In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the theme of exile and isolation closely mirrors the idea of education and scientific discovery. This romanticism, and renunciation of the Enlightenment, is most clearly witnessed in the dual characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster. In her novel, Shelley, through the life of Victor Frankenstein (including the version of him that the audience sees in his monster) makes it clear that true scientific education and knowledge comes in tandem with isolation, as romantic education does with exile in nature. Each character’s pursuit of knowledge leads them to the ideals of romanticism, as well as to the arctic plains of ice. Alienation is experienced by Victor throughout his entire life; during his childhood, with (or rather not …show more content…
In his isolation, Victor shifts again to his teachers of old, and works to complete his project. Victor chooses to set up his laboratory “in a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house.” (52) Thus, he brings himself only more solitude, and his creature will be brought into the world lonely, like its creator. When his creature breathes its first breath, Victor panics, and takes what he believes to be the logical course of action: self isolation yet again. This time his isolation comes at the cost of his personal health: “This state of mind preyed upon my health, which had perhaps never entirely recovered from the first shock it had sustained. I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation-deep, dark deathlike solitude” (93). The monster’s torment of Victor only leads him to more isolation, and eventually to Orkney to create a second creature. When he decides to destroy his second creature, and finally realizes the true danger that his