Victor's Alienation In Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, shares a story of an educated and privileged man, Victor Frankenstein, who is led astray in pursuing his scientific advancements. Victor would eventually succeed in creating human life however, the being would go on to haunt and destroy Victor’s life. Shelley shares that Victor was triumphant in surpassing scientific boundaries by creating human life, yet he failed to create a human being. He created a monster, an animal, who would be known as “the creature”. It is apparent throughout the book that the creature would never be accepted into society due to his horrific appearance, but it is Shelley’s highlighting of this alienation that she is able to reflect the surrounding society’s ignorance and prejudice towards

Victor has been constantly working for months to create a “spark of being into a lifeless thing that lay at [his] feet”. The usage of “lifeless thing” is very interesting as he defines his creature as an object, an object that is distinctly not human. Victor is describing his own creation in such a cold manner that he is already starting to exclude the creature from humanity as it is merely a “thing”. The creature would eventually breath life and be filled with a “convulsive motion [that] agitated its limbs”. Once again, the descriptions are important, as the movements are implied as jerky, unattractive, and involuntary movements. The creature has an inability to control himself, his passion, or his actions. All because Victor has created him this way, the creature was forced into these movements, and this scene hints that it will come to a point that society will force the creature to move uncontrollably and

He, in fact, is isolated because of society’s perception of him. A perception that labeled this monster as dumb, savage, and brutal, whereas he is intelligent, kind, logical, and carries the most rationale for his actions. He learns to read, write, and speak fluently in such a short span of time however society overlooks these genius-like qualities and focuses on the fact that he is different. Even in his adventures to understand the world, the creature stumbled upon cottagers who he was able to discover “means through which I was enabled to assist their labours.” He felt obligated to aid the family as they unknowingly provided him shelter. He started to emotionally develop and demonstrate human traits such as empathy; “when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys.” This monster that was scientifically given artificial life had become more advanced than the humans themselves, what does that say about the