Social Isolation In Frankenstein Essay

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Sylvia Earle, a National Geographic marine biologist, once said, “We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature”. She means that humans have become very good at altering the natural flow of the world, and this has often led to with negative consequences. People have many opinions on the altering of nature. Some argue that an intelligence increasing operation could be of great benefit to society, opening the door to smarter, more advanced citizens and a more advanced society, because they will be able to solve the problems that currently plague the world. However, although the artificial increase of intelligence has some potential benefits, such a procedure would be more harmful than helpful, because of the resulting increased gaps …show more content…

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?” (Shelley 3). These types of thoughts are often associated with depression, as outlined in a PALS presentation by students of SDA high school. Also, being alone on the earth and therefore socially isolated ads to loneliness, which is one of the main causes of depression worldwide. These key elements point to the fact that the monster is depressed because he is cut off from society, and causing depression to be present in even more people’s lives than today is a horrible