Shelley's Frankenstein is a story composed of two essential themes marked by theories of John Jacques Rousseau: Faustian Behavior and 19th century parenting. In accordance, this novel's focus is on the outcome of one man's motives and desires to dabble with nature, which results in the creation of a new, somewhat unearthly creation. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor "parenting" of his offspring that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. His failures, in the creation of his "child", are specifically the creature's new found monster-like persona and Frankenstein's own tragic life. The views of Rousseau and indeed Mary Shelley's personal child rearing experiences, concerning the practice of parenting, enrich the reader's perception of the parent/child relationship between Frankenstein and his "young". Children can not raise and nurture themselves but in lack of parenting result in feeding off of its surroundings and society for answers.
Frankenstein failed in the full execution to follow through in parenting his creation, thus creating a "monster" through his absence of nurture and love for his offspring.
Frankenstein's thirst for knowledge and choice of motives in the creation of the "wretch" began with his undying search for the secrets of life and its very cause and the knowledge how to manipulate it. Victor embarks on a classic "romantic" quest with the consummate desire for knowledge and the tragedies that can arise from desires. Frankenstein states, "The world was to me a secret, which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they are unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensation I can remember." (Shelley, p. 22) Frankenstein is not satisfied...