A reoccurring theme for the first couple of chapters in Frankenstein seems to be death. While it does not seem obvious at first, it is hinted at as being the inevitable. Victor had a free and blissful childhood, much due to the allowance of his parents. However, Victor’s open mind leads him to question everything, specifically things in regards to nature and its cause. His happiest thoughts happen when he is young. As he gets older, at the end of every wonder regarding natural mystery, the recurring answer is demise. The deeper Victor is in his personal studies, he subtly lets the reader know that he is aware of his fate. Victor states, “I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self.”

The death of Victor’s mother reaffirmed what he already knew about destiny. This ultimately led Victor to slightly shift his direction of interest. He was still fascinated with nature, but more so it’s relation to mortality.

The unknown and the secret are scary. The outcome for the unknown is death, both literally and symbolically. To be dead is to lose your humanity. Victory loses his humanity the more he indulges in the science. The more he focuses on creating the monster, the more out of touch he becomes with society.

To further assert the idea that the unknown is scary. The monster goes to make friends in chapter fifteen, hoping that they will look past his physical features. Instead, he was attacked and ran off.

I believe one of the ideas the author is trying to convey is that, what is unknown will get deserted and left to their own fate. “Monsters” in our society are those that do not fit the norm. The norm is created by the popular; heterosexual, able-bodied, white male. If you do not fit in any of those groups, you are considered a monster. If you do not fit in ALL of those groups, you are DEFINITELY a monster.