Society assumes a lot about a person simply from first glance. If you are not one with the people then you must be against them and their morals as well. It is sad to say that if one has abstract ideas or unnatural looks or determination to go into the unknown then they will be viewed as outsiders. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, the concept of isolation is used to describe the grotesque society and the ostracizing of all who are different in a physical and mental way.
Walton’s isolation is not only a physical concept but a mental one as well. Walton is stuck with a bunch a sailors that do not share the same interests as he does. His superior intelligence leads him to become isolated mentally from the rest of the group in this way. Walton
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states “ I have no friend, Margaret: when i am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate in my joy; if i am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection” (Shelley 4). Walton feels that his endeavor for more knowledge is not shared with the rest of the crew and he has nobody to share his happiness with or dejection with. This shows how persistent Walton truly is to keep up with this journey with nobody there to aid him or communicate with him about the discoveries on the intellectual level that he is on. Even though he is surrounded by people everyday, he wishes that he could have just one friend that shares his interests. Walton says “You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but i bitterly feel the want of a friend” (Shelley 5). It may be that he simply needs a friend to remain sane on the journey but it is more reasonable to assume he needs a friend to share his ideas/discoveries with. At any given moment he could have just said no and come with a better crew mates, a friend or even a team but no, he wants to make discoveries that will make his name go down in history but that is not his main purpose. He simply wants to discover things in uncharted territory. Waltons setting of being in the glaciers shows how he feels about his isolation, depressed yet hopeful to discover new things. Walton says “There snow and frost are banished;and,sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe” (Shelley 1). The rush of uncharted waters and all of the mystery that comes with it gives Walton a sense of happiness that drives him to become an explorer of the Arctic. Though he is happy about all of the things that he is about to embark on, he knows that he may potentially not return and is a little skeptical about it because of his love for Mrs. Saville. Family impacts his decision to go on the journey slightly but it is evident that his isolation is making him think more and more about his family and he can not wait to be home with them. Even though it does not say if he returns safely to his family, one can only hope that he gets the ending he deserves. Victors isolation, like Waltons, is physical in regards to family but suffers an even greater mental isolation from society. The death of Victor's mother introduces him to the concept of isolation and the pain that it brings. He states “ It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she, whom we saw every day, and whose very existence appeared a part of our own, can have departed forever--that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished, and the sound of a voice so familiar , and dear to the ear, can be hushed, never more to be heard” (Shelley 29). This emotional statement from victor shows how much his mother influenced his life and how being without her is something that he could not even grasp the concept of. His descent into isolation seemed to be his only option because he could not find another way to cope with the pain.Now it is unreasonable to blame the death of his mother to be the reason Victor went mad,but it just happened to be an event that scared him and his immaturity got the best of him. He had so many people there to help him deal with this rough time but he wouldn't let them sway him from his ultimate goal of resurrection. His main goal was to find a way to resurrect people and he got this idea from thinking about how he could have stopped the death of his mother. But in reality nothing could have saved her, she died protecting her family which should have been the theme Victor achieved through her death. Victor then attempts to deal with the pain by isolating himself from all by attending a college in Ingolstadt in attempt to gain knowledge of how to raise the dead or make new artificial life. He says “ One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself” (Shelley 40). While Victor was attending the college he displayed his ideas to professors and students, but they all viewed him as mad and incapable of accomplishing such an inhumane task. Societies disbelief in Victor being able to successfully complete reanimation drives him to be even more determined. Victor could not handle being scolded by society and became a one-man show because of it. His isolation from his classmates (except Clerval) gave him the time to plan and create the creature, but it didn't turn out the way he had hoped. An outside source explained how the ideas would be viewed by society by stating “Frankenstein is fueled by the kind of grotesque, faintly absurd, and wildly inventive images that spring