#stick beatdown ft. felix delacey

[lamoreauxspookyboi]

The DeLacey Phenomenon

     Within the beginning of the book, falling shortly after Victor’s creation of the Creature, we come to meet a new set of characters. While wandering the countryside to flee the wrath of Geneva, the Creatures comes upon a small, isolated cabin in the woods. This cabin is where the DeLacey family resides, allowing the Creature to watch them and observe human interactions firsthand.

    The family consists of four main people: DeLacey, Felix, Safie, and Agatha. DeLacey is a blind old man who acts like the man of the house, being the parent to both Agatha and Felix. His daughter, Agatha, is a selfless being who takes care of the family, while his son, Felix, is undoubtedly devoted to his family and his lover, Safie– an outsider in the family. Safie acts as almost an adopted member of the family, as she is soon to be married to Felix.

    Throughout the Creature’s adaptation of the family’s story, we learn that Felix is in the process of tutoring Safie in language and speech. Such tutoring benefiting the Creature as well in helping him form an indirect relationship with her and the family as a whole. The family also aids in the Creature’s general character development in both positive and negative ways, giving him the skill of speech and expression, while also overall making his intelligence a more fearful aspect than his appearance. This plot event is crucial in the sense that it represents one of the first times the Creature is exposed to others, rather than just Victor, and can begin to come to terms with himself through the observation of others.

    Through the monster’s continuous teaching in language, he is able to pick up on more human characteristics. He notices the family’s struggle, as the disadvantages they’re put at are prominent aspects of their everyday lives. Although poverty and disability are typically a roadblock, in the DeLacey family it acts as a great equalizer. They are not given the same opportunities as everyday people, so they are eternally grateful and optimistic about what they do have. He notices the daily tasks the family completes each day to simply survive and feels an urging need to help as well. The Creature shows sympathy for the family, and in his efforts to keep them on their feet, he weeds their garden and picks produce out for them. Although the family is unsure who did such a selfless deed for them, we see how thankful they are again.

    With all summary aside, we can discuss the rising question here:

    Why exactly is the DeLacey family such an important aspect in terms of gender roles?

    If we revert to the very beginning of the book, we’re quickly introduced to Frankenstein’s family. His family consists of both women and men, yes, but their familial roles are what sets them apart from the DeLacey’s. Within Victor’s house, the men typically hold more power and/or importance than the women, who usually serve as servants within the home. This is where we begin to see typical gender roles come into play–– women doing work similar to that of a housewife and men playing the “man of the house” archetype. Though DeLacey himself also acts as the leader of the home, we see one crucial difference: the lack of dominance.

    From an outsider perspective, the DeLacey family has a normal, per se, home with no one holding more power over anyone else. “Mary Shelley underlines the mutual deprivation inherent in a family and social structure based on rigid and hierarchical gender divisions by portraying an alternative social organization in the novel: the DeLacey family… In contrast to this pattern of political inequality and injustice, the De Lacey family represents an alternative ideology: a vision of a social group based on justice, equality, and mutual affection” (Mellor). One could even say the family is the perfect representation of quid pro quo–– doing things to benefit each other, not just themselves. Again, exposure to poverty and disability plays an important role in their family. Since they are all at the same level of struggle, there’s no need for one party to be more dominant, especially when they’re all just trying to survive each day in general. They’re different from the typical family at the time; each member isn't expected to uphold any role or task/job. It seems as if Shelley wanted to bring the DeLacey family in to show a “perfect” world compared to a “man-made” world (that being Victor’s interpretation of the world around him). Building on that, the family represents isolation, loneliness, compassion for the Creature’s character.

    The family gives the Creature a sense of confidence, hence his eventual decision to approach DeLacey during the absence of the rest of the family. Unfortunately for the Creature, the book eventually wipes the family from the plot after the infamous scene of Felix attacking the Creature, upon his return to the cottage, takes place. Despite the attack, he chooses to return to the family’s home, but they had already deserted it. Their lack of presence through the rest of the book symbolizes how such genuinely interworking personalities/roles can never be fully obtained, but also how an artificial, man-made world also can cause demise to those in it. It’s as if no matter how the world is sorted (ie. by class), there will never be true agreement or equilibrium.

(Media Citation 2)