As Outcasts In Frankenstein

William Thrailkill

Prof. Sample

English 1302

2/10/18

An Outcast Creates an Outcast There is no other creature in existence that is as communal and gregarious as human beings, due to this, whenever one feels deserted or segregated by the rest of society, they tend to become cold and bitter. In Frankenstein, or, The Modern Day Prometheus, Mary Shelley portrays the monster, as well as its creator, as outcasts from society. Although, Victor has a family, and a wife while the creature does not, Victor feels he is emotionally detached from the rest of his loved ones. Due to his emotional confinement, Victor feels that he cannot trust even his wife with the knowledge of the horrible creature in which he has created. This sense of being an

While Victor is not literally alone, due to his family and best friend Henry Clerval, Victor understands himself to be emotionally imprisoned. As a result of this he resolves that he cannot communicate his emotions to the people who, on the surface seem to be the ones closest to Victor such as Clerval or his wife Elizabeth, but in all actuality, Victor comes to the conclusion that he must face his emotional turmoil alone. In his younger years, Victor would attempt to cope with his emotions by engrossing himself in his studies of science, biology and early genetics, however, by encompassing himself in his work he only solidifies himself as an outcast. Victor even displays the depth of his emotional solitude when he asserts “swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys. Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate”(Shelley 27) Victor’s emotional isolation even pushes him to the contemplation of suicide following Justine’s execution. At the end of the novel, Victor finds himself not just emotionally

Simultaneously, Victor failing to take responsibility for his own creation leads the creature down a path of destruction that manufactures his status as a societal outcast. The creature's dissolution from society, his search for someone to share his life with, the familiarity with intense anguish, his thirst for retribution, each of these traits coincide with Victor as he is depicted throughout the novel. Victor unknowingly induces his own undoing through his rejection of the creature. Shelley foreshadows his downfall by stating that “the monster still protested his innate goodness, blaming Victor’s rejection and man’s unkindness as the source of his evil” (Shelley 62) The creature essentially places Victor at fault for the creature becoming an outcast of society, by expressing this Shelley constructs a very austere portrayal of man’s contact with outsiders. Virginia Brackett asserts in her analysis of the novel that “Due to the monster's rejection by the cottagers and other humans, Victor serves not only as his creator but also as the only social construct on which he can build his reality” As the creator of the creature, Victor adopted the responsibility of his creation and the duties that accompany it, however, instead of answering the call of duty he fled and disregarded his obligation to the creature. The creature