Role of Emotions

The role of emotions in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is very prominent throughout the book. Victor continually becomes overwhelmed with extreme emotions. The first example of this is Victor’s obsession for his academic studies. He says he quickly masters the material because he abandons his social life and focuses his life solely on Chemistry. Next, he creates the monster and, after the sight of it, becomes physically sick from guilt. While this occurrence is not unreasonable, it is improbable that someone becomes physically sick over an emotion such as guilt. Similarly, Victor becomes sick when he realizes that the monster has killed his friend Clerval at the end of the novel. In both cases, and in many more less significant examples, there is a direct link between guilt and sickness. Why would Shelley include these physical reactions to guilt in her novel? One answer may be that it was included as a tool through which she augmented the severity of Victor’s emotions. While this is possible, it is not very plausible due to the frequency of occurrences. It is more likely that Shelley used these physical reactions to convey to the reader that Victor may not be mentally stable. Beginning with his obsession and quickly leading into extreme guilt, Victor seems to display qualities of an emotionally unstable individual.