Exile. Behind the word lies angst, behind it lies fear, behind it lies sorrow. To be exiled, outcasted, or abandoned is one of the biggest fear of humanity. For to be alone, one is left with their own thoughts. No one wants to be the fallen angel. The world exile carries with it many different negative connotations. The rest of society does not dare to interact with those exiled. Society does not dare to dance with the devil. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. The creature is abandoned by Frankenstein. And the creature searches for company and to eliminate the feeling of loneliness he has inside. After scrutinizing Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the creature chases after a normal life, one without loneliness; however, society …show more content…
exiles the creature and labels him a monster solely on his appearance. In the monster’s journey to fulfill the gap his exile produce, he is challenged with multiple rejections. The theme of exile shines light on how isolation from society takes its innocent victims. Firstly, the monster has deal with multiple rejections from his surrounding environment.
The first rejection he experiences comes from his creator, Victor Frankenstein. Victor states, “Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived” (Shelley 58). Victor is repulsed by the monster. This leads the monster to go and find someplace where he could be accepted. He wants to rid himself of the feeling of loneliness. This becomes the first step in the monster’s path to complete …show more content…
exile. Secondly, the creature tries to seek refuge in the village. However, due to the creature’s hideous appearance, the village rejects the monster. They “[were] roused; some fled, and some attacked [the creature], until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kids of missile weapons…” (Shelley 123). The village did not welcome him. This caused the monster to feel even more alienated. Shelley creates a melancholy atmosphere surrounding the monster. The monster does not actively choose to be alienated; rather, the monster is forced into alienation. Thirdly, the monster faces rejection once more from the DeLacey family.
As the creature continues on his journey, he only seeks love and acceptance. He is human. He wants to be accepted and feel lived by a family. The creature find the DeLacey family and he watches them. He begins to learn how to speak. Shelley gives the monster a voice— something never done before. Furthermore, the monster finds refuge in the blind man, the father. The blind man is the only person who seems to care about the creature. He listens to him. In a sense, he is the only shot the creature has at acceptance. Once the children find the monster, “Agatha faint[s]; and Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rush[s] out of the cottage. Felix dart[s] forward, and with supernatural force tore [the monster] from his father” (Shelley 161). They force him out of their
life. Fourthly, the creature asks Victor to create him a wife to fill the loneliness he has inside. Victor agrees but then later realizes that they might be able to procreate. He destroys the female version. The monster is furious and ends up killing Elizabeth. Victor describes the scene, “I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed to- wards the corpse of my wife” (Shelley 242). This way both the monster and his creator could never be happy. In all of these situation, the creature is just searching for a home. He wants to not feel lonely. It’s not fair to him; he did not choose this life. Shelley shines light on how alienation can take its innocent victims. The monster does not mean to kill anyone or turn on anyone. Society, in a way, forces him to kill. They reject him. They exile him. And, his creator abandons him.
The repercussions of treating sentient life as monsters or miscreation’s is disastrous. When non-human conscious life is created it is easier to treat these creations as outsiders rather than accepting them. There are two stories that show this clearly. The novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly and the film Ex Machina by Alex Garland. When self-conscious life is created it must be treated as such.
After leaving his hovel at De Laceys place, he travels to Geneva and sees a boy outside his hiding place. The Creature decides that this boy isn't old enough to realize ugliness and picks him up. The boy struggles and exclaims that his ‘dad’, M. Frankenstein, will save him. The Creature is enraged at this child, “‘Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy - to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.’
Critic Northrop Frye says, “Tragic heroes tower as the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, the great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning”. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein greatly exhibits the theme of the consequence of knowledge and irresponsibility among others through its tragic hero, Victor Frankenstein. Northrop Frye’s quote is certainly true when looking at Frankenstein’s situation. Victor is a victim of his divine lightning, and ultimately causes much trouble for himself; however, Victor also serves as the tragic hero in the lives of the monster, his family, and his friends.
Throughout Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein pursues, with a passion lacking in other aspects of his life, his individual quest for knowledge and glory. He accepts the friendships and affections given him without reciprocating. The "creature," on the other hand, seems willing to return affections, bringing wood and clearing snow for the DeLaceys and desiring the love of others, but is unable to form human attachments. Neither the creature nor Victor fully understands the complex relationships between people and the expectations and responsibilities that accompany any relationship. The two "monsters" in this book, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, are the only characters without strong family ties; the creature because Frankenstein runs from him, and Victor because he runs from his family.
