Isolation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein In the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution led to social, economic and leisure changes. The leisure changes caused the birth of journalism and novels for the higher classes; such as, the aristocracy and the landed gentry. However, the working class could not afford these types of literature. Thus, authors created the penny dreadful. A penny dreadful is known to have a very dark setting, cliff hangers, mystery and sensationalism. Despite the fact that Frankenstein is a novel, it shares several key elements of a gothic penny dreadful such as, the narrative framework leading to lack of details, the isolating settings of the story, and the obsession with revenge. Mary Shelley portrays the element of suspense and mystery
(A Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms) Isolation is always present throughout the entire text. The story starts off with Walton on his boat traveling to the north pole. Not only is the north pole a lonely and isolated place; Walton always mentions that he has no friends, feels lonely and wants company: “I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me; whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear, sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me” (Shelley 4). In addition, Victor Frankenstein cuts off everyone from his life to acquire more education and creates the creature: “The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit (...) my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget the friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time” (Shelley 33) Furthermore, Victor’s location creating the creature is extremely isolated from everyone and everything else: “in a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase” (Shelley 33). Similarly, the creature is also isolated form everyone. He is neglected by Victor Frankenstein since he came to life: “But where were my friend 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” (Shelley 86). The fact that he is different from human beings isolates him from the world: “I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I?” (Shelley 86) Later on in the story, he asks Victor to create a female creature just like him so they can