True Isolation- Frankenstein
True Isolation The definition of isolation is –being without company. We will learn that isolation is a
very bad thing. How it can lead to misfortune and tragedy.
When people think Frankenstein they think horror and terror. Really it is neither of
those. The real terror is a monster that is abandoned by his creator and society and left in a
world of loneliness and rejection. Mary Shelley is not your typical horror story author, but the
events in her life lead her to bring many of her feelings of loss and abandonment to the novel.
These events mostly occur when she and her husband eloped to France when she was mere
sixteen years of age. Certainly not a time when most young people leave their family and are
more or less alone with only a husband in a foreign country. At the time the novel was written
the third of her four children died as a new born. She also had a half sister who committed
suicide, which the monster could have also contributed as a symbol of her loses.
The novel starts out as a series of letters written from Robert Walton to his sister. He
has been out on sea, lonely so he writes to his sister as comfort. “I have no friend Margaret:
when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success there will be none to participate my joy; if I
am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection.” (letter 2,
page 4) Eventually he rescues Victor Frankenstein while on his voyage. He sat down and
listened to Victor’s story of how he isolated himself and created a monster.
Victor’s fascination with the anatomy of the human body inspired him to create a
“human.” The creation turned out to be hideous, so Victor abandoned it. After being rejected
the creature turns to violence for its feelings of abandonment. The monster’s emotions cause
him to do things that are extremely cruel to the innocent.“All men hate the wretched;
how then, must I be hated, who am
very bad thing. How it can lead to misfortune and tragedy.
When people think Frankenstein they think horror and terror. Really it is neither of
those. The real terror is a monster that is abandoned by his creator and society and left in a
world of loneliness and rejection. Mary Shelley is not your typical horror story author, but the
events in her life lead her to bring many of her feelings of loss and abandonment to the novel.
These events mostly occur when she and her husband eloped to France when she was mere
sixteen years of age. Certainly not a time when most young people leave their family and are
more or less alone with only a husband in a foreign country. At the time the novel was written
the third of her four children died as a new born. She also had a half sister who committed
suicide, which the monster could have also contributed as a symbol of her loses.
The novel starts out as a series of letters written from Robert Walton to his sister. He
has been out on sea, lonely so he writes to his sister as comfort. “I have no friend Margaret:
when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success there will be none to participate my joy; if I
am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection.” (letter 2,
page 4) Eventually he rescues Victor Frankenstein while on his voyage. He sat down and
listened to Victor’s story of how he isolated himself and created a monster.
Victor’s fascination with the anatomy of the human body inspired him to create a
“human.” The creation turned out to be hideous, so Victor abandoned it. After being rejected
the creature turns to violence for its feelings of abandonment. The monster’s emotions cause
him to do things that are extremely cruel to the innocent.“All men hate the wretched;
how then, must I be hated, who am
Cited: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: W.W Norton & Company Inc: 1996 Study Guide for Frankenstein. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill