Loss of Innocence

After Henry’s death Victor is near inconsolable and is thought to be mad by the majority of people who interact with him, principally his father. He rants and raves, “‘I am not mad...the sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations,’ (Shelley 176) blaming himself for everything, rightly so in my opinion, and falls into a deep depression. However, he’s brought out of this slump by, yet again, Elizabeth who seems to be his proverbial light left on the porch. This assertion is only enforced later in the novel, “the threat appeared more as a delusion, not to be regarded as worthy to disturb my peace, while the happiness I hoped for in my marriage wore a greater appearance of certainty,” (Shelley 182) when Victor almost forgets about the monster entirely because of his upcoming nuptials. She represents innocence not only physically, at least stereotypically, but also mentally. I say this because of her overall caring personality and tendency to be understanding and, to a small extent, naive. And, in my mind, she represents Frankenstein’s innocence to a degree also. As children they meet and grow together, knowing they’re meant to marry. Simple, unchanging optimism, the bygones of a time past, remnants of childhood, whatever you want to call it.

What I also want to touch on is the idea that Elizabeth also represents Victor’s innocence and its slow degradation. In chapters past we see that many times Elizabeth and Victor’s moods coincide and mirror one another. This is seen again in Chapter twenty two with Frankenstein’s homecoming. “She was thinner and had lost much of that heavenly vivacity that had before charmed me” (Shelley 180) we see how, with Victor’s Innocence, Elizabeth has suffered. Then, following that train of thought, it would be logical to say that Elizabeth’s death would be the penultimate portrayal of the final loss of Victor’s innocence. After that point he has nothing and no one, his one goal: revenge. And so with that as his goal he goes on a fruitless quest and ends up meeting Walton, worn out, disillusioned, and having given up on life.

Whelp, that's all for me, I really just did this since we barely give Elizabeth any attention.

- Harry F'n Potter