Isolation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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When dealing with harsh judgement from society it can change one’s perspective on life and determine the actions one goes about. When dealing with gender, social status, and appearance, civilization can steer one away and create alienation and isolation within the society. The chaos and immorality of Victor’s actions display the truths of how society reacts to beauty and perfection and what is bound to happen when one becomes overly obsessed and focused on fame and knowledge. Throughout the Gothic Romanticism novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley successfully illustrates society’s corrupt assumptions and moral values through alienation and isolation through Victor’s creation of the creature.
Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein’s craving for knowledge …show more content…

Society immediately alienates and rejects the creature due to its frightening and unappealing appearance and grotesque features. The creature is initially born to be good but the way it is treated and neglected by society creates chaos and a murderous creature out of something that had no initial desire to be that way. When trying to do a good deed and save a drowning child, a man “on seeing me… he aimed a gun, which he carried, at my body, and fired”. (Shelley 129). This reveals how society reacted to the creature, when he was doing something good, due to his unappealing appearance. When one is triggered by fear, they quickly jump to conclusions and tend to act absurdly in order to protect their safety. When threatened, society tends to result to weapons. After numerous accounts of being bashed by society, critic Anne Mellor concludes that by being “Deprived of all human companionship, the creature can never recover from the disease of self-consciousness; for him, no escape, save death, is possible” (Mellor). Due to the lack of being beautiful, the creature is ultimately alienated from all humankind and the constant disapproval and fear projected towards the creature leads to the self-consciousness. After being accustomed to the constant repetition of disapproval, one can only view society as evil which deems a negative outlook on all life and hope. Due to Justine being a woman, the justice system's treatment towards her ceased the possibility of proving her innocence. Upon entering the prison chamber, Victor states “we entered the gloomy prison chamber, and beheld Justine sitting on some straw” (Shelley 72). The conditions that Justine dealt with were unbearable and awful due to the fact that she was a woman. Struggling to prove her innocence, Justine proclaims “I had none to support me; all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and

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