Isolation In A Christmas Carol

Isolation is being separated or separating your self from others. Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, both show the two types of isolation. Loneliness, unfriendly, and separation for ones peace can also mean the same as isolation. No matter what way you look at it, they all mean the same thing. Great examples of these are in Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol; the characters show it very well, which sets the tone and mood of the stories. In A Christmas Carol and Frankenstein, Victor choses to be isolated and separates himself from society to work on the unknown, which is to recreate life. Victor’s teacher was the reason he was isolated, “he took [him] into his laboratory and explained to [him] the uses of his

various machines… Thus ended a day memorable to [Victor and] it decided [his] future destiny” (Shelley 29). It all started after his mother died and he went to college and one of his professors explains what was in the lab. This is similar to Scrooge he has a negative attitude and shuts everyone out and loses his business partner Marley. They were like the same person, “sometimes people new to the business would call Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was the same to him” (Dickens 12). After Marley died a lot changed around their business and one of the reasons Scrooge is the person he was in the book. This is opposite for the monster. All the monster wants is a friend to talk to and to like him kind of like Walton on the ship, but the monster cannot have a friend because no one will talk to him, so society isolates him and so do his looks. Many characters show isolation in these two stories and it is one of the main themes and tones of the story. If isolation did not exist in these two stories the books would defiantly not be the same. Isolation is one of the major themes in these books. Isolation is at stake in both Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol because the characters personalities, what the characters experience, and the action and tone in the story.
In both Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol, the authors show isolation in their characters. In Frankenstein it is shown in Victor, the monster and also Walton, however in Christmas Carol isolation is only shown in Scrooge. In the story Frankenstein, Mary Shelley illustrates isolation for the first time in the Letters, written by Robert Walton. In the letters Walton writes, “but I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy; and the absence of the object which I now feel as a most severe evil.

I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate of my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection” (Shelley 4). Robert Walton has a plan to set sail and seek the unknown and more knowledge, as does Victor later in the story. However, Walton feels very lonely on this trip and separates himself from the crewmembers. He wants a friend to accompany him on this journey to find new trade routes, although he does not try with the crewmembers he just sees them as below his class so to speech. Until they recue Victor from the water. Once Victor enters the ship Walton and him instantly connect. This is because they both strive for the same thing knowledge and the unknown, while Scrooge strives for money. Victor is also interested in learning about the world as he states, “The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations that I

can remember” (Shelley 18). This shows that Victor and Walton share the same desire and want in life. Although they have different discoveries that they want to discover they are still both very focused and isolate themselves from the world while doing it. Victor Frankenstein isolated himself from the world because he craved the creation. Victor states, “I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny, I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten source: but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which… swept away all my hopes and dreams” (Shelley 20). Victor wants to create the unknown and he will do all he can to do it, even if that is to be away from everyone even his family for many years to figure out how to achieve it. Victor shows his commitment by spending many years in isolation trying to create life. When the monster came to life he instantly was displeased and fear took over. This affected his life with his family and friends, which also isolated him. The monster is also affect with isolated, however the monster did not choose to be isolated. The monster was isolated because no one wants to be around him because of his appearance. "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” (Shelley 77). He wants to interact with the villagers but he is scared that they will not accept him. When he does try to go talk, he thought he was going to make friends with the blind man, until Felix, Agatha, and Safie came back and “Agatha fainted; and Safie, unable to attend to her friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father” (Shelley 96). The monster definitely could have killed Felix, but that is not what he wanted to do. He was heart broken that these people would not look past his looks. The monster only acted out because he wanted to feel loved. He does not want to be isolated although he cannot help it. On the other hand, Victor could have prevented his isolation, although if he never did preform isolation it would have had a dramatic impact on this story. The isolation that Shelley uses in the characters of Frankenstein shows a mood and connection between characters throughout the novel.
In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens uses isolation through Ebenezer Scrooge.

He is like Victor and chooses to be isolated for how he treated others. For example, Scrooge says, “I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry” (Dickens 16). Scrooge is showing the reader that he is an ungrateful and a non-friendly man. The author wants us to know that he has no Christmas sprit and is selfish man that is also very stingy with his money. He also is rude to the people that come to his store. Charles Dickens describes him in A Christmas Carol as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel has ever struck generous fire; secret, and self contained, and solitary as an oyster” (Dickens 12). This description of Scrooge shows that he is a very negative person, that chooses to isolate himself, and keeps things all to himself. He does not care about anyone other than money and himself. He loves money and also watching his clerk; “the door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk” (Dickens 13). Scrooge was always watching what his clerk was doing; he was not a friendly guy. There is an example of this in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein also, where Victor was being watched constantly by the monster, everything victor did the monster was watching. Scrooge

loved the isolation that he put himself. Scrooge has removed himself from his family that he cannot even be apart of it at Christmas time, the most family oriented holiday that is also about giving, which he does not do. In the family, “Scrooge was the Ogre… The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes” (Dickens 52). This shows that he is not only disliked from is friends but, his family even does not like his aquatint; they feel that he disrupts the mood. His family refers of him as an Ogre, which is a man- eating giant, which proves that he is not liked at all by anyone. However if Ebenezer Scrooge were not as in depended and isolated in this novel then there would be no plot to this story.
In Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol, Mary Shelley and Charles Dickens shows different types of isolation within their characters and how they act around others. In Frankenstein isolation is a major theme within the story. The characters all show different form of isolation. Walton experienced isolation because he did not have anyone to enjoy the highs and lows to his journey to the North Pole. Victor on the other hand isolated him self because he wanted to discover the unknown, create life, and did not want anyone stopping him from his goal. Lastly, the monster, he was isolated from everyone, although not by choice but by society. Although Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein with many different types of isolation, it made the story more interesting and entertaining to the audience. This is the way of the audience knowing both sides of the story. When Victor says “so much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein- more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (Shelley 28). If Victor would have never created the monster or would have taught him how to act the story would not have the same mood or theme to it what so ever. Victors Frankenstein isolation in Frankenstein is important and very much related to Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge’s isolation in the story creates the problem in the story and is why the three ghost show. However, if Scrooge did not isolate himself from everyone and care about money so much then there would not be a point to this story line, the whole story would be different. The three ghosts would not have a purpose in the story. The isolation in both story show how irreplaceable a story can be. Also the isolation, connects the characters in a way, for example, if Scrooge did not isolate himself from society he would have never had the three ghosts come and show how he would be if he isolated himself any longer. Also Victor and Walton their isolation connects them later in the Frankenstein. There is always something that some reader’s catch and others do not put together in the story.
In both Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol the characters show great examples of isolation. It can be found throughout these stories in different types and forms. Isolation is shown in the different characters personalities, the highs and lows that the characters are challenged with, and also sets the theme and storyline of the two stories. Isolation is one of the main themes in these two books and without it they would not be the same, they would have to have a whole different storyline. If Victor decided not to go to school after his mom died he would have never gone to meet that teacher that made him decide that he wanted to discover the unknown and he also would have never created the monster or meet Walton, which means the story would have not been the same. That also goes for Ebenezer Scrooge, if he did not have the personality that he had in the beginning or if he spent time with his family then the theme of these stories would not have been isolation. Though Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol have different types of isolation these books are great examples to show how important isolation is to a storyline and what it does to the characters and there experiences within the stories.