Emotional and physical isolation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are the most pertinent and prevailing themes throughout the novel. These themes are so important because everything the monster, Victor, and Robert Walton do or feel directly relates to their poignant seclusion. The effects of this terrible burden have progressively damaging results upon the three. The first glimpse of isolation we see comes from Robert Walton. The Arctic seafarer whose letters to his sister open and close Frankenstein. Walton picks the tousled Victor Frankenstein up off the ice, helps nurse him back to health, and listens to Victor’s story. Within his second letter to his sister he confides in her “But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy, …show more content…
Though he starts with the best intentions, those intentions slowly slip from his grasp. As he slips further and further into isolation, that isolation is going to destroy himself and everything he ever cared about. Victor brings the isolation he experiences onto himself. Victor has two of the most loving and caring parents. Because of the loving and care he received from his parents, Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, Victor found himself unable to function around a new group of people when he got to the university. "I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavoring to bestow mutual pleasure. I was now alone. In the university whither I was going I must form my own friends and be my own protector" (26). The isolated Victor is different in several ways including his manner, and the way he goes about his education, which is more focused and ultimately more obsessive. He has no one to comfort him and this leads to the madness of creating the monster. Victor has had supportive people around him since birth; however now that he is at the university he has nobody to help keep him level headed. "Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime" (35). The isolation being portrayed by Victor is now shifting from not only
In this novel, both Victor Frankenstein and the creature, who Victor created, suffer from isolation both physically and emotionally. The isolation experienced by both of them would eventually lead to self destruction of both of their lives. In Frankenstein, three of the main characters, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the Creature, all experienced different forms of isolation. They were all very different people, but their isolation connected them. With the scholarly use of symbolism, allusions, and tone, Mary Shelley utilizes the theme of isolation throughout the duration of the novel.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, both of the main characters undergo physical and emotional isolation. This enforced or chosen solitude causes Frankenstein to become over-ambitious and harbor secrets from his family and friends, leading to his demise. In the monster, isolation turns to misery, which causes him to become vengeful against his creator and all the world. Through these examples of total isolation, Shelley shows that when people have no connection to others in the world, their worst characteristics and flaws are brought out. Victor Frankenstein was the first character to show a major flaw while in isolation.
The gothic fiction novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley centralizes on humanity and the qualifications that make someone human. The content of the novel Frankenstein depicts a monster displaying human traits that his creator Victor does not possess: empathy, a need for companionship, and a will to learn and fit in. Throughout the novel Shelley emphasizes empathy as a critical humanistic trait. The monster displays his ability to empathize with people even though they are strangers. On the other hand Victor, fails to show empathy throughout the novel even when it relates to his own family and friends.
Victor and the Creature are both social outcasts. Since Victor is so intelligent and interested in science he often does not relate to other people and he does not have many friends. Since the monster cannot be around people without scaring them to death he tends to also act as an outcast around
Victor Frankenstein is selfish. The novel portrays Victor as a selfish character who is only concerned about his own well-being. Frankenstein wanted to manipulate the power of life. He abandons his creation because of the creature’s appearance and also withholds information or lies about his creation. Due to Victor 's selfishness, readers feel sorry for his creation.
Once noted, the parallels between Frankenstein’s fears and desires and the reality the monster experiences are many. Now that Victor is in university, he no longer has family and friends to fall back upon in the unknown territory of his university. Frankenstein voices is that “[he] believed [himself] totally unfitted for the company of strangers,” irrational as it may be, and believes himself solely dependent on his family and childhood friend for companionship. Without the love guaranteed to him by his family, Victor believes he is unfit to make companions by himself and destined to a life of loneliness. He places much importance on the fact that his father and Elizabeth love him and are concerned with his well-being.
Whereas Frankenstein does not properly value the domestic affection he is given until it is violently taken from him, his creation learns that this is what values most in life and yet is not able to gain this affection from others. Francis Bacon says in his essay Of Friendship “I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage”. Shelley highlights the need for a sense of belonging and companionship by letting both her main figures suffer the pain of not having this need fulfilled and, in consequence, they both “quit the stage” (Bacon) and turn their backs on humanity. Social isolation, although through different circumstances, was the predominant cause for both Frankenstein and his creature’s demise. Even Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote in his preface to Frankenstein about the “amiableness of domestic affection” (Shelley 9).
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, both Victor and his monster deal with times where they are separated from society. Like Victor some may take time to enjoy what their passionate about, but others will feel miserable like the monster did. The story is an example of how society impacts people, and the importance of feeling accepted by
Mary Shelley, in her book, Frankenstein, has a reoccurring theme of isolation, in which she isolates the main character, Victor Frankenstein, from the rest of society in order to create a creature. Likewise, the creature that is created is also isolated from the rest of society as he is rejected from his creator as to his appearance. The theme is present throughout the novel as it reinforces Victor’s downfall from a normal boy to a grown man intrigued with creating life as he slowly becomes a madman that everyone soon fears. Isolation causes a loss of humanity as it affects the mind and body. Isolation from society does not teach social interaction, causes regret about oneself, provides one with negative feelings, and causes regretful actions.
In 1818 Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a novel that follows Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious man on his journey to defy the natural sciences. In Volume I of the novel, Victor discusses his childhood, mentioning how wonderful and amazing it was because of how his family sheltered him from the bad in the world. “The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me” (35). When Victor brings up his childhood, he suggests that parents play a strong in how their kids turn out, either "to happiness or misery" (35). In particular the main character was sheltered as a child to achieve this “happiness” leading to Victor never developing a coping mechanism to the evil in the world.
It is quite telling that the most severe punishment in our society other than the death penalty or torture is solitary confinement. Although, isolation is in itself a form of torture, it can drive someone to the brink of insanity. Although published nearly 200 years ago, Mary Shelley clearly understood the potential detrimental effects of isolation, as demonstrated in her famous novel, Frankenstein, where both main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, suffer from and cause isolation for the other. Mary Shelley directs the reader to believe that isolation is the true evil, not the monster, Victor or any emotion inside of them. At the beginning of the novel, Victor is isolated from other people, causing to forget his scientific
Victor’s parental figures in Frankenstein poison him by surrounding him with countless indulgences. From childhood, Victor was given all of his desires without question and this led to him becoming self-centered and dependent on the service of others. Victor describes his childhood with
Isolation and abandonment can cause many different reactions from people. In the words of William A. Sadler Jr., a sociology professor, “We often do not know how to cope. It can make us confused, distraught, depressed, frightened, and even outraged” (Sadler 105). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, several of these effects are presented in Victor Frankenstein and his creation. They both suffer from being isolated from their creator, society, and family units.
Mary Shelley 's timeless story seeks to help readers beware of alleviating loneliness through valuing others, and she warns readers that living a life of secrecy drains the joy out of life. The human condition of loneliness triggered many of the events in this book. This creature that Victor Frankenstein forged from cadavers was immediately abandoned. Right after Victor created this innocent monster, he fled from him out of fear.
Drastically impacted by the time spent on the creation of his monster, Frankenstein finds that he not only ignored his own life, but also the lives of those who surround him. Frankenstein’s realization of his isolation is apparent when, “the same feelings which made [him] neglect the scenes around [him] caused [him] also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom [he] had not seen for so long a time” (40). The root of Frankenstein’s isolation was the two years spent on the creation of his monster, as he was separated from all of society. In the context of the novel, the words “neglect” and “absent” reveal Frankenstein’s isolation atop of his limited emotion. Frankenstein’s representation as the brain of the body reflects on his longing desire to feel emotion as a result of his isolated emotions.