Frankenstein, Blog 1

Shannon Ryan
April 27, 2009
Frankenstein Blog 1
New Millennium Studies

To Rhonda,
Today In class we had to read fifty-three pages of Frankenstein. In those fifty-three pages, much of the plot’s undertone focused on the theme of companionship.
Throughout the first fifty-three chapters, the author explores many relationships between the characters. Walden writes letters to his sister Margret to pass the time in order to provide himself with company while he is alone on his journey. Elizabeth and Victor play together as children, and continue to keep correspondence as they are adults in order to appease the wish of Victor’s mother that they someday marry. The Frankenstein family is close and spends a lot of quality time together that they are upset when they are apart from each other. Examples of this include their confusion of why Victor has kept himself away from home for three years, they are devastated when Caroline, the mother risks her own life to sit at Elizabeth’s sickbed, when the youngest son William is murdered and the accuser is Justine, a friend of Elizabeth’s because it breaks their “complete” family unit.
These examples further the theme in the novel about companionship. They seem to sum up a message about companionship. This message is that we need to keep or create someone in their life who they can confide in and by doing so, will be reminded who they are.
One quote from the book that supports this theme is the quote from Walden to his sister Margret on page 10: “I have no friend Margret, when I am glowing with enthusiasm of success, there will be no one to participate my joy; if I am assailed by success, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection. I shall commit to my thoughts to paper, its true; but that would be a poor medium for communication and feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend.”
With love,
~Shannon