Frankenstein, Death, and Freud: A Psychoanalysis of Victor Frankenstein
In most analysis, the character Victor Frankenstein is either shown to be a mad scientist driven mad by his pursuit of scientific advancement, a tragic genius who’s sloppy scientific misadventure eventually led to his downfall, or in some more absurd analysts, a contemptible “monster” who basically damned himself and those around him because of his selfish pursuits. All of these analysis is in this author’s opinion rather weak, as they either paint Frankenstein as a bland stereotype, a completely blameless individual in the carnage of the story, or a cartoonish version of villainy devoid of any sort of redeeming values. These interpretations do not offer an entirely holistic approach to analyzing the character as they all ignore a very important area of everyone’s psychological, that being our childhood. From what we can glean from the text, Victor in his youth seemed to be a kind, wide-eyed, and curious kid. His initial interest in science also started around this time, h...