Frankenstein: Parasocial Relationships

I did promise I would repost and compile my Frankenstein essays and posts from elsewhere as I am beginning work on my Frankenstein project. I'll start out with one of my most popular posts that's not a shitpost, even though I don't think this has much place in the analysis I'm working on:

In Frankenstein none of the narrators have real interpersonal relationships with each other but instead only experience each other through parasocial ones. All their relationships are built on one-sided interactions and observations rather than true reciprocity. The creature observes the DeLaceys at a distance and only knows his creator through his research notes and builds Frankenstein’s persona that way — Frankenstein only knows the creature’s horribleness from his appearance, distant sightings and one long, uninterrupted storytelling session — and Walton only constructs Frankenstein through Frankenstein’s retelling of events and the haze of his own loneliness. We yearn for Frankenstein to be a father to the creature or Walton to be a partner to Frankenstein the same way the creature yearns for his mate. We desperately want to make these imaginary relationships somehow real and meaningful despite the impossibility of them — the desires and expectations put on these relationships before they even begin are so high that they will never be satisfied by a real person who has only just become aware of a relationship already in progress. In the end, the DeLacey’s reaction of horror to being watched for so long is the only reasonable and realistic one to a relationship like this attempting to be fulfilled. The female creature is crushed like our hopes for them under the weighty expectation to be a perfect lover before she even exists to love.

Posted on April 8th, 2022 @brain-depoistary

Anyway, since writing this I don't think my opinion has changed much on this and while it is interesting within the context of today's social media etc. I feel like the extreme isolation built by this structure of storytelling and relationships is more in support of greater points than the point in itself, though I can see how on a site like tumblr this would seem profound and go somewhat viral (not really -- as of right now 153 reblogs and 334 likes).