Mary Shelley's Frankenstein explores many aspects of the conscious and unconscious mind. Shelley uses light and dark throughout the novel to symbolize the duality of the mind, a representation of Victor's conscious and unconscious mind. Victor's conscious behavior is clouded by his unconscious repressed desires, as he struggles with the Oedipus complex, defined as subconscious feelings in children of intense competition and even hatred toward the parent of the same sex, and feelings of romantic love toward the parent of the opposite sex, if these conflicting feelings are not successfully resolved, they contribute to neuroses in later life. Victor finds himself rejecting his obvious mate, Elizabeth, in pursuit of his deep seeded desire for his mother as his only partner in love and sexual pleasure; his father and Elizabeth are competition for his mother's love. Caroline's death serves as the catalyst for Victor to experience a psychotic break from reality and begin exploring his forbidden desires resulting from his arrested development. Victor's true desire to give life is motivated by the yearning to regain his mother, yet his Creature becomes instead a mirror of his unconscious mind. .
Victor begins his tale to Walton by describing his early childhood, "I was so guided by a silken cord, that all seemed but one train of enjoyment to me" (42). Victor verbalizes the bond with his mother, the cord that has not been cut. "My mother had much desired to have a daughter, but I continued to be their single offspring" (p 42). He had to work hard to hold onto is mother's love. Victor felt he was second fiddle to Elizabeth, "every one loved Elizabeth," "my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only" (44). Victor's mother, Caroline, introduced Elizabeth to Victor as a present, this present was a constant reminder of the loss of his mother's love forever. Victor describes his childhood to Walton as idyllic, "no child could have passed a happier childhood than myself," yet then includes "my temper was sometimes violent," as if to show the disparity between his conscious and unconscious self.
