Frankenstein Isolation Essay

Human beings are a social animal, naturally forming bonds with each other, through friendship, family, language, politics, or any other unifying force. They crave social interaction, and when they fail to get it, they suffer psychologically and emotionally. They no longer act like they would if they maintained social interaction; they instead act inhuman. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, isolation, and its negative effects are represented. Shelley first introduces isolation through Robert Walton. As a balance between the self-imposed isolation of Victor and the involuntary alienation of the monster, Walton also seeks out information and is willing to isolate himself to attain it, but like the monster he craves human interaction and is hesitant

Victor, once at Ingolstadt, feels no desire to socialize with others, instead focusing solely on his project to create life. He goes into isolation “and the same feelings which made [him] neglect the scenes around caused [him] also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom [he] had not seen for so long a time”(pg 49). Victor is abnormal. He, unlike most, feels no desire to associate with any other than his former friends. He is consumed by his pursuit of knowledge, and on the path to attain it is willing, without hesitation, he separates himself from society. He completes, in his isolation, the monster, and then he scorns it. Through Victor’s completion of the monster in isolation, Shelley sends a warning about the effects of isolation. Out of the reach of society, awful things will happen. The monster, contrasting with Victor, has an insatiable desire for human contact. The monster, not by its choice, “[is] alone and miserable: man will not associate with [him]” (128). The monster goes to great lengths to achieve contact with man and to fit into society. He learns the language of man and man’s behavior through watching the DeLaceys, and while accepted by the blind man, is rejected by the rest of the family. He is rejected and forced into isolation by society. Finally, scorned enough, having gone mad through isolation, the monster goes on a rampage for revenge, committing the murders of Victor’s only connections to society. Through the rampage, Shelley once again illustrates the negative effects of isolation. Before his rampage, the monster is more human than Victor, in that he wants to be part of society and is alienated only because of his appearance while Victor, accepted by society already, because he resembles man, willingly leaves the company of man for a