The Judges Wife By Isabel Allende Course Work Sample

The character of Nicolas Vidal shares several parallels with Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ and is quite a masterful creation on the part of Allende. He is obviously affected by the love hate relationship which he has with his mother where she attempts to protect him from the world but at the same time, she leaves him without any sort of social skills whatsoever.
Fate plays an important part in Vidals’ life as he is constantly faced with situations which recall his hard and unhappy life. The fact that he grew up fatherless also affects his life considerably and Allende skilfully weaves this situation with several parallels to the Frankenstein charcater who feel forever lonely and an outcast.
The Judge also imparts an important influence on Nicolas’ life and here we find another parallel with Shelley, this time with Viktor Frankenstein. He is like a sort of surrogate father to Nicolas and ina sense replaces his mother’s over protectiveness and eventual obsession. His fate is also indelibly intertwined with Nicolas and their endinds are rather similar.
Allende weaves a lot of techniques into the story which is permeated with a number of leitmotifs and recollections which skilfully weave the narrative together. Nicolas’ character is a complex one and he is guided by animal instincts, more than instrinsic emotions but Allende makes us feel for him in his horrible and unhappy situation. In fact fate plays a consistent part in the story and is the main driving force behind everything that occurs. Nicolas was fated to end the way he did and nothing seems to be able to change that.