In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the theme of loneliness is evident through the life of the monster created by Victor Frankenstein. All the monster wants is to be accepted and loved, but after many experiences with humans he learns that what he desires is not possible because of his appearance. From birth, he is rejected by Victor and unsuccessfully tries to find someone who will accept him. Isolation and alienation lead to the creature’s desire for revenge and ultimately his death. The very moment the monster awakes he is afraid and alone. He is isolated and has no one to comfort or understand him. “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively, finding myself so desolate” (Shelley 71). The …show more content…
This is the first family the creature encounters, he observes them to learn their ways. The creature decides to hide and watch the way they live their lives. He wants to mimic the lifestyle of humans, so he can fit into society. The creature believes he can be part of the family if the blind father listens to his story but is interrupted by the other family members who become fearful of him. “Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung: in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick” (Shelley 97). When De Lacey’s family sees the horrid-looking creature they fear for their lives. Again, the creature is driven out because of its hideous physical looks. The creature loses the one person who would listen to his sorrows and joys. De Lacey was blind and could not see his physical form so the creature felt comfortable speaking to him. This was his one chance for acceptance, but De Lacey’s family feared the creature and drove him out by beating him like an animal. He is physically abused by the family that he wanted to be part of. This causes the creature to desire a family of his own, someone who will not be afraid of him. This experience lead him to despair once he realizes there are no others like …show more content…
To begin his revenge, he decides to kill his creator’s wife on their wedding night. The creature violently kills his creator's wife so that he will feel the pain of loss and loneliness. “She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair” (Shelley 144). The monster gets revenge on his creator because Victor refuses to create a companion for him and so he wants his creator to feel the loneliness he feels. He kills her while Victor is in the other room and leaves without a trace. Victor is full of sorrow and loneliness just as the creature is. He ruins Victor's life by making him experience the feeling of having nobody to love. The creature’s anger ultimately leads to his own death. The anger he previously felt is now his satisfaction of
The passion for his work causes him to revert to isolation. Frankenstein mentions that no youth could have passed more happily than mine (Shelley, 67). Furthermore , his parents emphasize to him that it will cause the great distress if he doesn’t get in touch with him. Still Frankenstein still selfishly remains in isolation, despite the great pain he is causing to the ones he loves the most. His choice to remain isolated is what contributes to his monster-like attributes. Frankenstein even sees himself as a monster, can you wonder, that sometimes a kind of insanity possessed me, or that I saw continually about me a multitude of filthy animals inflicting on me incessant torture, that often extorted screams and bitter groans (Shelley, 160). It seems that in this moment, Frankenstein is seeing himself as an isolated
He chose to "avoid a crowd and to attach [himself] fervently to a few [schoolmates]" (Shelley 36). Characteristics like isolation can lead to an unhappy future and cause a person to totally remove himself from society. Though "[Frankenstein's] father had wished him 'to seek amusement in society [he] abhorred the face of man.' ... 'I felt that I had no right to share their intercourse,'" he admits (Goldberg 31). From the knowledge of Frankenstein's past the reader is able to understand the character's behavior and how it develops. Through the years Frankenstein has kept to himself, with a few exceptions, and is heavily involved in his studies. These conditions evolve to a more serious state over time. "Now, he reveals only the 'desire to avoid society' and fly 'to solitude, from the society of every creature.' . . . He is 'immersed in solitude,' for he perceives' an insurmountable barrier' between him and his fellow-man" (Draper 3206). This state of seclusion only adds to Frankenstein's deterioration and to the condition of his creation. Frankenstein's creature takes on the characteristics of his creator, just as children do with their parents. Due to the creator's reclusive habits and characteristics the Creature becomes as isolated and lonely as his creator. After being shunned by Frankenstein, the Creature wonders about lonely, "searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger"
In the novel Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley has many important messages pertaining to life. When asked what the most important message is of the novel, I believe the most important message is the effect of loneliness and how it can impact your being. The two main characters in the novel both face loneliness and isolation through their lives. Although the monster, who is created by a man named Victor Frankenstein, is the key character regarding loneliness, his creator also shows his own side of loneliness and how it affected him, his friends and family. Both characters show many differences and similarities in their lives along with their loneliness. The monster was born into loneliness and molded by it, whereas Victor merely adopted
The theme of isolation from family and society is constantly presented in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley explicitly describes how becoming detached from the family or society leads to serious tragedy and despair. Several characters, such as Victor, the monster, and Walton, in this story undergo through this type of catastrophic situation; some of them even leading to death. Not only in the book but also in the real life, isolation, itself, generates negative results. In this book, one can divide isolation into different types; these are inevitable isolation, self-isolation, and compulsory isolation.
When the creature began to formulate his devious plot of revenge against Victor is truly began to show how lonely he was going to become. It all started with the murder of poor little William which acted as an appetizer to the buffet of sorrows that was about to take place. Following William's death Justine's followed soon after, “this barrier was sealed with the blood of William and Justine” (Shelly 192). That quote was an affirmation about how the monster was going to take away anything that ever mattered to Victor. Slowly but surely the creature kills Victors best friend, father, and wife which leaves him absolutely devastated. His life was consumed by the death of his loved ones where he was beginning to see constantly, “Everywhere I turn I see the same figure” (Shelly 241). This all began with a selfish act which lead him to this destitute
In today's world everyone is in someway “lonely”, people are so into their own world that they sometimes forget about everything going on around them. In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein; a creature comes to learn just how “lonely” someone could be and what it can drive people or even creatures to do. Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist in this novel: he is the essential thing that causes the creature to lash out.
