Personally, I think that every book is didactic by nature, so after I read Frankenstein, I thought, “What is Mary Shelley trying to teach me?”. After much thought, I came up with this: be wary of blind ambition and be prepared to take responsibility for your actions. While I learned this through reading the novel, Victor Frankenstein had to learn it the hard way. Victor devoted several years of his life to the creation of his own worst nightmare. He spent months assembling the organs and appendages of various corpses and never seemed to realize what he was actually doing. Blinded by his own ambition, he was unable to see the gruesome being he was creating; he never chose to ask himself, “Why am I doing this?” or even, “What am I going to do when I give this thing life?”. His chance to consider these questions was dashed with the surge of electricity that brought the creature to life.

That electric surge served as a sense-restoring slap in the face to Victor. His creation, although wracked with hideous features, had the mindset of a newly-rescued puppy. It simply wanted some sense of belonging to the world it was so abruptly thrust into. In his terror, Victor abandoned his creation failing to realize that it had a beautiful capacity to feel and empathize. Alone, the creature quickly realized that no matter how benevolent its intentions, it would always be abhorred. It grew increasingly bitter towards human beings, but especially bitter toward its creator. Victor inadvertently became the sole recipient of his creation’s vengeance. His neglect transformed an otherwise peaceful being into a merciless serial killer.

Although Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a fictional work, there is nothing fictional or furtive about the link between parental neglect and serial killers. In fact, in a study conducted of thirty-six murderers, all possessed a history of parental neglect and abuse (https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=182592). This begs the questions: “Does a lack of responsibility create monsters?” and, “Are we, in fact, the creators of our own monsters?”.