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Similarities Between Frankenstein And Hellhole

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“ Human beings are social creatures, we are social not just in the trivial sense that we like company, and not just in the obvious sense that we each depend on others. We are social in a more elemental way: simply to exist as a normal human being requires interaction with other people.” (Gawande) Throughout Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein and the article, “Hellhole” by Atul Gawande both writers portray the common theme of the effects of social isolation on the individual. In both ways it shows being lonely vs being alone. Both of these writings portray how isolation changes the mental and physical state of an individual causing them to be depressed, ashamed of themselves, dangerous, and weak. Alienation is something Victor experienced …show more content…

Once Victor learns the creature he abandoned is responsible for the death of his little brother, Victor isolates himself to protect his family. Ultimately, his relationship with the creature leads to his own demise and destruction. Frankenstein is forced to isolate himself so that he can destroy the creature before it continues on its path of destruction.When Walton first meets Victor after living a life in seclusion he is described as, “His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition.” (Shelley 9) This sickness for Victor all started from the beginning of his isolation when he removes himself from society to create this monster. “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree.” (Shelley 34) The effect of being alone on somebody does not just change them mentally and make them depressed but it changes the body as well. Victor constantly experienced prolonged sickness and major changes to his health. We see in this in Hellhole as well in which Gawande told the story of one man who was captured, tortured, and kept from society. After being released he said he had this look in his eyes and he looked drugged but in reality he wasn’t. It was the effect of not having people with him for

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Za’Quondria Snead Miss Sibbach English IV 11 December, 2015 Lord Frankenstein or God In the book Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, like God himself decides that he can and will create life. Young Victor differs from other children, with his incessant hunger the power of knowledge, so he began teaching himself. As he aged, his curiosity expanded leading him to explore and experiment with more out of the box thinking.

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687 Words | 3 Pages

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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1233 Words | 5 Pages

In the article “Social Isolation: A Modern Plague” by Steve Ilardi on the website PsychologyToday.com, the author discusses the major effects of being isolated from society, stating that social isolation is “...a huge risk factor for the onset of major depression” (Ilardi). Despite being more intelligent, a person who is an outcast because they are mentally different from other human beings will not be any better off than before their intelligence was increased. Depression will suck away their will and drive to succeed, rendering the operation they went through utterly unproductive. Similarly, in the novel “Frankenstein’s Monster” by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein’s Monster runs away from his creator Victor Frankenstein. He learns that there are no there beings like him by observing the peasants that reside in a cottage, and questions if he is a “...monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?”

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264 Words | 2 Pages

Frankenstein recalls his physical isolation “My cheek had grown pale with study and my person emaciated with confinement.” In his solitude, Frankenstein also becomes mentally isolated, often stating “no one

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604 Words | 3 Pages

Isolation In Frankenstein Humans are one of the most sociable creatures on this planet. We need social interaction to live our daily lives, because without it are we really human? In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we see several examples of people isolating themselves from one another. Through this isolation we see what happens to their character both physically and mentally.

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655 Words | 3 Pages

Is it possible that characters in two altogether different books could have unbelieve common attributes? Through John Milton's Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there is an unquestionable association between every one of the characters. Two of the characters with the most comparable traits are Victor, from Frankenstein, and Satan, from Paradise lost. Victor rejects his creation because of his absence of emotions, which caused deep loneness. Satan also feels an unfathomable amount of emptiness and damage.

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Victor damages his mindset by allowing himself to go mentally insane. Because the sight of medical tools tortures Victor’s mind, he becomes psychotic and depressed. Secondly, this character devastates himself when he views his monster alive for the first time. Victor becomes ill for several months and eventually recovers; however, this ailment disturbs him for the rest of his life.

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“Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred” (140). Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, follows the adventures of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who desires to unearth the hidden mysteries that lie in the grey area between life and death, and the consequence of his lust- a lonely monster. Shelley eloquently depicts the destructive effects of loneliness in her novel through the use of Romantic descriptions and multiple narrations and proves thus: Isolation breeds conflicts within man’s moral responsibilities. Being secluded from society results in an obsession for power, a development of a corrupt demeanor, and lastly, a need to impose vengeance.

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Whereas Frankenstein does not properly value the domestic affection he is given until it is violently taken from him, his creation learns that this is what values most in life and yet is not able to gain this affection from others. Francis Bacon says in his essay Of Friendship “I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage”. Shelley highlights the need for a sense of belonging and companionship by letting both her main figures suffer the pain of not having this need fulfilled and, in consequence, they both “quit the stage” (Bacon) and turn their backs on humanity. Social isolation, although through different circumstances, was the predominant cause for both Frankenstein and his creature’s demise. Even Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote in his preface to Frankenstein about the “amiableness of domestic affection” (Shelley 9).

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Throughout the book the death of Victor's family has taken a toll on his mental state and he starts showing signs of mental illness. Much like Mary Shelley had mental illness because of the horrors that happened in her life. The illnesses that Victor starts showing signs of depression, paranoid schizophrenia, and anxiety. Depression is something that

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602 Words | 3 Pages

The four main symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are also quite noticeable in Victor: reliving the event, avoiding others, hyperarousal, and negativity. (Board). Victor also had terrible nightmares after this altercation, stating that he “was possessed by a kind of nightmare,” feeling powerless to a monster whose “grasp was around my neck and I could not free myself from it” (Frankenstein 537). Frankenstein kept away from most people, another symptom, in an attempt to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of his psychological trauma (Paul’s Case). Alphonse, Victor’s father, also notices this in his son, questioning why he is “still unhappy and still avoiding our society” (Frankenstein 438).

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The type of isolation that Victor experiences correlates strongly with introvertedness and loneliness leading to progress in another field. Victor, as seen throughout the novel, works best when he is isolation and away from the distractions of his family and friends. Frankenstein seems almost annoyed with other people trying to spend time with him when his mind was otherwise occupied with his task. He says “...and truly I rejoiced that thus I should be saved many hours of lonely, maddening re ection. Nay, Henry might stand between me and the intrusion of my foe.

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711 Words | 3 Pages

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a bildungsroman, coming of age, novel because it recounts the psychological and moral development of its protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, from youth to maturity, when he recognizes his place in the world. Victor Frankenstein realizes in a single moment that man cannot alter death without consequences. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist from Switzerland who is obsessed with the creation of life. When he is seventeen, Victor 's family decides to send him to the university of Ingolstadt, so that he might become worldlier, but before his departure his mother dies. This loss drives Victor to start over and to become successful.

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682 Words | 3 Pages

What does director Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), directed by Kenneth Branagh, have in common— a mutual underlying story; but their differences are what makes their tales all the more special. Edward Scissorhands is a retelling of Frankenstein, but with a slight twist. In Edward’s case instead of lacking companionship like Frankenstein’s monster, he lacks hands; and is received rather well by the surrounding community. Ironically, in both tales the characters share the same desire to be love; this ignites the question – why do humans want to be love? Are we only important as we are loved?

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Isolation and abandonment can cause many different reactions from people. In the words of William A. Sadler Jr., a sociology professor, “We often do not know how to cope. It can make us confused, distraught, depressed, frightened, and even outraged” (Sadler 105). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, several of these effects are presented in Victor Frankenstein and his creation. They both suffer from being isolated from their creator, society, and family units.

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