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Frankenstein and Mother's Day
What is the connection between Mary Shelley's
novel and Mother's Day? The answer comes
with another exercise of mind. Who doesn't
have a mother? The monster, of all real and
imagined persons living or dead, must be at
or near the top of such a list. Yet, Mary Shelley,
through the example of Justine's adoption
into the Frankenstein household and family,
reminds us of the power of universal virtue
to remedy such awful problems. But who
might adopt the monster, nurture  and protect
him? The reader might. The reader certainly
develops more affection and sympathy for
him than for Walton or Frankenstein, neither
of whom have mothers at the time the story
is told. Having created this affection in the
reader for the most unusual orphan, at the
novel's end Shelley leaves him at the reader's
door. Not only that, but this moment of opportunity
she created is eternal. We readers have come
to that moment how many billions of times
over the generations the novel has been read
and have thought, "How sad"? Yet, at any
time that any of us revisit that moment, we may
choose another course and take the monster
to our bosom. We may, as the preface suggests
the most humble novelist may do, adopt the
character,  setting, and circumstances, and
apply ourselves to the purpose of bringing
happiness to the wretched creature.
There is an ancient teaching that says that
whoever saves one person, saves a world.
Shelley's Frankenstein demonstrates the
truth of that teaching. For when we exercise
our minds to save an imaginary monster,
we discover long unnoticed potential. We
come to understand that our failure to have
noticed the possibility of the rescue of the
monster is a type of error we make often
in our real lives. By accepting the idea that
there is nothing we can do, or by choosing
among extreme options presented to us,
we fail to notice possibilities for better
outcomes.
The genius of Mary Shelley's gift to us
is that it illuminates immortality. The light in
which she leaves the monster at our door,
which seems so dim at first, is sufficient
to find the truth. Immortality is the result of
recognition of our mortal nature, married to
confidence in the  excellence of universal
virtue. Knowing that we will cease to exist in
this world, yet desiring that it be improved
after we are no longer in it, we may devise
ways of aiding those who will come after us,
to share with them the pleasure of their company.
The monster in Frankenstein, though he was
born to no mother, may have an unlimited
number of  mothers in the future, readers who
adopt him and, with the machinery Mary Shelley
provided, take him to an unlimited number of
places where he may enjoy the sunlight and
songs of birds, and not alone, but with the most
enjoyable companions.
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