Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and the Repercussions of Overindulging Children :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and the Repercussions of Overindulging ChildrenMary Shelley teaches us all well the long range effects of spoiling a child to the extreme in her novel Frankenstein. Set in the mid-19th century, the novel details the look of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created. However, it also serves as a model of the ultimate repercussions of overindulging children. This is an issue too few parents bother with today. As their own parents did their outstrip to provide well and ensure a better life for them, todays parents are of same mind, regardless if they had a lacking childhood or not. Consequently, their own children are given the best clothes and toys, and are sent to the best daycare centers, pre-schools, schools and colleges. Like Victor, many grow into self-centered,self-serving adults. Victor, as the first child, spent the first years of his life as an only child,born into an aristocratic family and showered with affection.I remained for several(preno minal) years their only child ... They his parents seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from a very mine of love to bestow ... upon me (Shelley 16). He is a boy who cherished for nothing, and who was wholly and completely indulged, allowed to do as he pleased. They his parents were not tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed (Shelley 19). Victor is more than the apple of their eye he is the center of their world. I was their plaything and their idol ... whose future lot ... was in their hands ... as they fulfilled their duties towards me ... I was guided by a belief ... that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me ... I was their only care.(Shelley 16) All of this, while seemingly idyllic, gave Victor a sense of godlike importance, bestowed on them his parents by Heaven, (Shelley 16) like a gift from God. Everything in his life revolves around him, and the only thing that really mat ters in the world as he perceives it, is himself and his happiness. correct when his parents adopt a beautiful, young orphan girl, Elizabeth Lavenza,he interprets it as an action intended to entertain and satisfy him. His mother, Caroline, reinforces this belief when she announces, I have a pretty have for my Victor(Shelley 18), and he willingly accepts her as his new toy, mine to protect love and cherish .