the De Lacey family

E786944

The De Lacey family is a poor, exiled French household in Mary Shelley’s "Frankenstein" whose kindness, domestic life, and conversations inadvertently educate the Creature about language, society, and human emotion.

Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form Occurrences
De Lacey family 0

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf fictional family
appearsIn Frankenstein NERFINISHED
associatedWork Paradise Lost (later read by the Creature) NERFINISHED
Ruins of Empires (read by the Creature while observing them) NERFINISHED
The Sorrows of Young Werther (read by the Creature while observing them) NERFINISHED
causeOfPoverty political persecution
countryOfOrigin France
creator Mary Shelley NERFINISHED
economicCondition impoverished
encounterWithCreatureOutcome rejection of the Creature after initial contact
familyHead De Lacey NERFINISHED
firstAppearance Frankenstein, Chapter 12
Frankenstein, Volume 2 NERFINISHED
includesDaughter Agatha De Lacey NERFINISHED
includesFutureDaughterInLaw Safie NERFINISHED
includesSon Felix De Lacey NERFINISHED
keyTheme compassion
domesticity
education
exile
social injustice
languageSpoken French
literaryPeriod Romantic era
member Agatha De Lacey NERFINISHED
De Lacey NERFINISHED
Felix De Lacey NERFINISHED
Safie NERFINISHED
moralCharacter charitable
kind
virtuous
narrativeFunction contrast to Victor Frankenstein’s family
educators of the Creature
embodiment of domestic virtue
observedBy Frankenstein’s Creature NERFINISHED
politicalBackground exiled for aiding Safie’s father
relationshipToCreature object of the Creature’s affection
unwitting benefactors
residence cottage near Ingolstadt
secluded cottage in the forest
setting 18th-century Europe
socialStatus exiled
poor
symbolizes idealized family life
possibility of human goodness
teaches human emotions to the Creature
human society to the Creature
language to the Creature
workPublicationYear 1818

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

the Creature learnsLanguageFrom the De Lacey family