He learns a variety of feelings throughout his observations of the De Lacy family. The monster had been neglected of care his whole life and was “seeking acceptance, company or comfort,”and felt that he couldn’t live his life without human interaction (Codr 68). The monster reached out to the De Lacy’s and was turned down immediately. The monster realized that it was not due to his actions or his approach towards them, but it was rather the fact that “I was terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool”(Shelley 121). He was simply unappealing to the eye, which caused the De Lacy’s to flee from their home. Later down the road, the monster comes across a girl who is seemingly running away from someone or something. She continued on past him
Furthermore, Mary Shelley builds sympathy by contrasting the De Lacey family to Frankenstein. The monster learns of the De Lacey family when he has been dismissed by Frankenstein and is roaming the terrain alone. The monster watched their lifestyle and tried to comprehend more about existence and the right approach to live. The way the novel is structured, the reader believe that the monster is underhanded so he is abhorred from the earliest starting point, however when the creature's side of the story is told, the readers starts to detest Victor and see that he is self-fixated. This begets empathy and sensitivity for the creature on the grounds that nobody cherished him. The structure of the novel is likewise brimming with differences amongst characters and plots.
In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein family and abandonment become the driving forces behind the characters’ actions. We see Victor Frankenstein, The Creator, seek refuge from his failures in the company of family and friends, all of whom support and drive him on. The creature who was created at the hands of Victor seeks only to be accepted and loved as part of that which was denied to him. Abandoned and lost the creature comes into contact with a family in the woods, the De Lacys, whom he cares for as if they were his own blood. Upon sight of him they are revolted and cast him out, severing the final thread of hope within the creature. Feeling unwanted for no reason the creature sets out to make his creator feel the pain he has felt for so long, being without family. After the deaths of all those dear to him Victor sets out to hunt his creation unable to bear the loss of those dear to him. Family, abandonment and loss become the sole forces that drive both creator and creation to their ends.
“The monster's alienation from human social relations begins at the moment of his birth. As he is brought to life, Victor becomes revolted, and then terrified, by his own creation” (Petsche). Abandoning his experiment pressures the idea to the Creature that he is not tolerated before he even experiences life in the near future. Without Frankenstein leading the Creature into the right direction of life, the latter begins to realize that he is not truly accepted anywhere and must rely on inherent aptitude. “A growing body of research shows that children who suffer severe neglect and social isolation have cognitive and social impairments as adults” (Boston’s Children Hospital).
Esteban San Roman Mrs. Brown English 4: Block 7 4 February 2015 Tragic Loneliness Few stories have managed to remain in the hearts of both the world of literature and filmmaking. Such is the case with Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, a novel that tells the story of a monster in search of affection and intimacy. Unable to find love, the monster, along with many other characters like Robert Walton, and Victor Frankenstein resort to a life of loneliness. Undoubtedly, this story offers a fantastic view on how humans are inherently lonesome, yet are constantly in search of appreciation.
"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”- Mother Teresa. In Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, the creature created by Victor Frankenstein was abandoned, rejected, and was desperate to be loved. This correlates with much of Shelley's life and the losses she endured. The creature, much like Shelley was alone for most of its life and had lost all that he knew but unlike Shelley, the creature was angered by society and his creator.
A desolate creature crafted from the blissfulness of man. In Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein ,the protagonist, is a well-educated man with the ambition to pursue scientific achievements. After, couple years Victor Frankenstein achieves his ambition with the creation of a creature. Upon the birth of the creature, the creature faces a multitude of difficulties. As the creature pours out its thoughts of despair and solitude through its difficulties: one can not help but to visualize and began to feel the size of the creature’s shoe. How does it feel to have absolutely no one? This realization hit me with the speed of a bullet train. Then the feeling of empathy, pity, sorrow attended me: the creature faces
According to the creature, the cause wickedness is that he is isolated and lonely. He is the only one of his kind. He says, “ I am malicious because I am miserable” (Shelley 104). As he continues the conversation he expresses that the only remedy is to create another creature, for him to love so he can feel like he is not the only one of his kind.
His loneliness stems from the fact that he was not only rejected by his own creator, but he was also the only one of his kind, leaving no one for him to relate to. Although it is a common belief that the monster’s self-loathing was an effect of the numerous deaths he was responsible for, it is fair to argue that it instead was a result of his failed attempts to get another of his kind created or even to relate to Frankenstein in any way. Because of the creature’s wretched appearance, as well as the community’s complete unwillingness to look past his features and dismiss his actions, which to an extent appear to mirror the society which he found himself surrounded by, he can definitely be viewed as not only enraged, but also lonely, depressed, and very vengeful. The creature is even shown to express the desire of an outcome involving explosions, much in the way that a person with clinical depression would consider an attempt at suicide. The creature’s symbolic similarities to people who have been extremely ostracized by a group results in the largest form of isolation: