The message of Frankenstein is simple- what is more important that anything is the warmth and love that close relationships with family and friend...

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Throughout Frankenstein it’s clear to the reader that the character’s are lacking love and affection and often deal with rejection and loneliness. The most obvious example of this is the creature’s story, where he faces abandonment from his creator and everyone else he meets. We also see this in Never Let Me Go where the only people who accept the children are those also like them, whereas their guardians seem to fear them.
The creature faces religious rejection throughout the novel; Shelley may have chosen to include this to represent the contemporary ideas of The Enlightenment (Science and reason overtaking religion). One of the books the creature reads is the Paradise Lost and therefore, he bases his knowledge of creation and parenting from what he reads in it. He directly addresses Victor telling him ‘I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel…’ (Page 77) this shows that the creature feels he has been rejected by his God and cast out from what should be his paradise. It also shows that the creature feels he should be treated with the same love and care that a parent gives their children as well as guidance and protection, however, he is left to live with fear and abandonment. This perhaps highlights the way the enlightenment affected Victor’s actions in abandoning the creature because of how scientifically unnatural the creature was, rather than the religious notion of creator loving creation. The creature again goes on to reference what he read when he says ‘Satan has his companions, fellow- devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested.’ (Page 100) This shows that he is telling Frankenstein, perhaps in an attempt to guilt him into giving him what he wants, that even the worst, most feared ...

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...my they don’t seem to be affected as the have each other. Kathy later says they ‘stood together’… ‘just holding each other’ (Page 269) this suggests that they can find comfort in each other even when they are rejected by society and the people who looked after them as children. An example of this rejection is when Miss Emily tells them that she ‘had to fight back her dread’ (Page 264) and ‘feel such revulsion’ (Page 264) toward them.
Overall both the novels clearly display ideas of loneliness and rejection and links to the idea needing someone to confide with and love, whatever form that may take. They both also take social and moral issues from the time contemporary to when they were written, causing the reader to question their own opinions on society and whether they truly believe what they started the novel believing.

Works Cited

Never Let Me Go
Frankenstein

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