What Are the Names of the Family Members? Who Are Agatha and Felix

The DeLacey Family tin can exist constitute in Book ii of Mary Shelley'south Frankenstein. Though the family unit and the monster have minimum interaction, they play a major role in the monster's development every bit a graphic symbol. As the monster wanders the countryside to escape the wrath of the get-go town he discovers, he builds a small habitation to view the outside world from a distance. He comes to report a poor, peasant family unit. The commencement member of the family the monster observes is a young woman named Agatha. The monster notes her obviously mode of dressing and her "patient, nonetheless sad" countenance as she does her chores (Shelley, 79). The monster afterwards sees a fellow named Felix and recalls his eyebrow as one of "a deeper despondence" (Shelley, 79). During his observation, the monster realizes that part of the "dwelling" he created allows him to run into into the house of the blood brother and sister he had been watching. As he peers through the cottage, he observes "an onetime human being, leaning with his head on his hands in a disconsolate attitude" (Shelley, eighty). The monster learns that this is the leader of the family, a blind homo named DeLacey. The monster begins to admire the family's nights of music-playing and story-telling. Despite the family'south dearest for one some other, the monster observes the continuation of their commonage sadness until the arrival of an Arabian adult female. The monster shares that the new addition to the family unit is Felix'south beloved, Safie. He learns that Safie and Felix were separated later Safie's father "became obnoxious to the regime", which led to the family's sadness (Shelley, 92). After witnessing their joyful reunion, the monster begins his cocky-education through observation of Felix's educational activity lessons for Safie and books he finds in the woods. Ane night, when DeLacey is home solitary, the monster finds the courage to finally meet him. Their seemingly successful conversation comes to a screeching halt when DeLacey's family enters the cottage and attacks the monster out of fear. This see fuels the monster's anger for his creator, Frankenstein.

The monster observing the DeLaceys through the pigsty in his dwelling. (Veronica Eitherangel, Nov 20, 2012).

Contents

• i Major Themes
  • 1.1 Sympathy
  • one.2 Family unit
• ii Impact in Frankenstein
• 3 References and Suggestions for Farther Reading

Major Themes

Sympathy

The monster's ascertainment of the DeLacey family teaches him the concept of sympathy. He becomes aware of the family's financial situation through shut observation of their beliefs. The monster recalls, "A considerable catamenia elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the uneasiness of this affable family; it was poverty: and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree"(Shelley, 82). Non long into the monster's development, he begins to empathise the concept of class. This understanding allows him to see the boxing the family is facing with their power to produce their own means of survival.

Initially, the monster steals the family'south food and firewood as a manner to ensure his own survival. The monster shares, "I had been accepted, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption; but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighboring forest" (Shelley, 82). Afterward close observation, the monster comes to the realization that the family he is stealing from is one of meager means. Seeing how this affects the family, which he refers to as the infliction of pain, shows the monster'south comprehension of the emotions of others.

The family's suffering causes the monster to alter his behavior from a thief to a giver as he becomes the family's secret supplier of firewood. The monster shares, "I plant that the youth spent a cracking part of each day in collecting wood for the family fire; and, during the night, I frequently took his tools, the use of which I chop-chop discovered, and brought home firing sufficient for the consumption of several days" (Shelley, 82). The monster'south sympathy and admiration for the DeLaceys is captured with this gesture. Sympathizing with their condition of poverty and realizing his contribution to their limited resource, results in his aid with gathering wood to help the DeLaceys survive the cold conditions.

Family

Through his observation of the DeLaceys, the monster learns that DeLacey is a bullheaded man. The monster becomes fascinated past the relationship between the father and his two children. He observes, "Nothing could exceed the love and respect which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable companion. They performed towards him every little office of affection and duty with gentleness; and he rewarded them with his chivalrous smiles" (Shelley, 82). The monster'south understanding of family unit begins with his analysis of the relationship between the three family unit members. He sees the kind treatment that is reciprocated from parent to child. Felix and Agatha serve their father through their work around the firm, and they are rewarded past the affection and appreciation of their begetter, which is shown through his "benevolent smiles".

