Isolation In Frankenstein And Never Let Me Go

In both Frankenstein, a novel by Mary Shelley, and Never Let Me Go, a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, characters experience isolation.

NLMG

In Never Let Me Go, the clones(Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth) experience isolation from the outside world, but not from people altogether. At Hailsham the clones were raised in a semi normal way with no real knowledge of what they were made to do and no real knowledge of their isolation from the outside world. They did normal things like play sports, gossip with friends and attend class.”About our guardians, about how we each had our own collection chests under our beds, the football…”(Ishiguro 5). At Hailsham they are not individually in isolation, but in isolation as a group. Because of this the effects from isolation that was present in clones from other places, was not present in Hailsham students until later in life. Once they get to the

Cottages the clones experience isolation from Hailsham and begin to face more of the realities of the world. The clones expected the Cottages to be condensed version of Hailsham, but were instead met with something far from Hailsham. “The Cottages were the remains of an old farm that gone out of business years before”(Ishiguro 116). This introduction to reality begins the process of the clones total isolation as a carer and as a donor. Even as a carer, when a clone is the most isolated, they still do not consider running away or getting away from the isolation.

FRANKENSTEIN
In Frankenstein, both Dr.

Frankenstein and his monster experience isolation, though they are very different types of isolation. Dr. Frankenstein’s isolation is self imposed, mainly because he is trying to keep the monster away from his family. This isolation causes him to have a break down and throw himself into isolation. “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…” (Shelley 53). The only thoughts in Frankenstein’s mind are of the monster and the side effects of creating the monster, which means he has no room to socialize and pulls himself into isolation. Isolation makes Frankenstein’s mental health deteriorate, which makes the monster’s terrorization of him worse. The monster’s isolation is because of the way he looks and not because he wishes to live alone. The effects of isolation on the monster are very evident. He watches the family and wishes to be a part of it, and he takes away Frankenstein’s family to try and make him feel the same. “...and I longed to join them, but dared not” (Shelley

127).