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Guilt In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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There are many who believe in the idea of fate deciding their future and therefore, they do not feel the need to take value in thinking before making decisions. However, the future is decided based on the actions of a person alone. Those actions, if done without thinking, will ultimately lead to a life of guilt. A future weighed down by relentless mental obsession with guilt and in turn social isolation is a fate sealed the moment one makes an ignorant decision. Two characters in literature that are meant to show these lasting negative repercussions of ignorant actions are Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s mariner. Both make the mistake of acting on impulse as Frankenstein creates his monster and the mariner kills …show more content…

They also face physical isolations from society, as they watch the people around them die. However, the mental isolation they endure is a far worse pain. It is difficult for them to reconnect with society because both Frankenstein and the mariner are trapped in their minds by the guilt that resides there; even after the physical burden has been eliminated. The only way that both Frankenstein and the mariner can find a connection to society, is by reliving the very thing that disconnected them from society. Storytelling does not get rid of the mental burden, but it lightens it because someone finally can learn to understand why they carry this burden. The ignorant actions of both the mariner in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein, the lasting mental burdens carried by both, as well as their subsequent attempts to use storytelling to relieve their mental burdens; show that the only way to regain social interaction after the obsession with guilt has isolated a person, is through the alleviation of this mental burden by advising others against acting on …show more content…

This guilt becomes a source of obsession and in turn the person isolates themselves from society. It is easy to do because no one else can quiet understand what the person is going through internally. Furthermore, it is difficult to connect with people when a burden weighs so heavy upon the mind. Frankenstein and the mariner are both used as examples of these lasting consequences of ignorant decisions. Isolation, caused by the individual burden of guilt, is shown through these characters as a pain worse than death. Through their subsequent storytelling to relieve pain, these characters show the importance of connection to society. Communication with a willing listener is the only thing that can reconnect one to society after mental isolation has consumed their mind, as shown through Frankenstein and the

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