The issue of isolation is a topic that can be found in the two novels “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” Being in an isolated state can shape one’s actions and can even become engrained in the shaping of how a person lives their lives. For starters, the issue of isolation suggests a state of complete lack of contact with people in the outside world, whether it be between an individual or society as a whole. As both novels progress, the reader will gain the understanding as to how being in an isolated state can change a person, for better or for worse.
Frankenstein is a novel that was littered with occurrences depicting murder, tragedy, and desolation. In spite of all the scenes of misery throughout
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the novel, the connection between Victor and the monster can be attributed to the isolation brought upon by one another. Victor focuses all of his energy toward his studies and places a barrier between himself and society in the outside world. “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime” (Shelly). Being that Victor has isolated himself because of his obsession to the creation of his creature, Victor has not only endured physical isolation but psychological isolation as well. Think about the time that Victor spent creating his monster and how that time isolated from human contact effected how he lived the rest of his life. Victor was in a state of mind that drove him away from any need of human interaction, any form of nourishment needed, and also depriving himself of sleep. Victor doing harm to himself in turn caused the same type of harm to what he was creating. Placing so much of his time and effort into the creation of his creature actually can be paired with the downfall his ‘monster’ actually became. The flaws in Victor’s own character are the very strengths that the monster was created on; obsession, desolation, and anger. In terms of the monster and how his isolation motivates his actions, his isolation comes at a volatile price.
He longed to become a member of society like the rest of the people of the nearby village but he knew because of earlier trials with those same people, he could not live alongside them peacefully. “What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people, and I longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching and endeavoring to discover the motives which influenced their actions"(Shelly). The monster isolated himself in order to learn how people lived their lives. His actions led to a manner of choice that made him learn from a distance, which in turn hurt his development in communication between himself and other people. His isolation turned into anger because instead of learning how to live alongside the villagers, he had to learn how to survive among them, causing his destructive behavior. Just as Victor’s isolation contributed to how he lived his life, the same can be said about the monster Victor
created. Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol creates a narrative that depicts a man that isolates himself because of his own views of how people and society were. He would rather be by himself than deal with people being close to him personally. He gave himself patterns that he would do everyday and would never change his course of action because he was essentially stuck in his ways. "It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly” (Dickens). Scrooge much rather fixated himself on living an enclosed lifestyle that isolated anything that was either unkind or negative from getting too much involved with anything in his own life. He gives no chance for any type of relationship with people lower than himself. Throughout the entire novel characters are being shown either isolated in terms of economic status, or even a mental status. Based on the circumstances people around Scrooge have gone through, he will disqualify people from his life who had any sort of stance on life different than himself. This is what can cause the reader to believe Scrooge has inner demons that control his thought process and will force him in a state of mind that withdraws him from human contact with people in lower classes than himself. So in a way he has isolated himself rather than have someone or something force his to isolate himself.
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, cruelty is a frequent theme and different acts of cruelty are committed almost every chapter. Victor Frankenstein abandoned his creation because of its grotesque face and destroyed any chance if the monster getting a mate, and the monster kills everyone Frankenstein loves out of spite. In Frankenstein, the different acts of cruelty that are imposed onto Frankenstein and his creation help reveal their true character
In the novel, Victor is raised up by two happy parents in caring and indulgence. He receives a sister, an education, affection, and a wife from his family. However, unlike Victor, the Monster does not have any maternal or paternal figure to care and teach him values. When the Monster first escapes from Victor’s apartment and enters into the forest, he lives like an animal. He eats berries, drinks water from the streams when he gets thirsty, and sleeps in anywhere. These actions illustrate the Monster’s natural impulse for needs of food and shelters.
When Victor flees the creature, he becomes lonely and unhappy. He rejects his own works. If he stayed and taught him the creature would at least have a chance of happiness. When the monster flees to the cottagers he learns about human nature. He quotes “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protector had departed and broken the only link that held me to th...