direct from the unconscious”(Oakes). Oakes gives a great explanation of how society viewed the experiments that Victor was trying to accomplish. Nobody during that time period would have even thought about the concept of reanimation mainly because of a religious aspect, but also because it was viewed as inhumane and grotesque. Another form of isolation that Victor faces is his physical and mental status from his family. His sister/lover Elizabeth writes him and says “You have been ill, very ill, and even the constant letters of dear kind Henry are not sufficient to reassure me on your account” (Shelley 50). Victor has completely pushed away his entire family and has not spoken to them in months. The fact that Elizabeth is still writing to him during this time shows how much she truly cares about Victor, but the lack of reply may seem as an indicator that Victors only goal is to become famous. The creature can't help that he is a hideous being, or that he is in the situation of not knowing what to do and why everyone despises him. Through society's ridicule and judgement of the mister it shows that if you are not compliant with certain people then you will be ostracized and not even given a chance. Victor begins the creatures monstrous disposition by abandoning him right after his conception. Victor’s account of the moment was “ One hand was stretching out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped, and rushed downstairs” (Shelley 44). What kind of a parent's or creator runs from something that they have longed to create ? This shows that if you were not normal looking then people were simply going to be scared of you. The creature can't help that he looks that way, he didn't even ask to be made. Society rather than helping him through his journey of discovery, throws him to the curb and watches him go through life like and infant without parents. When the creature attempts to save a girl's life, he is shot for doing so because people thought that he was there to hurt her because he did not look like the rest of them. The creature attempts to help his surrounding society but then gets shot for it and “ This was then the reward for my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction,and, as a recompense, I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound, which shattered the flesh and bone” (Shelley 129). The creature can not completely understand equality and why he is not treated the same as his peers. He simply wants to be accepted and loved but he is never given the chance which molds him into a monstrous being that is feared without hesitation. After the incident and being shot, the creature begins to understand that society will never accept him and morphs into something that he is not…. a killer. Another example of the creatures kind heart and caring demeanor is when victor was when Frankenstein is tracking the creature into the Arctic regions for instance, it is clearly the creature who is helping him in his search, and even leaving food for him (Oates). Though he has been through abandonment and betrayal from his creator he still feels the need to help him survive. This shows that no matter society's deepest hatred for this creature, he still helps those who are in need of it. A strong statement because everyone around him either wants him dead or to be gone from their lives. An outside source gave a great statement about the creatures creation and it said “As a verbal creation, he is the very opposite of the monstrous: he is a sympathetic and persuasive participant in Western culture” (Brooks). If Victor would have given the creature a chance and not let the views of society eat at him then the entire book would have been different. An outside source shares an interesting perspective about the creature by stating that it is “A Cain-like murderer who wanders, the monster is a stranger to mankind and a God-like superman of superior intelligence, sensitivity, height, power, and agility”(Berenbaum). This is what could be perceived by society as the identity of the creature. A monstrous being who knew nothing but how to murder and hate humans. This shows how society is so naive to understand that they are the ones that made him the way he is. It is interesting because it sounds exactly what something Victor would say about his creation. This shows how maybe some still think that the creature may actually be the monster in the story. Another outside source shares another view of the creature by stating “For the Monster is eloquent. From the first words he speaks, he shows himself to be a supreme rhetorician, who controls the antitheses and oxymorons that express the pathos of his existence” (Brooks). This displays a whole other point of view of the creature because it displays how some could see how through all of the bad deeds that the creature did out of revenge, he can still be viewed as eloquent and unharmful among society. Then on the other hand it is hard to see how the creature is not a threat to society when he is saying things like “I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelley 129). Society turned the benevolent monster into a hellish monster that has no intention other than to punish mankind for their wrong doing that they did against him. Victors action of abandonment of the monster and abandonment from friends and family is what led to his inevitable demise.
