Theme Of Illness In Frankenstein

As it is commonly known, people have a tendency to seclude themselves whenever they are in need of a mental break from their stressful life or harsh realities by laying down or staying indoors. Victor in the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is no exception to this, however, he subconsciously uses the feeling of being ill to help cope with events in his life. He uses his time of illnesses not only to escape the troubles responsibility but to hide from society as well. Throughout the book there are multiple traumatic events that give Victor the reason that he sought for to retreat into his ailment that acted as a placebo to comfort him.
The creation of his creature immediately sends Victor into a panic and he rushed away when the curious creature …show more content…
He kept it from his family and very close friends which, for a majority of people, is very hard to do. The only way he was able to do this was to convince himself he was sick in order to avoid the consequences of such a secret. “‘Have my murderous machinations deprived you [from life] also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny…” (Shelley 217). He says his creature has “deprived” Henry from life as two others; Justine and William, since he could have saved their lives by revealing his secret of creating the creature. However, at the end, he mentions that he has destroyed them, even though he didn’t and couldn’t have possibly predicted every death that the creature was going to cause. This gives a foreshadowing of Victor becoming ‘ill’ since he is blaming himself for the losses. After that event it says, “A fever succeeded to this… My ravings, as I afterwards heard, were frightful; I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval,” (Shelley 217). Acting as if he is sick is the only way that Frankenstein is able to expel his guiltiness for the death of his friends and family and allowing it to murder people he