There is not anything quite like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that gives us an inkling as to what solitude could do to a person. Throughout the story we realize how solitude breaks the sanity of the characters, how it destroys them from the inside slowly. One could only have a vague interpretation of what certain characters were experiencing as well as how they were able to keep moving forward. This is especially true for the main characters of the book, they are the ones that enter the deepest forms of solitude. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein demonstrates how solitude is a corrosive and deadly thing that destroys a person’s sanity and ruins his/her happiness.
Victor’s preference of pursuing science over spending time with his family in his own
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solitude results in him creating a being in which he himself abhors and leaves to walk on the Earth to lead horrible a life of solitude on its own developing a desire in the being to destroy. After Victor dismissed himself from his creation, the being or “monster” as Victor called it led a life of solitude. It constantly sought to stay away from humans and was miserable saying “I am an unfortunate and deserted creature”.
Despite being in solitude the creature was able to accumulate a copious amount of knowledge by observing humans from afar as well as reading significant pieces of literature which he found in the forest. He then tries to converse with a French family (The De Laceys), but the result was him being violently treated like an animal despite the fact that he meant no harm. The monster then explains to Victor “If I have no ties and no affections, hatred and vice must be my portion; the love of another will destroy the cause of my crimes” (Shelley, 106). The monster reveals how his solitude has only brought despair and hatred in him. This emphasizes the importance of how much difference one more person can make as well as how much more appealing it is to have friends and family. It highlights the fact that one cannot be happy all by him/herself. This continues to build on as Victor refuses to make him a female partner. As solitude eats the monster more and more the monster begins resulting to drastic measures. He threatens Victor after he refuses him for the second time to make him a female version of himself …show more content…
with “Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you…” (Shelley, 122) The being was not actually evil by nature, but after years of solitude and ignorance from the human world we now see how it has become a wicked being full of hatred and malice. Solitude is shown here as an object that can transform a person, how it alienates them from what they once were. The significance of this is that is creates a violent fight between Victor and his creation that lasts throughout the whole novel and it greatly affects not only Victor’s mental state, but also his family’s stability. Victor’s solitude results in endless horror and constant moments of insanity to both him and his family.
Victor is most productive when he is alone, in solitude he wanted to “explore unknown powers” when he created the creature as mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is also when he is in solitude that he troubles his family. Victor’s creation strangles and kills his little brother William then leaves the locket that he had in Justine’s pocket leading to her being suspected by the police and ultimately executed in the end. Victor is then faced with immense guilt as he points out “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe. This state of mind preyed upon my health, which perhaps never entirely recovered from the first shock it had sustained” (Shelley, 61). He ends it with “solitude was my only consolation-deep dark, deathlike solitude” (Shelley, 61). The crucial point here is that as solitude destroys you it becomes your only solace at one point. Victor’s words highlight the fact that solitude has mentally changed, here we see how solitude creates guilt and mental distress. This guilt and distress gradually liquidate his sanity as the story progresses. After Victor worked in Ingolstadt and decided to not accede to any of the monsters desires Elizabeth sends him a letter asking “do you not love another?” and confesses to him that she loves him, As Victor comes back he and Elizabeth
decide to get married. Victor mentions participating in the ceremony and being together with Elizabeth were the last moments of his life during which he enjoyed “the feeling of happiness” (Shelley,142). This indicates how one is only truly and fully happy when he is around loved once. This even contains a lot of significance due to the fact that it is the only moment when Victor and is not in solitude and feels true joy. Unfortunately after this Victor’s creation kills Elizabeth and later on Victor’s father dies in his arms. Victor then says “What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me…..Melancholy followed, but by degrees I gained a clear conception of my miseries and situation” (Shelley,147). This further emphasizes how Solitude progressively took away Victor’s sanity. The loss of family was a huge mental impact on Victor the only thing that kept him going was revenge as he says “I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me with strength and composure” (Shelley, 149). Solitude is truly a horrible thing it shows us that science is not something worth sacrificing your life for. Family and the warmth of others are the only necessities that keeps oneself joyful, stabilized, and sane. By scrutinizing how Victor and his creation developed throughout the story of Frankenstein we are able to see how solitude can be very poisonous to the human mind. Solitude in the novel demonstrates the importance of family and being around friends. Overall the text is trying to tell us that nothing is worth sacrificing for your companionship. Your health, sanity, and happiness are the most important things. Shelley uses loneliness and hatred to signify that solitude is never the right path to embark on. Neglecting your loved ones will destroy and leave you with nothing, but never-ending sorrow. You might have fought with your siblings or wished that sometimes you could be all alone, but being alone you will soon discern that without a social life you are not contented and you cannot live without one, solitude is the biggest hole of despair.
