Mn_Saves_the_Day

Eng.101H Due date: March 27th Friends in Need Just Need Friends The first insinuation of the importance of friendship in the novel “Frankenstein,” comes from Walton himself. “I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy; and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil. I have no friend Margaret: when I am glowing with enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection”(10). Walton’s declarations to his sister in what he needs from a friend, is universal. Trust, sympathy, honesty, and compassion are the tools used to start and sustain friendships. Friendships are symbolic of the expression and extension of the self. Walton wishes for a relationship which mirrors the idealized vision of his self. Walton expresses this notion by stating to his sister, “You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans. How would such a friend repair the faults of your poor brother!”(10). Walton is motivated to manifest a kindred spirit within Victor. Observing Victors finer attributes, Walton himself seems to align his own identity with these more “polished” qualities. “I am self-educated, and perhaps I hardly rely sufficiently upon my own powers. I wish therefore that my companion should be wiser and more experienced than myself, to confirm and support me; nor have I believed it impossible to find a true friend” (16, 17). These protestations are sentiments not unlike the monster’s. As with most friendships, they seem to be the result of commonalities between the two parties. The monster is placed in an unfortunate circumstance where “common” doesn’t exist. “Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endowed with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man”(83). The monster’s hope of communing with another soul is next to extinguished. However, he does devise several plots of action which would enable him with companionship. In the tale of the monster’s outreach to the elder DeLacy, he relates, “I am an unfortunate and deserted creature; I look around, and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me, and know little of me. I am full of fears; for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world forever”(93). (Strike One.) William’s Death was a result of the monster’s attempt at acquiring for himself a little pal to call his own. “Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me,” “I could seize him, and educate him as my companion and friend. I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth”(100). (Strike two.) Lastly, the monster requests for a suitable mate with equally detestable abnormalities. “It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless, and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!”(102) (Strike three.) Unlike the aforementioned, Victor was bred with the blessings of companionship and camaraderie. His friends, Elizabeth and Henry, completed him as a whole. “No youth could have passed more happily than mine. My parents were indulgent, and my companions amiable”(21). Victor doesn’t know the pain of not having friends. He knows the agony of losing them. Walton and the “monster” look to Victor for the answers to their despair even while in the midst of his own. Victor’s demise sheds light on the question, “is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all'” Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Second. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print.