Approximately sixty percent of Americans report that they feel lonely regularly which is a societal complication (Santos). Humans are social creatures and they require contact with others . Loneliness can be described as the feeling of being alone regardless of the amount of social contact with others while social isolation is the lack of those social connections completely (CDC). The two go hand in hand and can often lead to each other causing deeper rooted issues. Novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, short stories like George Saunders “The 400-Pound CEO, and websites including the CDC all demonstrate or examine the effects of loneliness and social isolation on an individual.
The use of the word monster in the book also correlates to appearance, and when the creature is called a monster, he feels forced to act like one. After being rejected by society because of his appearance the creature cries to Frankenstein, “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust” (Shelley 93). This shows that the creature internalized all of the hate he received from his appearance, to the point where he viewed himself as a monster. When he internalizes all this negativity about himself that stems from his appearance, and begins to see himself as a monster, he then begins to behave as one.
Companionship is the closeness or familiarity, a true fellowship among people who for some reason have a connection. “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.” The quote is from Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Robert Walton longs for a friend. The creature wanted a female companion.
Loneliness Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, makes a strong emotional appeal of loneliness, rejection, and revenge. Throughout the novel, Mary Shelley used his characters to indicate the theme of loneliness. Resembling other works, such as The Ancient Mariner, Henry James: The Young Master, and Paradise Lost. In Coleridge's poem, his being is the last living soul on board his ship. Shelly's mariner, relating to Coleridge's mariner, experienced the desolation of being alone.
„I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend” (Shelley 163-164). This is the wish of the scientist Robert Walton whose letters start Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Unlike the first thoughts coming to mind when hearing the title, friendship is one of the main topics in the story and the wish Walton expresses in the beginning stands for the desires of all the main characters. Not only Walton feels to be in need of companionship, the central character Victor Frankenstein does so too and even the Creature he brings into being expresses its strong wish to belong to someone.
The significance of the preface and letters is to set up a plot with a twist. Walton’s letters introduce an important character, Walton himself. It introduces many ideas that will show up in the novel. The letters foreshadow upcoming events in the novel.
In Frankenstein, the creature is an embodiment of Mother Earth and originally only desired to help humanity. The creature saw the beauty in people, but was only wronged, so now he wishes to destroy the human race: “I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain… I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelly 143). The characters in the novel never consider how their choices might negatively affect others, thus alienating the creature and causing him to wreak havoc on the
The Creature shows the most profound loneliness. The Creature is the only character in the novel that didn’t have a choice in being alone resulting in his loneliness. The Creature tried to reach out to humanity when he finally grew the confidence in himself just to be rejected once again. From the moment he opened his eyes, the Creature wants to be loved. The Creature has known nothing but hatred towards him, forcing him into isolation.
In Frankenstein, the creature shows the importance on the need for friendship. The creature feels lonely because he has no friends. The creature states, “…no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone,” (Shelley 93). The creature is clearly stating that he feels alone. Even Adam had Eve and his creator when Adam and Eve was on Earth to share conversations with (92).
It is obvious that the Monster had a really difficult life in the world surrounded with normal people, and very difficult for him to decide what he really is, if he is a child or a man or maybe an animal because he was even more ugly than an animal but yet he moved forward on his life being aware that he did not belong to this world, he is incapable of finding enough food to feed himself or find a comfortable place where he could sleep so it was all understood from him that he did not fit to this world of nature, when in the novel is described his life with all the description of his life in nature and all his sufferings we can immediately know that he felt very lonely and all his crimes were committed based on his loneliness, he is somehow compared with Satan for some situations that both of them had been through them (Bloom, 2007, p.8). In his book, Joshua (2007, p.47) also explains the senses of the Monster, who in a way understands all the situations around him and he was able to response to his surroundings and also aware of his
Frankenstein conjures up an image of a mindless, green monster running and grunting with its arms straight out! Readers that study Frankenstein by Mary Shelley do find a monster like and frightening creature, but it is definitely not mindless. This creature, created and rejected by victor Frankenstein, teaches himself human language and thereby comes to understand and experience human emotions. The most prominent emotion, which directs the choices he makes, is loneliness, and this has tragic results. Then there is victor Frankenstein who is plagued by the secrets he keeps and therefore leads a joyless life.
Victor Frankenstein fabricates a creature into the world out of the ambition to create a new species that will serve the purpose of being a new species. Victor immediately shuns his piece and flees after he had realized what he has created. “I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created , I rushed out if the room…”(Shelley 45). Placing the creature in a position to fend for itself right after birth knowing absolutely nothing.
“Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god” (Aristotle). Romantic period writer and author, Mary Shelley, depicts two characters in her soft science fiction novel, Frankenstein, that is exquisitely similar to those who “would find delight in solitude” as quoted by Aristotle in his Politics. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the parallel of Aristotle’s two presented personas consists as Victor Frankenstein as a god and his horrific creation, the Monster, as a wild beast. Unambiguously, Victor is indeed the god of the Monster because he created him, consequently bringing the Monster into existence. The Monster too is merely a wild beast from the perception that he appears to be a frightening and violent creature.
Throughout the 19th century, a great deal of men emerged themselves in the sudy of nature and the discovery of unknown land. Focusing on transformation in scientific idea across a variety of subjects, those scientists raised the period of great advance in science, known as the Scientific Revolution. Even if much of scientific products expanded the knowledge and encouraged of different thinking, but some of scientific products were too power to destroy the nature resulting in posing a threat the community. In the novel Frankenstein Mary Shelley demonstrated that the creature transformed himself from longing for love to seeking revenge on humanity as whole. Humanity, knowledge and loneliness all lead to his corruption and tragedy through his emotional distortion.
There are many themes displayed in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. There are themes such as blind ambition, the dangers of playing God, prejudiceness, revenge, need for love, and many others. Isolation is a major theme that consistently reappears throughout the novel. The aloneness that is displayed in Frankenstein drives the characters to act irrationally. The book Psychology and Personal Growth explains that, solitude or loneliness often refers to our separation from other people.
