"Frankenstein" Mary Shelley

"And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine -- mine to protect, love, and cherish" (pg 18). As I read this first chapter, I felt that Elizabeth's role was a bit ambiguous. I could not tell if she was going to be his sister or Victor's wife or both... As strange as it may be, it turns out to be more of the third option. Victor's parents raise her as a child of their own, showing pride and love in her. On the other hand, his mother did pick her out, because she was so beautiful and told Victor that she had a "pretty present" for him before they brought her home. The hopes of his parents were that they would raise her and eventually Victor could marry her. That is really odd to me, because it's like they went to the store and hand picked a wife for their son, but oh well. I'm guessing that it was not that peculiar back then as it is today.