Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Allegory in frankenstein
What is the role of isolation as a theme
Allegory in frankenstein
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley exemplifies the dangers of becoming isolated from society. Shelley employs characterization to show how Victor Frankenstein’s isolation turns to insanity, while the monster’s isolation becomes anger. Through the thorough and revealing development of her characters, Shelley demonstrates the detrimental effects isolation can have on one’s well being. Other literary devices that Shelley employs to further emphasize her point are allusion, imagery, and metaphors. Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist of Shelley’s harrowing novel, decides to create a monster made from reanimated corpses, and the readers get to see his downward spiral into physical and mental illness. When he begins to create his monster, he …show more content…
His “alienation from human social relations begins at the moment of his birth” (Petsche 98), as Victor rejects him just after he has been made. This leaves the monster to fend for himself. When he awakes, he finds himself“half frightened...instinctively,” because of his “desolate” surroundings (Shelley 91). The monster has only just awoken, and yet he has fear of being alone. Shelley demonstrates the necessity of the company of others, and “suggests that the presence of others may be as natural and pressing a need for a newborn as food and warmth” (Yousef 197). Though the monster has no preconception of being in the company of others, he recognizes the loneliness of his position. Shelley presents the idea that we always need other people around us. Unfortunately for him, the monster’s alienation continues, and becomes worse. He gets rejected by everyone he comes across because of his grotesque looks. The monster becomes “irrevocably excluded,” and because of this he loses his “benevolent and happy”(87) demeanor. After the family of cottagers that he’d been admiring from afar reject him, the monster becomes hardened and angry. He realizes that“none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist” him, and thus he decides that he should not “feel kindness towards [his] enemies”(125). Eventually this anger leads to the death of William and Henry and Elizabeth. Perhaps if the …show more content…
The monster references Satan when musing about his situation. At first, he relates to Satan, stating that he considers Satan “as the fitter emblem of my condition, for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me”(119). But he then becomes upset, and notes that while “Satan had his companions,” the monster’s reality consists of being “solitary and abhorred” (119). Shelley uses allusion to demonstrate just how alienated and alone the monster he feels. He thinks that even Satan has a better position than him, and this makes him feel even worse. Shelley also uses diction to stress her purpose. The monster uses words like “despondency and solitude”(119) to describe his situation, showing that the alienation from society depresses him. Later, once the cottagers have rejected him, he has a much angrier vocabulary, with words like “bitterness and horror,”(129) “revenge and hatred,” and “injury and death”(127). The monster’s strong word choice illustrates how deeply the rejection has hurt him, and how bitter and angry it has made
Rather, it is others who alienate it because of its grotesque appearance. The monster is quite literally ‘born’ into perpetual isolation beginning with Victor’s abandonment of it. He denies it domestic safety when he flees to his bedchamber. Victor disregards the monster’s utterance of “inarticulate sounds while a grin wrinkled his cheeks,” then escapes its outstretched hand “seemingly to detain [him]” [Shelley 49]. Examining the monster’s body language as though an impressionable infant, its actions can be read as a child-like plea for its father though the absence of speech not yet learned. Instead, its unattractive appearance causes Victor to run, leaving the creature alone with no information about himself or his surroundings. Therefore, Victor’s abandonment is a crucial justification of the monster’s negative experiences with society and nature and actions in desiring community. The monster’s alienation from family is the missing first school of human nature, and the first lesson where he learns he does not belong. The creature leaves into the wilderness to learn about the world and himself on it own, only to understand his interactions are
Three of the main characters in Mary Shelley 's 1818 novel Frankenstein have commonalities that may not be immediately recognized but are significant in terms of theme. Robert Walton, a man who sets out to seek new land, Victor Frankenstein, a man who sets out to create new life, and the Creature, who sets out to become accepted, are all different in their own ways but tragically the same. Though the first use of the word "isolation" did not occur until 1833 (Merriam-Webster), Frankenstein is replete with instances in which the three central characters must confront their alienation from others. Understanding a mariner, a mad man, and a monster may seem like a difficult task to accomplish, yet with Shelley’s use of isolation as a theme it
