Mary Shelley's Frankenstein examines two phenomena of human nature, scientific curiosity and loneliness; the latter will serve as the focus of this essay. The very manner in which Frankenstein begins, that of the correspondence of an unattached explorer who longs for a companion on his voyage, with no one to write to but his sister, establishes the theme of loneliness immediately.
Frankenstein's creation is a complex character whose true motives cannot be determined easily. Although one cannot excuse his actions, they should certainly not be viewed out of context. The creature is exposed to the painful reality of loneliness from the moment of his creation. "I had worked hard for nearly two years," Victor states, "for the sole
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The creature explains his plight to the old man:
They are kind--they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but, unfortunately, they are prejudiced against me. I have a good disposition...but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold a detestable monster.
Unfortunately, the old man misunderstands the creature's meaning of "monster," and offers him advice instead of understanding. Furthermore, before the creature has time to explain that the DeLaceys are the companions he seeks, the family members return home and, unfortunately, react in the manner the creature had feared. As the creature himself realized, "I could have torn [them] limb from limb...But my heart sunk within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained." Up to this point, the creature has taken abuse from every human being he has come into contact with. The DeLacey family offered probably the only opportunity for an alternative. But another misunderstanding destroyed his chances once again. The creature retreats to the woods, and decides that he will take this abuse no longer. The creature encounters Victor's young brother in the woods and,realizing he belongs to the Frankenstein family, strangles him and then pins the crime upon a friend. Although no one can deny this as a malicious and brutal act, it can be somewhat explained. For one, the creature is overcome with grief in a state of despair. When he
Friends will determine the direction and quality of your life. Loneliness is a battle that all people will once face at a certain point in their life; it is how they handle it that determines the outcome of that battle. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein loneliness is the most significant and prevailing theme throughout the entire novel. Shelley takes her readers on a wild journey that shows how loneliness can end in tragedy.
Throughout time man has been isolated from people and places. One prime example of isolation is Adam, "the man [formed] from the dust of the ground [by the Lord God]" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 2.7). After committing the first sin he secludes "from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken" (Teen Study Bible, Gen. 3.23). This isolation strips Adam from his protection and wealth the garden provides and also the non-existence of sin. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is able to relate to the story of Adam and the first sin to help her character, the Creature, associate with Adam. The Creature is able to relate because "[l]ike Adam, [he is] apparently united by no link to any other being in existence"
The creature explains that he has been scorned and rejected by society because he is judged by his horrific appearance. The most prominent event in the novel that emphasizes the creature’s isolation is his experience with the DeLacey family. Although the creature assisted the family in collecting their firewood and shoveling the snow out of their driveway in the hopes of gaining the sympathy of the family, he is ultimately rejected by them when DeLacey’s son, Felix, finds the creature wrapped around his blind father’s leg, and begins to harm the creature and tear him away from his father. In addition, in the novel, the creature saves a young girl from drowning in a lake, yet is rewarded for his humane deed by receiving a gunshot wound from the girl’s father. The creature is isolated because he is constantly being rejected by mankind despite his valiant efforts to gain sympathy. This trait is significant to the novel because it reveals that it is solely the creature’s rejection by society that makes him malicious, and he is not as monstrous as Victor portrays him to be. The creature even states himself, “‘Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred’”
Isolation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, has several themes imbedded in the text. One major theme is of isolation. Many of the characters experience some time of isolation. The decisions and actions of some of these characters are the root cause of their isolation.
Frankenstein’s creation was lost in the world with no one who could have understood him . It felt sorrowful and unfulfilled emotions as seen in this quote. Betrayal by Victor leaves a large impact the monster carried, which, turned into a monster full of hate and dissatisfaction. Victor’s creation was not a monster , but new born baby in a grown horrific body that was not to be called his own . It becomes a monster both mentally and physically, who will be feared by all . Victor not giving him the love he needed gets the monster enraged, which leads the monster to cause series of events that affects Victor unforgivably. .