Rather, it is others who alienate it because of its grotesque appearance. The monster is quite literally ‘born’ into perpetual isolation beginning with Victor’s abandonment of it. He denies it domestic safety when he flees to his bedchamber. Victor disregards the monster’s utterance of “inarticulate sounds while a grin wrinkled his cheeks,” then escapes its outstretched hand “seemingly to detain [him]” [Shelley 49]. Examining the monster’s body language as though an impressionable infant, its actions can be read as a child-like plea for its father though the absence of speech not yet learned. Instead, its unattractive appearance causes Victor to run, leaving the creature alone with no information about himself or his surroundings. Therefore, Victor’s abandonment is a crucial justification of the monster’s negative experiences with society and nature and actions in desiring community. The monster’s alienation from family is the missing first school of human nature, and the first lesson where he learns he does not belong. The creature leaves into the wilderness to learn about the world and himself on it own, only to understand his interactions are
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.
He is unfamiliar and unwanted with no one to guide him through. The monster came into the world and right away rejected by his creator, this implanted that he is only a disappointment. The monster commits many crimes, for the rejection of people, because there was no reason for people to reject him other than his appearance. He was only accepted, by a man that couldn't even see; this shows how humans are shallow beings. The monster wants revenge, and mostly on Victor, for he isolated him, he will isolate Victor as well. And he is very successful as he murder Victors loved
Like a child longs for a mother’s love, the monster longs for the love of his creator. When the monster was first created, Victor says that the monster looked at him “while a grin wrinkled his cheeks.” The monster looks at Victor with love and instead of receiving love in return, he receives complete rejection. The monster cannot understand why his own creator does not love him like God loved Adam. The monster believes he should be like Adam but is “rather the fallen angel.” God made man in his own image and loved Adam even with his flaws. Yet, victor made “a monster so hideous that [Victor] turned from [his creation] in disgust.” This rejection from Victor makes the monster angry and
The theme in a piece of literature is the main idea or insight on characters. Most pieces of literature do not limit itself to one but many other themes all collected into one. This is just like in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This horrifying story was produced in 1818 and has several themes that she portrays throughout. The theme of dangerous knowledge is unmistakably seen theme in Frankenstein. In Frankenstein we see this theme through three of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. We can see how their desire for knowledge can take them places and show them eventually what they are looking for. Sooner or later it will take them to dangerous and unwanted places. The desire for knowledge can eventually lead one to its grave. Victor Frankenstein’s scientific endeavor, Robert Walton’s search for the North Pole, and the creature’s kind heart but scary features creates this theme of dangerous knowledge.
In gothic novels tragic figures are symbols of pain to the characters. Victor Frankenstein brings misfortune to his loved ones, which concludes to his overall tragedy. Ironically the monster in this novel is Frankenstein the creator not the creature. He has seven victims including himself and his fall is due to his ambition to be superior.
First, the reader will discover in the novel, that the creature only wants to be of benefit to society and accepted by his creator, Victor Frankenstein. The demon explains in the story that he was only seeking to reach out and make a connection with Victor at his lab in Ingolstadt. But, he leaves the house rejected and lives in the forest. Confusion and despair are his only companions while he is learning to understand his body and its signals during these early days. Later, the creature persuades Victor to hear his story by reminding him that while he was vulnerable and ill equipped to deal with life, Frankenstein abandoned him. The demon then reveals all of his good deeds and how much he craves acceptance from society. He says, “believe me, Franke...
However repugnant he was on the outside, when Frankenstein’s creature begins to tell his tale of sorrow and rejection the creature does not seem to be monstrous. Although rejected multiple times by the humans around him when he finds a family in poverty and “suffering the pangs ...
Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).
... The creature only wants to be accepted into society as a man, or successful creation, accepts the fact that he is a monster after every attempt to integrate himself into society fails miserably. The creation of Frankenstein, who was supposed to be the first of many in his new species, was never accepted into society and was left to lead his life alone. His many attempts to tie himself into society and begin living his life as Adam were ignored by others. As a result, the creature took on a life as Satan, a monster, determined to physically harm mankind as retribution for the enormous agony and misery it had placed on his own life.
Monster “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, explores the theme of loneliness and rejection. The original nature of the creature, created by Frankenstein, is compassionate and gentle. Throughout the course of the novel the creature integrates from an intelligent being into a monster. His transformation is the consequence of social rejection and societies inability to accept his appearance. The theme of the story states that our society tends to reject those who are different.