With nobody to reason with, Victor makes senseless decisions while he is alone. Victor begins this with his process of creating the monster. Nobody in the right mind would ever dig up graves, but that is just what victor goes and does. Once this creation is finally given life, which Victor has spent two years striving for, Victor foolishly abandons it. Victor comes to his senses to some degree after he brings life to the monster as he states, “‘now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 43). Had there been companions around Victor during this creation time, perhaps someone would have been able to guide Victor away from creating the “wretch” (Shelley 43) he so hopelessly conceived. As for the monster, he makes fairly good decisions even without guidance from anyone, including Victor, his creator. The monster has the desire to learn and gain knowledge as a genuine individual. As the monster is continuously rejected and shunned by mankind, his natural benevolence turns to malevolence. In his loneliness, the monster wrongly decides to declare “‘everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery’” (Shelley 126). Say the monster was able to have comrades of some kind around him, he would not have turned to this
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. They make choices that isolate themselves from everyone else.
Victor’s lack of compassion and sympathy towards the monster causes him to become angry instead of guilty. His cruelness to his creation made the monster kill and hurt the people he did but “when [he] reflected on [the monster’s] crimes and malice, [Victor’s] hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation,”(Shelley 325). Without compassion Victor thinks that the only way to stop the monster is to get revenge on him, instead of just giving him the empathy and kindness that monster craved. Victor realizes that "if he were vanquished, [he] should be a free man...balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue [him] until death. ”(Shelley 731).
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is filled with death and sorrow. They occur in almost every aspect of the book. The four "squares" of the book, Walter, Victor, the monster, and the cottagers, all suffer from them at one time or another. Some perceive Frankenstein as a horror story; however, in actuality it is a book of tragedy and despair. Every page reveals more misery than the page before. Thus, death and sorrow are inevitable in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
The fact that Frankenstein’s creation turns on him and murders innocent people is never overlooked; it has been the subject of virtually every popularization of the novel. What is not often acknowledged is the fact that Frankenstein himself embodies some of the worst traits of humankind. He is self-centered, with little real love for those who care about him; he is prejudiced, inflexible and cannot forgive, even in death. While some of these traits could be forgivable, to own and flaunt them all should be enough to remind a careful reader that there are two "monsters" in Frankenstein.
...s creation as a way of revenge and payback for all the distress he brought to the creature. The creature, beginning as the most innocent, is alienated by his creator and every individual who witnesses his presence. Finally, Victor isolates himself from his beloved ones in order to fulfill his ambitions. All these misfortunes are caused by the lack of moral decision making. Unfortunately, these decisions ruined the life of many people involved in Victor’s life. All these events are the proof of what people’s actions can result into when isolation is a major theme in one’s life.
In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the main theme revolves around the internal and external consequences of being isolated from others. Being isolated from the world could result in a character losing his/her mental state and eventually causing harm to themselves or others. Because both Victor Frankenstein and the creature are isolated from family and society, they experienced depression, prejudice, and revenge.
...most readers tend to sympathize with Frankenstein because of the way in which he is mentally and physically harmed by his creation. However, one must also realize that while Frankenstein is a victim in the novel, he also exhibits features that make him a monster. These monstrous qualities, however, stem from his passion for science and his desire to create life. Not only does the reader criticize and pity Frankenstein, but the reader also empathizes with Frankenstein’s creation. He was unjustly shunned by society because of his physical appearance. On the other hand, the reader realizes that like Frankenstein, the creation can not be sympathized with entirely. He too exhibits traits that make him appear villainous. It is the duality of these two characters that make Frankenstein and his creation two of the most appealing characters of the nineteenth century.
Isolation is often a result of choosing to seek refuge in solitude, however, in many cases, it is a result of brutality from a surrounding environment. In Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, Frankenstein,a gruesome and painful story serves as a cautionary tale in order to prevent another from a similar downfall. Although Victor Frankenstein is the narrator for the majority of the novel, the audience learns of the destruction that has followed his decisions as well as the forced estrangement upon those he has encountered. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses relatable characters that reflect the harsh superficial aspects of society.
In her own life and in her character’s lives, the emotions are revealed. The novel reveals how happiness can turn to sadness and pain in an instant. It also reveals how the human being can sometimes, without thinking of the consequences, make decisions that can negatively affect the rest of their life. This was true in the novel “Frankenstein”. It is the decision of the individual to find a way to survive the ups and downs of life. In Mary Shelley’s case, she chose to live her life out in characters in a novel; perhaps the most widely known novel of terror (Encyclopedia Britannica), and one of the best novels of all
When Victor abandons the monster he runs away and tries to forget about his failed creation. It was extremely dangerous for Victor to flee his experiment because the monster soon becomes aggressive with hate and is curious to know why Victor left him; furthermore, the monster becomes obsessed with self-learning and knowledge.
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.