two main characters entangle themselves with each realm. Into the Mind of Frankenstein It is apparent that there is more to characters in a novel besides the text on the page. Some actions and behaviors of the character can be inferred without having to be stipulated…show more content…
The Symbolic world represents the “kinship, marriage, and legality” of society that Victor is supposed to immerse himself in; as a contrast to the openly accepted and public norm of the Symbolic order, the Imaginary order is more closed off from the people and kept private, according to Lacan (Collings 280). Each world will take different forms that will confront both characters on their quests for truth and understanding, including subjects of study, institutions, and statutes of law. The novel introduces Victor Frankenstein under a Symbolic household. The Frankenstein family is regarded highly due to their history of governance; Victor’s ancestors “had been for many years counsellors and syndics” as well as his father, Alphonse, filling “several public situations with honour and reputation” (Shelley 18). More pressure has been placed on Victor to fully the title of a Symbolic being as Alphonse “state[s] sons who might carry his virtues and his name down to posterity” (Shelley 18). As a young child, Victor was fascinated in the philosophy of nature and explored into the subject with the works of Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus, until his father rectified the notion of the scientists, conflicting Victor’s Imaginary interest with Symbolic reasoning (Shelley

More about Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay

Open Document