On page 81 of the novel, the monster is thinking to himself as he said, “My thoughts became more active, and I longed to discover the motive and feelings of these lovely creatures…” (Shelley 81). It is distinct in the quotation how the monster is seeing his humanistic abilities—he has feelings and he has motives. He is beginning to understand the relationships the human population has with one another and he would like to be able to experience a humanistic relationship with someone who is similar to him. The ethos in the quotation is distinct because the monster’s desolate emotion could incite and emotional response from the audience—the audience could become empathetic to his situation. On page 85 of the novel, the monster was discussing his life to date as he said, “But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me,” (Shelley 85). The monster has the knowledge of his psychical difference in comparison to the human population. The ethos in the quotation is distinct because
As the monster carries on with his life, he understands that he is not in control of his future, and in his mind, the De Lacey family are, "Superior beings who would be the arbiters of my future destiny" (Shelley 115). He has acknowledged his disengagement and comprehends his dismissal, which compels the readers to feel pity and remorse for the Creature, inevitably making his fall into abhorrence more sensational and shocking. " When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned? I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me. I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge." (Shelley
Isolation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, has several themes imbedded in the text. One major theme is of isolation. Many of the characters experience some time of isolation. The decisions and actions of some of these characters are the root cause of their isolation. They make choices that isolate themselves from everyone else.
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. The Creature, pushed away from his creator because he is an abomination, and indicates his isolation as the only one of his species. As the Creature gets more comfortable with the De Lacey ’s, he approaches the old man as his children are gone but before he can explain himself, the children come home and see the Creature, “Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me?
The creature was exiled from humans because they were incapable of interacting with him, due to the “breathless horror” of his appearance. The monster found comfort in watching the family of De Lacey, an old blind man. The creature learned social norms from the family by watching them over time, and De Lacey accepted the monster. Although the creature was very enthusiastic about learning about humans, his “increase of knowledge only discovered to [him] what a wretched outcast [he] was” (111). After stalking the family, he realized the blatant differences between himself and the humans. Unfortunately, even De Lacey abandoned the monster after being forced to leave the cottage by his children in order to escape the monster. The creature’s “protectors had departed and had broken the only link that held [him] to the world” (118). After being deserted by the only individual that accepted him, the creature realized he would forever lack a companion. The monster recalled that “[he] possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property” (100), and was agonized by his hideous and deformed appearance. Although the monster lived in solitude, he learned how to survive by himself entirely on his own, and becomes stronger. Additionally, the monster also suffers from a lack of care from his creator, Victor. He stated that “[his] creator, detest[s] and spurn[s] [him]” (81). The monster’s hunger for Victor’s attention is
Victor, once at Ingolstadt, feels no desire to socialize with others, instead focusing solely on his project to create life. He goes into isolation “and the same feelings which made [him] neglect the scenes around caused [him] also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom [he] had not seen for so long a time”(pg 49). Victor is abnormal. He, unlike most, feels no desire to associate with any other than his former friends. He is consumed by his pursuit of knowledge, and on the path to attain it is willing, without hesitation, he separates himself from society. He completes, in his isolation, the monster, and then he scorns it. Through Victor’s completion of the monster in isolation, Shelley sends a warning about the effects of isolation. Out of the reach of society, awful things will happen. The monster, contrasting with Victor, has an insatiable desire for human contact. The monster, not by its choice, “[is] alone and miserable: man will not associate with [him]” (128). The monster goes to great lengths to achieve contact with man and to fit into society. He learns the language of man and man’s behavior through watching the DeLaceys, and while accepted by the blind man, is rejected by the rest of the family. He is rejected and forced into isolation by society. Finally, scorned enough, having gone mad through isolation, the monster goes on a rampage for revenge, committing the murders of Victor’s only connections to society. Through the rampage, Shelley once again illustrates the negative effects of isolation. Before his rampage, the monster is more human than Victor, in that he wants to be part of society and is alienated only because of his appearance while Victor, accepted by society already, because he resembles man, willingly leaves the company of man for a
In “Frankenstein” both Victor and the creature face solitude but react to it in different ways.
Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, isolation presents itself as a formative experience for both Victor Frankenstein and his Creation. Be it willingly, unwillingly, permanent or temporary, both characters find themselves in situations where they experience complete isolation from all of mankind. The effects of this isolation can be only seen as a destructive experience for both characters. During their respective experiences in isolation, hatred and violence embeds itself within them. The development of these emotions leads to the death of both characters, making isolation the driving force behind the destruction of both Victor and his Creation.
Leaving the creature alone and completely clueless about society and even life itself, to fend off for himself. The creature doesn’t know anything about anything, resembling an innocent infant. He is a blank slate that Victor left alone to figure out the most basic and primitive human feelings and concepts that he can’t possibly know or yet understand - “I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept” (71). Since he was alone and didn’t have anyone to guide him, to teach him morals, or values, or anything a person ought to know when being left alone in the world, the monster’s only source of information was what he learned on his own by observing others and by trial and error. The creature’s first human interaction, as well as what he went through after leaving Frankenstein’s apartment, were negative and traumatizing experiences for him, which not only shaped his future encounters with
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there are many themes present. One prominent and reoccurring theme in the novel is isolation and the effect it has on the characters. Through the thoughts and feelings of both Victor and his monster, Frankenstein reveals the negative effects of isolation from society. The negative effects that Victor faces are becoming obsessed with building a monster and becoming sick. The monster faces effects such as confusion about life and his identity, wanting companionship, and wanting to seek revenge on Victor. Victor and the monster are both negatively affected by the isolation they face.
Isolation is often a result of choosing to seek refuge in solitude, however, in many cases, it is a result of brutality from a surrounding environment. In Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, Frankenstein,a gruesome and painful story serves as a cautionary tale in order to prevent another from a similar downfall. Although Victor Frankenstein is the narrator for the majority of the novel, the audience learns of the destruction that has followed his decisions as well as the forced estrangement upon those he has encountered. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses relatable characters that reflect the harsh superficial aspects of society.
This act leads to a long journey of guilt and desperation. He immediately regrets playing God, but he cannot tell anyone what he has done, for fear of being called a madman. He must suffer the fear of his creation alone. To emphasize this isolation, Shelley adds an excerpt from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to the text: “Like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round, walks on, And no more turns his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread” (57). Frankenstein first feels guilt as he faces the horrible reality of unleashing a monster into the world. He deems the monster dangerously unpredictable and fears it’s reckless
But after reading Brannstorm pieces, I was able to understand how this was a huge part in Shelley's novel. Although the monster killed and tormented many, this was set in place because of the way he was treated by others. The creator Victor Frankenstein began as a relatively innocent character, with a curiosity for scientific learning, but later we discover how his inner daemon develops. Not only can the daemon be seen within monster, but in this society and its inhabitants as well. The society shames him, even though he was really a gentle and loving creature. Unfortunately, because of this the monster was left in solitude and a broken heart, being not only abandoned by his creator, but by the rest of the world. The cruelty that was placed on the monster doesn’t make him the daemon, but rather the people surrounding him throughout the story. Conflicting views and intolerance within a society brought hatred upon an innocent being, who was looking for love. Shelley does an incredible job of sharing how abandonment, intolerance and inner daemons all come from evil within, and can create a negative ripple effect on those surrounding such situations. Finding identity is extremely hard, as seen in the eyes of a monster. Sometimes thoughts become a jumbled, mixed-up pot, that people are forced to pick out of because they are not secure or comfortable with who they are. They have to deal with the cards they