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

to risk his life and others to attain that knowledge. Shelley does so through her characterization of Victor and his monster as they experience isolation. Victor, in his self-imposed isolation, becomes too invested in his pursuit of science and ignores his friends. The monster first tries to insert himself into society but is scorned because of his monstrosity, and after many attempts his isolation drives his mad and he goes on a murderous rampage. Finally, Shelley develops isolation further through the settings she creates in Orkney and Ingolstadt. Walton has to travel through the cold, barren North to reach his objective, and Victor stays alone in a room in Ingolstadt and then travels to the desolate islands of Orkney to conduct his research. Mary Shelley, through Walton in the framed story narrative, through her characterizations of Victor and the monster as they deal with isolation, and through her creation of isolated settings like the North Pole, Ingolstadt, and Orkney, illustrates the terrible consequences of isolation.
Through the framed narrative, Shelley mirrors Walton with elements of both Victor and the monster, establishing isolation as a theme. Walton, on his great endeavor to the North Pole, writes to his sister Margaret. At such a far distance from society, he starts to feel the separation. He advises that “[he has] no friend, Margaret: when [he is] glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate [his] joy; if [he is] assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain [him] in dejection” (15). Victor has a natural longing for connections to other humans. He feels alone, in isolation. However, even though he feels isolated, the isolation is self-imposed. Compelled by a thirst for knowledge and glory, he set off to do nothing that any man had done before, leading him to be separated from society. This mirrors Victor, who in his pursuit of knowledge and desire to create life, voluntarily shirks society to work on his creation for months. Yet unlike Victor, Walton feels a desire to return to society, and assume what is natural to him. This mirrors the monster instead. The monster, separated from society because of his appearance, tries to become part of society, to gain acceptance and interaction with humans, which he considers his fellow brethren. Also, Walton’s pursuits take him through the North Pole, cold, dangerous, and outside the realm of man. Shelley creates this setting to introduce isolation through setting as well. The North Pole is an obvious place of isolation, functioning as a geographic barrier between Walton and the company of man. In this way, through Walton’s character and the framed narrative, which encases the story and provides background for the tale of Victor and the monster, Shelley introduces the theme of isolation, foreshadowing itself in both ways it affects Victor and the monster.
Shelley, through her characterization of Victor, who imposes isolation upon himself, and the monster, whom humans alienate and isolate against its desire, expounds isolation further.

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

pursuit of knowledge. And in her characterization of Victor and his monster, and the isolation that they face, Shelley surrounds them in desolate settings, enhancing the feeling of isolation.
By creating the dismal, desolate settings of Ingolstadt and Orkney, Shelley augments the isolation that Victor and the monster experience. Victor, leaving the company of his family, travels to university in Ingolstadt, where he then studies natural science. His interest in natural science fanaticizes there, and he rarely leaves his “solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house” (52). Ingolstadt, completely separated from Victor’s family, and whomever Victor associates with, allows Victor’s self-permitted isolation to manifest itself. The room he stays in is in itself isolated from the rest of the university, reinforcing the concept of isolation. Later on, when Victor is afraid of the monster, he flees to the remote Orkney isles, of which he stays on the most remote. The island is the most isolated he can be and “on the whole island there were but three miserable huts, and one of these was vacant when [he] arrived. This [he] hired. It contained but two rooms, and these exhibited all the squalidness of the most miserable penury” (pg 145). In Ingolstadt, Victor had the opportunity to socialize with man. But now on Orkney, islands off the coast of Scotland, in the most isolated place in Europe, Victor has intentionally separated himself from all human contact. There he can go to work, once again, in pursuit of the creation of another being. Shelley continuously reinforces the feeling of isolation while on Orkney, with references to its dismal state, in which nature rules, not man. Then, on the island, the monster returns, killing Clerval. Victor is now completed isolated from society, residing on a barren island with no friends. The settings Shelley creates aid in her development of isolation, as they reinforce Victor’s self-imposed, social isolation from society with a geographical, natural symbol of isolation.
Mary Shelley, through Robert Walton and the framed story narratives, establishes isolation as a major theme, through the characterization of Victor and the Monster she reinforces it, and then through the settings that she creates of Ingolstadt and Orkney she integrates it even more. Shelley first introduces isolation through Robert Walton’s letters in the framed narrative. Isolation dominates Victor and the monster. Victor disassociates himself with society, creating the monster, who tries to get past the alienation that he faces and join society. As the action takes place, Shelley lays desolate, gloomy backdrops that continue to remind the reader of isolation. Isolation is a common feeling felt among humans. Most people fear of being alone, and all people desire human contact and to socialize with their fellow brethren. This fear of isolation and the human drive to form bonds acts as a governing unifying force in the world.