Felix and Safie

Felix is De Lacey’s son. He is sad until Safie comes to live with them, the woman whom he met in a Turkish prison and wants to marry. When he sees the monster, he drives him away.

Hmm, sounds like more about isolation and loneliness. Felix’s story is strangely inserted into the center of our story-in-a-story-in-a-story-in-a-story sandwich. We can’t even take a bite out of this sucker anymore.

Anyway, there are a lot of complicated theories on just what’s going on with the Felix-Safie couple. Lots of feminists use the relationship as an excuse to paint the entire novel in a feminist light. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. There’s lots of somethings you could say about their relationship. Here’s one: Safie ends up with Felix instead of back in Islamic Turkey. In the big-picture sense, she chooses love over societal boundaries. Which is kind of what the monster wants Victor to do – get over the ugliness factor and just be friends, already.

Is this the right interpretation? No, because there isn’t one. But give it a shot anyway.