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Isolation In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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At the end of their wretched lives, both Victor and Kurtz find loyal defendants. The monster hangs over Victor upon his death and states: “Oh Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst.” (Shelley, 193) After all the vengeful events and tragic deaths, the monster faces his creator and asks forgiveness. This demonstrates, once again, his ability to love and his innate goodness, knowing that forgiveness is his only hope. However, since Victor is dead, his pleas are met with silence. Essentially, all hope for the monster’s ability to survive is now dead. Without hope, he turns back to evilness and blames Victor for his own …show more content…

Both choose to isolate themselves from society in order to gain this power. While in isolation, both lose site of their moral responsibilities in life: Victor by abandoning his creation and Kurtz by participating in the horrific rites and ceremonies of the natives, which include killing. Further, the monster in Frankenstein and the Russian in Heart of Darkness define how evilness overpowers Victor and Kurtz respectively through isolation. The monster is fully capable of love and compassion but isolation and complete abandonment by his creator results in vengeful evilness, for which Victor is responsible. The Russian, by all accounts, should despise Kurtz for demanding his ivory and threatening his life. Yet he demonstrates complete loyalty, despite Kurtz’s evil and mad tendencies, explaining them away without judgment. Finally, the monster shows remorse and asks for forgiveness from his creator but his expressions come too late as Victor has already died. With that, the monster becomes hopeless and resorts back to evilness. In the same vain, Marlow wants to step over the line in order to know and experience truth in the same way that Kurtz does, but he is too much of a coward. Upon Kurtz’s death, he resorts to lies, calling Kurtz’s experiences in the Congo – despite the horror – victorious.

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When Victor creates the creature he also abandons it. Once Frankenstein’s creature begins to murder off his family thus he begins’ to realize the importance of family. Caroline’s death contributes to Victor’s isolated nature.

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The novel Frankenstein brings to light many problems and situations that shed light on the faults of mankind. Cruelty was a huge factor in the novel; throughout Frankenstein is cruel to his body and to his creation. When he first makes the creature he runs from it, leaving the creature to fend for himself; even when reuniting with the creature he continues displays cruelty. The creature, in turn exhibits Victor cruelty right back. Within Frankenstein cruelty can be attributed, often affecting both Victor and the creature; serving as a crucial motivator and revealing their anger, pain, frustration till eventually both die.

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shield, nor console him, Victor is responsible for the abuse in which the monster felt, which attributed to his violent and murderous nature. When they meet again, the monster confesses out of anger to William’s murder, telling Victor that he is malicious because he is miserable and asks him “am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?” (Shelley 174). We see the toll of the psychological trauma in the monster’s speech. Though he is young still in terms of years on earth, he knows that he is hated and will never accepted by man.

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This caused a lot of anger for the monster, and he would then release this anger onto Victor to make him pay for abandonment. In the end Victor’s death was “caused by his creature” or really by “his own vengeful pursuit of it” (Lowe-Evans). The monsters death was through “self-immolation” because of the murders he committed to get back at Victor (Lowe- Evans). Both man and monster life was ended in cruel

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But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him” (Shelley 116). This shows how abandoned the monster feels, and how he could leverage that along with other things he learns against Victor and the other humans. Victor’s suffering is entirely self-inflicted.

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Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek

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Victor falls ill with anxiety, and as a result of Victor’s neglect the monster begins to destroy his life. Even when the monster confronts Frankenstein, threatening that he “will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of [Frankenstein’s] remaining friends, 102" Victor does not acknowledge the problem he has caused, the literal embodiment of his anxiety. He does not attempt to confront the monster head on or alleviate his loneliness, both a form of acknowledgement and thus a healthy way to respond to his fears. Instead, he once again pretends the monster doesn’t exist which only further enrages and empowers him. Once again, this mirrors the fact that when fears and anxiety go undealt with they will only grow and confirms that the monster is the embodiment of this

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The monster tells Victor of his feelings when he states, “You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains…I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery.” (153) After months and months of the monster trying to connect with the world, he eventually realizes that the efforts are worthless and vows to do to his creator what his creator did to him. To make Victor isolated would give him the same curse the monster has suffered through for its entire new life. Later, the creature asks himself, “Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?” The creature easily could kill Victor if that was his desire but its real desire was to make Victor suffer as the monster did.

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Victor dies failing to fulfill his pledge and his only son was there to mourn him. All the monster wanted has to be accepted by someone. When Victor didn’t he looked to

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Over the past century, Frankenstein has been analyzed and interpreted in seemingly infinite different forms of literature, film, and television shows. Once solely recognized as the story about a brilliant scientist who creates a creature in whom he regrets making after the creature turns out ugly, Frankenstein now represents an internationally recognized and commercialized pop culture symbol for Halloween decorations and costumes. When analyzing and appreciating the true literary essence behind Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein, one of the most important comparisons to consider remains the underlying influences behind the Creature’s immoral actions and whether or not the blame for these actions belong to Victor or the Creature. When exploring the dichotomy of the Creature versus Victor Frankenstein, one of the biggest and most widely debated questions remains whether Victor should be blamed for the Creature’s destructive actions or if the Creature should be considered guilty for his actions based off of his own free will. Many consider Victor Frankenstein the villain of the story due to his repetitive decisions to abandon and avoid his own “mistake,” the irresponsible choice of creating the monster in the first place, and his obvious negligence of the Creature’s feelings.

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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.

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1019 Words | 5 Pages

This shows the humanity in the monster and his tendency to be amiable. He was also able to learn from his mistakes. For example, the creature realized that he needed to stop stealing the family’s supplies after he noticed how much they needed them. Victor, however, didn’t learn from his mistake of creating the monster, and created another. The monster also refers to the family in the cabin as “[his] friends” when they didn’t know of his existence (103).

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819 Words | 4 Pages

The monster continues by reassuring the creator of his independent intelligence and power over the creature by telling Frankenstein, “This you alone can do”. Here, the creature assumes a role of submissiveness and reliance on Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s monster gains the sympathy of the reader who, despite condemning the murder of innocent people, commiserate with the lonely creature who is in search of an acquaintance, which he will likely never find. The monster also displays power and aggressiveness over Frankenstein; “You are my creator; but I am your master; obey!” The monster wants to desolate Victor’s heart, not by killing him directly,

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1240 Words | 5 Pages

Beginning with Victor abandoning the creature at birth, the series of revenge and hatred-filled events begin to occur as both attempt to find justice and retribution. The creature stole the lives of everyone beloved by Victor, and Victor stole the monster’s chance at happiness by abandoning him. As the characters continuously harm each other, their isolation increases as well as their sanity. In the end, numerous family members perish, Victor Frankenstein dies of physical exhaustion, and the creature conveys his desire to

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766 Words | 4 Pages

The monsters revenge on Frankenstein, drives him too to be full of hatred and need for vengeance because he destroyed everything good in his life. He feels as the death of his loved ones is his fault because he is the one that created the horrid creature in the first place (Brackett). “As time passed away I became more calm; misery had her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the same incoherent manner of my own crimes; sufficient for me was the consciousness of them” (Shelley 158). The monster wanted Victor to feel the same thing as him, lonely and sadness. The monsters revenge works, Victor becomes rejected by people and has nobody but himself.

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