Victor Frankenstein’s personal accounts of loneliness and isolation show the effects involved with making an impulsive and passionate decision. Frankenstein predicts the loneliness he could experience if he were to create the monster as he observes, “When I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate in my joy” (Shelley 13). Frankenstein knows what kind of situation he is putting himself into prior to constructing the monster. He is passionate and carelessly rebellious against his own knowledge and his previous predictions in giving life to the creature. Frankenstein knows there will be “none to participate in [his] joy,” but he acts out of his own passion and desire to be “glowing” which in turn gives him extreme loneliness. This
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
Through the exploration of value attached to friendship in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein';, it is found that Victor, Walton, and the monster each desire a companion to either fall back on during times of misery, to console with, or to learn from. During various periods throughout the novel, it is found that Victor depends heavily on friendship when tragedy occurs to keep him from going insane. Walton desires the friendship of a man to have someone who he can sympathize with. The sole purpose of the monster is to find a companion to learn from and not be a total outcast to society. None of these characters desire to be isolated and when
Written in 1817 by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is a novel about the "modern Prometheus", the Roman Titian who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. The story takes place in several European countries during the late 1700's. It is the recollection of Victor Frankenstein to a ship captain about his life. Victor is a student of science and medicine who discovers a way to reanimate dead flesh. In a desire to create the perfect race he constructs a man more powerful than any normal human, but the creation is so deformed and hideous that Victor shuns it. The creation then spends a year wandering searching for companionship, but everywhere he goes he is shunned and feared. Hating life
Alienation and isolation have been apparent in society since the beginning of man. When an individual stumbles outside the realm of social normality they are viewed as degradation to society or a threat to normal society.(“Truthmove” 2012) In the gothic tale of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley frequently displays the many different forms of alienation. Victor Frankenstein and his creation were two of the characters in this book that went through alienation and isolation.
Frankenstein puts the monster into a situation that causes him to be one of a kind. The monster had no one to whom he could relate. Victor thrusts the burden of existence upon the monster by creating him, leaving no route for escape from the situation. Frankenstein causes the monster to live a life in solitude, and the monster realizes the contempt others have for him. The monster feels as if he is no different, and believes he “deserved better treatment”(Shelley 114). Through his observations, the fiend ponders whether his existence is truly that of humanity or rather of “a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned”(Shelley 119). By creating him, Victor forces these hardships upon the monster.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley is an author who wrote the novel of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley herself in her life, experienced many deaths of close friends and family. When she was first born her mother died, furthermore Mary had a baby, who died 12 days later and her husband Percy Shelly drowned. Maybe it was these experiences, which led Mary Shelley to write such a novel of great horror published in 1818. Frankenstein itself is called 'the modern Prometheus'.
Ultimately the bond of all companionship is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship. Companionship is important in life because it makes living more enjoyable.. Without a companion or friend to express yourself to, what is the point of living life? In the story Frankenstein, Victor creates a creature that doesn’t have an appealing appearance. Everyone is scared and runs away from him. The Creature becomes depressed and asks for a female companion, or else he will kill more people. Victor get started on what he is asked to do. He is almost finished with the female, when the monster comes to visit his new companion. Victor destroys his creation
Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley didn’t know when she began it that her “ghost story” would become an enduring part of classic literature. Frankenstein is an admirable work simply for its captivating plot. To the careful reader, however, Shelley’s tale offers complex insights into human experience. The reader identifies with all of the major characters and is left to heed or ignore the cautions that their situations provide. Shelley uses the second person narrative style, allusions both to Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and the legend of Prometheus, and the symbols of both light and fire to warn against the destructive thirst for forbidden knowledge.
Throughout the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, the creature is subjected to countless acts of violence and rejection. For a monster to develop, one must have been formerly exploited either by an individual or their society. The creature is not only a physical product of science, but his atrocious behavior is also an explicit result of Victor’s actions toward him. The creature was not born a monster, but slowly morphed into one as he experiences violence and rejection from his society.