The monster is able to see the love behind the actions of each family member that serve the greater adept of the family unit. The monster recalls memories of Felix's kindness towards Agatha. He remembers, "In the midst of poverty and desire, Felix carried with pleasance to his sister the first little white flower that peeped out from beneath the snowy ground" (Shelley, 84). With this gesture, the monster learns that the DeLacey family, despite limited ways and distress, still identify an incredible value on sharing their love for ane another. The monster too recalls Felix waking upward earlier his father and sister to articulate paths through the snow for Agatha's chores, gathering wood for the family's burn and drawing h2o for the family to potable. Felix'southward actions put him in a fatherly role, every bit he is the one to accept the responsibility of caring for his family because of his begetter's inability to exercise so. His ability to put his family'southward needs before his own, shows the love that has been engrained in the DeLaceys.

The monster's ascertainment of the love the family unit members have for ane another is both a benefit to the monster's understanding of family unit life, as he comes to crave such a tight-knit relationship, besides as a detriment, every bit he comes to the realization that he will never be a part of such a unit.

Later close observation of the family unit, the monster is able to become familiar with their language, as he is able to understand a certain amount of their words and produce some of his ain. When Safie arrives, the monster reports her utilize of a linguistic communication unfamiliar to him. To suspension downwardly this language bulwark, Felix uses his mastery of language to teach Safie. The monster observes these lessons and uses the didactics for the continuation of his own skills. The monster remembers, "Shortly I establish, past the frequent recurrence of i audio which the stranger repeated after them, that she was endeavouring to larn their language; and the idea instantly occurred to me, that I should make utilise of the same instructions to the same end" (Shelley, 88). The education of Safie runs parallel with the didactics of the monster. Safie and the monster both learn the scientific discipline of letters, as well as their meanings when combined in various means.

This instruction is conducted through basic instruction and the use of C.F. Volney's Ruins of Empires. Once the monster reaches a high level of literacy, he continues his cocky-teaching through John Milton's Paradise Lost, Plutarch'southward Lives and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Sorrows of Werter, all of which he finds in a bag in the woods. The books not only assist the monster in obtaining a greater understanding of language, merely open up his eyes to a world of emotion, feeling and experience. The monster shares, "I tin hardly describe to you lot the effect of these books. They produced in me and infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, merely more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection" (Shelley, 96). The written give-and-take causes the monster to question his existence. This questioning breeds more detest for his creator as he grows to despise his hated and feared condition.

Impact in Frankenstein

The theme of forgiveness encourages the monster's growth every bit a graphic symbol. Forgiveness allows him to sympathize right from wrong and adept from bad. From stalking the family, the monster becomes aware of the DeLacey's poverty and develops feelings of remorse for his actions, so he becomes the silent supplier of the family's firewood. The monster's sympathetic nature contributes to his evolution as circuitous character with the conscience of a human but the advent of a monster.

The theme of pedagogy inspired by the monster's observation of the DeLaceys proves to be both a blessing and a detriment to his development equally a character. Initially, the monster is satisfied with achieving a basic understanding of the family's advice, only this small taste of knowledge drives the monster to proceed the expansion of his didactics. After observing Felix'due south education of Safie, the monster desires to get even more than enlightened of the exterior world. He conducts this self-instruction through Paradise Lost, Plutarch'southward Lives, and Sorrows of Werter. These books ameliorate his comprehension of written language, merely bring to his attention the realities of his condition. He begins to question his being—who he is and what pregnant his life has. These questions ultimately cause his ruin every bit he comes to the understanding that he is a creature without a singled-out place in gild. This realization contributes to his swelling anger towards his creator, Frankenstein.

References and Suggestions for Further Reading

Buchen, Irving H. "Frankenstein and the Abracadabra of Creation and Evolution." JSTOR. Marilyn Gaull, Spring 1977. Spider web. sixteen February. 2015.

http://knarf.english language.upenn.edu/Articles/buchen.html fifty

"The Family of De Lacey." The Life and Times of The Cosmos. N.p., n.d. Spider web. 16 February. 2015.

http://redpandasfrankenstein8-3.weebly.com/the-family-of-de-lacey.html

"Romantic Circles." Wollstonecraft Shelley, Mary. Ed. Neil Fraistat. University of Maryland, May 2009. Spider web. xvi Feb. 2015.

http://world wide web.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein

Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. 2nd ed. New York: Pearson Pedagogy, 2007. Print.

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Source: https://mary-shelley.fandom.com/wiki/The_DeLacey_Family

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