As he goes off to college, interested in the science behind life and death, he ends up going his own way and attempts to create a living being. Victor “had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 43). The being Victor has created does not by any means sit well with him. As victor is away from his family and for six years, he is neglectful to them, which only adds to his sorrow and misery. Victor’s isolation is brought upon him because of himself, however his creation, or “the monster”, is isolated from any connections with humans against his will. To start out, the monster would have had Victor there with him, but Victor is ashamed of what he has created, and abandons the monster. The monster is a very hideous being, which sadly is a contributing factor to his isolation. With nobody to talk to at any time, naturally this will be condescending and frustrating. Although the monster is able to
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.
After killing his younger brother, Elizabeth , and his best friend, Victor after having no family left wanted to put an end to it all so he ended up chasing his creation and dying before catching it. After bringing the creature into this world and leaving it behind to fend for itself the creature endured lots of agony and pain from society which drove its rage to Victor and his family and he ended up kill this younger brother and soon to be wife. Both were isolated from society, Victor brought isolation upon himself through locking himself up to create the creature and ignoring everything around him as stated in the article, “The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time. I knew my silence disquieted them; and I well-remembered the words of my father: "I know that while you are pleased with yourself, you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected.” As
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
Isolation is one of the major motifs that resonates throughout Frankenstein. Tying into the romantic style of the novel, Shelley uses this element all the way through the work to show a repetition of isolation, an aspect that is present in almost every character in the novel and expressed primarily in Victor and the monster. But even some other minor characters such as Justine, Caroline, and Walton deal with isolation in one way or another.
...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.
Isolation has made the monster feel alone and like an outcast. The isolation of the monster has the negative effect of making him lonely and in need of a companion. The monster finds Victor and demands that he build another monster for the monster to be a companion with, or an “Eve”. After Victor says yes and then changes his mind and says no, the monster casts revenge on Victor.
Victor isolates himself from the rest of society because of his obsession to create life. During the time he was isolated, Victor became very ill. For Victor, isolation has a very negative effect. The Monster is isolated for two reasons. First, Victor abandons him, which creates an isolation from the Monster's "father". Second, because of the way the monster looks, he is naturally isolated from society.
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.
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.
After Victor destroys his work on the female monster meant to ease the monster's solitude, the monster is overcome with suffering and sadness. These feelings affected his state of mind and caused him to do wrong things. He did not deserve to see his one and only mate be destroyed.
Victor avoids association with his family and many others during the time which he is developing the creature, and solely interacts with professors at his time at Ingolstadt. The theme of association with others goes hand in hand with the theme of isolation, as Victor seems to prefer keeping to himself. Many compare the creature to Victor and the way they are similar, but the creature longs to be apart of society, and to be loved by others, or by a family. The opposition is Victor’s inability to grasp a relationship with those who seek one with him, while the creature is kept from associating with anyone from the outside world due to the way he looks. Shelley ties together the theme of association with others to isolation, and family as many of the people Victor hides from is his family. The importance of associating or communicating with others for Victor is the less likely chance he will fall ill when isolated. Shelley provides many instances, which she places the importance of associating with others on both Victor and the
As a response to the Enlightenment movement in 18th century Europe, Romanticism gradually began to undermine the way people thought about human consciousness and nature itself. Appreciation of the natural beauty of the world and pure, human emotion bloomed in Europe as Romanticism’s influence grew ("Topic Page: Romanticism”). Romantics valued Individualism and thought that being close to nature would make them closer to God (Morner and Rausch). People also searched for solace in nature to overcome the adversities and cynicisms that followed the French Revolution ("French Revolution."). Romanticism and Romantic ideals influenced Mary Shelley, and that influence can be seen throughout her novel Frankenstein. The two main characters, Victor Frankenstein
Victor’s loneliness leaves him devoid of purpose and determination, a shell of a human whose essence has been entirely obliterated. Even so, if Victor had not created this unnecessary monster, his family and friends would not have been strangled by his creation. By creating this wretched being, Victor fabricates his own downfall and forces his own seclusion in Frankenstein.
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).