"Frankenstein" and Adler

Paper Summary:

Victor Frankenstein is the main character of Mary Shelley's novel, "Frankenstein," published in 1818. He is a brilliant and over-ambitious young Swiss who delves in natural science and aspires to achieve the sole divine prerogative of creating life. Victor reaches this peak level of ambition because he has been pampered in childhood and, because of this, everything seems possible to him. This paper shows that Alfred Adler, like Sigmund Freud, believes that one's personality or lifestyle is fixed as early as 5 years old. The paper discusses three basic child situations, as offered by Adler, the first of which is pampering. Pampered children, like Victor, assume that they can take without giving and do not learn to do things by themselves, only to discover later that they are actually inferior. Victor is also the first child in the family and, according to Adler, first children are more likely to turn into problem children, or become precocious, solitary and more conservative than children in another birth order. The paper shows that Adler's personality concept is viewed as applicable to Victor Frankenstein in his pursuit and creation of a monster. The paper shows examples from the novel of the traits discussed by Adler.

From the Paper:

"Victor's lack of natural domestic affection for the creature has very dire consequences for both of them and other people around them (Waxman 2003). He has delved into the depths of the mystery of creation and removed the barriers between life and death, also by using body tissues of dead persons. The combination amounts to monstrosity in all levels. In procreating the monster, Victor also traverses and violates the boundary between the sexes and arrogates upon himself the procreative capacity of a woman in procreating and delivering a creature. When he sees the contemptible result of his ambitious experiment, Victor wants an abortion, instead."

More papers on "Frankenstein" and Adler:

• Analytical Essay # 121825 : "Erikson and Adler"
• Comparison Essay # 121415 : "Freud, Jung and Adler"
• Comparison Essay # 71164 : "Frankenstein" and "The Birthmark"

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