Love is War

Love Is War

October 10, 2004

> Love, a theme evident in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, is a part of life that is nearly impossible to ignore.

Love is a madness that possesses the mind than can create delusions of absolute happiness or manic depression. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein shows the reaction of a wealthy genius that has unfortunately been subject to the losses of his teacher, his mother, his nephew, a lady family friend, and his wife. Though he lived an innocent life filled with much love and a child-like curiosity, there is no question that anyone who has to grieve over this obscure number of deaths in such a short time period should go somewhat insane.

Each time a loved one dies, Dr. Frankenstein’s lunacy grows. He begins to feel that if possible people shouldn’t have to put up with death. Out of his love for his professor, Frankenstein decides to continue his teachers “research project” and succeeds in creating life from death. However, the works of Frankenstein’s professor had remained idle for a reason. The being created by Dr. Frankenstein was filled with confusion; because it was automatically feared and rejected for its appearance and violent behavior, it had seemingly innate qualities of rage and anger which eventually led it to become uncontrollable. Both the being and Dr. Frankenstein desire a life of happiness.

This story is almost just how the love of one man, like Dr. Frankenstein, can be the cause of an incredibly unlucky chain reaction. Once he creates the being, one by one, the people he loves die, and because of those deaths, more are killed. All the confusion and sadness that inherit the once pleasant life of Dr. Frankenstein are proof that love, like the sad case of Frankenstein’s love, can be a plague that kills everything connected to it and be the origin of much paranoia.