Frankenstein Isolation Essay

Frankenstein: The Damnation of Isolation Saint Mother Teresa once said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty” (brainyquote.com). Being lonely or isolated is nothing to take lightly; loneliness has been proven to increase the risk of heart disease, dementia, and other health problems (Guner), but further, forced solitariness has massive psychological effects. It is not only a desire for most humans to be around others, but even a necessity. This fundamental concept of companionship is present throughout author Mary Shelley’s romantic novel Frankenstein, which tells the tale of a young, educated man named Victor Frankenstein who devotes himself completely to giving an artificial body life, which he does

In order to gain companionship, he must create relationships with humans, but he is incapable of doing this as everyone immediately feels aversion to him before he can do anything about it. From this, when the creature finds the De Lacey family, who don’t attack him (although they do not know of his existence), he obsesses over them and their worries become his, unveiling his desire to escape loneliness (Hall). He refers to the family as his “beloved cottagers”, and even goes as far to say that he learned to “admire their virtues and deprecate the vices of mankind” (Shelley 128), showing the positive impact that even minor social connection has on him. Alongside the De Lacey family, the monster is put in a much more peaceful state and even begins to enjoy life, performing generous acts to the family and craving knowledge, supported by his new foundation of

Victor figuratively and literally destroys his loved ones through a long and strenuous self-imposed isolation, as not only do they become unimportant to him, but the separation genuinely creates the murderer of his loved ones (Schmid). This seclusion has a negative influence on him, as after being alone for so long he finds himself mentally unstable, saying he had “a nervous fever which confined me for several months” (Shelley 53). Victor is mentally and physically depleted as a result of his isolation, directly contrasting with the emotions of joy and prosperity he felt as a young boy surrounded by his loved ones. Victor’s solitariness has caused him to become disconnected from his sense of community and familiarity (Schmid), and the extremely negative effects of the isolation prove the necessity of companionship in his