Since Victor did not help mold the creature into society and explain the basic principles and why he may not be accepted, he is to blame for the deaths of his family.The creature said “My daily vows rose for revenge- a deep and daily revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish I has endured” (Shelley 129). In this situation Victor can be viewed as society's outlook upon the creature because his actions of judgement and ostracizing is what led the creature to become the way that he is. If Victor would have had an open mind about how his creation may not be perfect then the creature may not have acted out in the way that he did. The creatures determination to be noticed and loved by society and his creator is the reason all of the bad is happening in Victor's life. The creature states “Frankenstein! You belong to my enemy-to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge” (Shelley 130). The recurring theme of acceptance is one that can be talked about over and over again to why the events of the book happened in the first place. The creatures realization that he will never live a normal life and never be accepted into society leads him down a path of rage and death when in reality if Victor simply stayed with the creature and acted like an appropriate creator/parent all of the death could have been avoided. In the end of Victor's life, he had nothing else to live for because he let society drive him mad for knowledge and let the creature torment his life from his own wrongdoing. Victor states in his dying breaths that “I shall no longer feel the agonies which now consume me;or be the prey of feelings unsatisfied, yet unquenched” (Shelley 209). Victor realizes in the end all of the harm that he has brought upon the earth but still does not really care for anything except to becoming famous for his work. He knows the desires
of his creation will never been met and knows that he can never be forgiven. The moral values of society led Victor to becoming ostracized from all other students because of his unnatural ideas of reanimation. He let the words of those around him invigorate him and pushed him to his breaking point just so that he can be remembered by all. His selfish goals in life led to his family being killed off one-by-one and his relationships to be destroyed. From an outside article it explains the similarity of Frankenstein and a novel called On the Night of the Seventh Moon. The author of the article states that “These two works share psychological biases, themes, images, and symbols that mark them as close Gothic relatives” (Berenbaum). Both novels have some similarity despite their 150 year difference of publication. They both discuss how society is influenced by the majority rule and humanity as a whole which is a concept that Mary Shelley herself could potentially be addressing in this novel. It shows that society’s views have not changed about those who are different from them and it is a topic that has caused multiple discrepancies in the modern age. The unworthy Victor Frankenstein, the misunderstood creature, and the intellectual Walton all faced adversity through society which pushed them all to break boundaries that may or may not have been sane. Victor wanted to be known by history forever and let that consume his life and push away all of those who he cared about and all of those who loved him just the same.The misunderstood creature simply wanted to be loved and accepted by a society who wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. Walton wanted to discover new things in uncharted waters and did not let society slow him down from achieving his goals. They all faced adversity but the difference among them is that some faced it well while others let it consume them.
Isolation can be a somber subject. Whether it be self-inflicted or from the hands of others, isolation can be the make or break for anyone. In simpler terms, isolation could range anywhere from not fitting into being a complete outcast due to personal, physical, or environmental factors. It is not only introverted personalities or depression that can bring upon isolation. Extroverts and active individuals can develop it, but they tend to hide it around crowds of other people. In “Richard Cory,” “Miniver Cheevy,” The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “Not Waving but Drowning,” E.A. Robinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stevie Smith illustrate the diverse themes of isolation.
As a romantic, archetype and gothic novel, Victor is responsible for the monsters actions because Victor abandons his creation meaning the creature is dejected and ends up hideous and fiendish. It is unfair to create someone into this world and then just abandon it and not teach it how to survive. The quote from the creature “Why did you make such a hideous creature like me just to leave me in disgust” demonstrates how much agony the creature is in. He is neglected because of his creator. The monster says “The hateful day when I received life! I accurse my creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” Victor is wholly at fault for his actions, image and evil.
In Frankenstein, everyone treats Victor’s creation like a monster, including Frankenstein himself. This leads to the creation accepting that title and going on a murder spree. His creation says “When I reflect on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation” (69). Victor’s creation shows that he did not ask to be created, and his existence is miserable.
In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the Creature executes extreme and irreversible acts due to his isolation from society. Although the Creature displays kindness, his isolation drives him to act inhumanely.
However, other characters are forced into isolation for reasons that are not in their control. The actions of another cause them to experience loneliness. The story begins with Robert Walton writing to his sister, Margaret, about his voyage to an undiscovered place. In these letters, as the voyage gets underway, he writes of his loneliness. Letter II states, ?
