Thematic concerns Notes and personal comments Dreams and their significance Creativity Women and their role as nurturers and creators of life (a feminist reading would look at the way Frankenstein tries to usurp the role of women and is punished) Obsession (it is often said that Mary Shelley's book - especially the later 1834 edition - is a response to the obsessive state that captured P. Shelley during his creative periods.) Science and its role at the time Physiognomy - one of the beliefs of the period was in physiognomy: that you could tell a man's character from his face. This is clearly present in Dracula by which time this notion was popular. Is this relevant in this text?

Yes it is Relevant

Explanation:

Dreams and their significance

We're introduced to Victor's dream of creating life early on, and that idea seems to be more prominent after Victor's mother dies. In chapter 5, we see that Victor is finally able to create life, but it's not what he expected and turns into his personal nightmare. He can't come to terms with what he has created and in trying to forget about it for some moments he goes to sleep, but he has a nightmare. It starts with Elizabeth being healthy and as he kisses her, she turns into his dead mother. This ties in with what he has experienced so far, he was hopeful that what he created would be something good, but as we see his reaction, it soon turns ugly and it's like his dreams shows him that because of what he did he's being pulled away from his family and ultimately no matter how hard he tries he can't just give life to whatever he wants,

Creativity

The entire chapter where Frankenstein was trying to create life, he just imagines the end result-a living creature. But that's all he imagines, everything is a process and while yes it does take a lot of imagination to even think of creating life, his scientific mind keeps him from doing anything truly creative; and it's also what keeps him from accepting that his creation is capable of more than anything he had imagined.

Women and their role as nurturers and creators of life (a feminist reading would look at the way

Frankenstein tries to usurp the role of women and is punished) As soon as Victor sets out to create life his life seems to unravel. He becomes fixated on reaching his goal, that he soon forgets his family and stops taking care of himself, once he does create life and realizes what he did, he becomes sick and tries to deny what he did. As he finally moves on, he's once again reminded of what he did when his brother gets killed by the monster. Instead of taking responsibility for his creation, he abandoned him leaving Adam to lack a parental figure. In trying to take on a women's role of creating life, and then neglecting the responsibility that comes with it causes Adam to become what everyone thinks he is