Isolation In Frankenstein Essay

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Few human experiences are as wretched as facing the fact that one is alone; perhaps because isolation is so easily recognized and dwelled upon when one is without friends to distract from life’s woes. Now consider isolation at its most extreme and ponder what such abject loneliness would work upon man. This is the fate of Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Frankenstein is the story of how one man’s experiment has the unintended consequence of making Frankenstein and his creation, the Monster, completely isolated from the rest of humanity: the creator of the unnatural monster dares not relate his tale lest due to his punishing guilt, and the hideous being himself shares neither kinship nor experience with anyone. This point will guide our discussion of first how Frankenstein and the Monster first become segregated from humanity due to seeking knowledge that neither should have in the context of their lives. Then the creation scene will be discussed in detail to show how Frankenstein’s perversion of natural, biologically driven birth adds a dimension to that separation, an incompatibility with human nature, that makes their isolation complete. After which, the final outcome of the man’s and monster’s isolation will be described as an inevitable downfall since they cannot surmount this misalignment because it mires them in personal solitude they cannot overcome themselves, and they cannot reach seek help because their isolation is so complete, i.e., their plight is truly monstrous and irreproachable. The discussion will be concluded by using a wider perspective to explore the true depths of the isolation these unhappy characters feel, and what lessons about our own experiences with loneliness we gain from understanding those Clearly, Frankenstein is a departure from previous men, as it is he, the most applied natural philosopher at Ingolstadt, who is the first to formulate the machinations that give life. This creation of a being in a way that skips maternal birth in a paroxysm of biological asymmetry scars him because he can never internalize the stark fact he released such a fiend upon the world. This internal discordancy prevents him from forming any true relationships again and leads to his attempting a solo, suicidal pilgrimage to end the suffering his creation causes him. As for the artificial being created, he is by definition a departure from all life that came before because he is artificially created. This alone does not mean he is barred from human understanding, but for the fact that he is also a grotesque monster and so is cursed to alert the natural response of primal-fleeing before he can entreat the more reasonable evolved responses of man to listen to his great intelligence. As a result of this one sided torment, the Monster decides to pursue a heinous life dedicated to punishing the human race, which is culpable only of misunderstanding, that drives him eventually to madness of grief. So how did these

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