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that follow the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party. First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done. He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being. This is obviously something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks. All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous. The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family. In the play of Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and finding out what he is doing. At the end of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor says:
Although the Creature later went on to commit crimes, he was not instinctively bad. Victor’s Creature was brought into this world with a child-like innocence. He was abandoned at birth and left to learn about life on his own. After first seeing his creation, Victor “escaped and rushed downstairs.” (Frankenstein, 59) A Creator has the duty to teach his Creature about life, as well as to love and nurture him. However, Victor did not do any of these; he did not take responsibility for his creature. One of the first things that the creature speaks of is that he was a “poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, (he) sat ...
In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
An idea becomes a vision, the vision develops a plan, and this plan becomes an ambition. Unfortunately for Victor Frankenstein, his ambitions and accomplishments drowned him in sorrow from the result of many unfortunate events. These events caused Victors family and his creation to suffer. Rejection and isolation are two of the most vital themes in which many dreadful consequences derive from. Victor isolates himself from his family, friends, and meant-to-be wife. His ambitions are what isolate him and brought to life a creature whose suffering was unfairly conveyed into his life. The creature is isolated by everyone including his creator. He had no choice, unlike Victor. Finally, as the story starts to change, the creature begins to take control of the situation. It is now Victor being isolated by the creature as a form of revenge. All the events and misfortunes encountered in Frankenstein have been linked to one another as a chain of actions and reactions. Of course the first action and link in the chain is started by Victor Frankenstein.
He toils endlessly in alchemy, spending years alone, tinkering. However, once the Creature is brought to life, Frankenstein is no longer proud of his creation. In fact, he’s appalled by what he’s made and as a result, Frankenstein lives in a perpetual state of unease as the Creature kills those that he loves and terrorizes him. Victor has realized the consequences of playing god. There is irony in Frankenstein’s development, as realized in Victor’s desire to destroy his creation. Frankenstein had spent so much effort to be above human, but his efforts caused him immediate regret and a lifetime of suffering. Victor, if he had known the consequences of what he’s done, would have likely not been driven by his desire to become better than
Throughout the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein becomes an outcast after believing that creating a creature would bring him happiness. In making his creation, Victor turns away from societal norms, for example, he postpones his marriage, avoids his family, and evades getting a steady job to give his creature life and make himself happy. One can understand that all Victor's family dies, along with his sanity, after the creation of his creature. With his family and friends dead, Victor turns into an outcast, believing that he should no longer be allowed to live with civilization. He wanders the globe in pursuit of vengeance on his creature until his untimely death. He becomes a depressed and lonely outcast due to his guilt for creating a monster of such power. Although his monster did not give him happiness, Victor leaves society thinking that it will. He then becomes an outcast from society and feels as though he can never return until the monster he created has perished, which makes him more unhappy. Victor, a dedicated natural science student thought that he would be happy if he strayed from society and did the impossible, but in the end, it crushed him.
As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god. Finally, Victor as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different parts of the same person. If Frankenstein is looked at as a romantic novel, Victor, not the creature, is truly the villain. When Victor created the creature, he didn't take responsibility for it. He abandoned it, and left it to fend for itself. It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. The creature was miserable, and just wanted a friend or someone to talk to. On page 115, the creature said, "Hateful day when I received life! Accursed the creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust." This line shows the agony the monster was in, because of how he looked when he was created which led to even Victor running away from him. If Victor didn't run, he could have taught the monster and made his life happy. After the creature scared the cottagers away he said, "I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter ...
Is closing oneself off and playing sad songs radio on Pandora instead of talking it out after a breakup really that harmful? Typically, after feeling hurt, human nature would lean towards isolation, even at the cost of hurting themselves in the long run. Ingrained human factors are a driving factor in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, where social isolation leaves an individual in despair. This is displayed throughout the monster’s inability to coexist in society and Frankenstein’s attitude towards his studies.
He created a life, and then spontaneously he quickly decided to run away from his creation. Victor’s actions after creating what he created were really irresponsible, and did not correctly took care of the circumstance’s he put himself in. The creation was never actually evil, but he felt abandoned by what could had been called his father. Frankenstein, the monster, was only a seeker for companionship. He strongly desired to feel loved, rather than abandoned. Society’s evil behavior toward the monster is what altered the monster’s conduct and followed to how he acted.