Mia Tiric
Mrs. King
Advanced Composition II 2016
Frankenstein: An Analysis of the Effects of Isolation and Alienation
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein opens to a desolate landscape encompassed by cold and ice. The scene is quiet and bare, with few traces of life and little comfort. The region offers no solace or convalescence to its travellers, marking the beginning of the novel’s predicted calamity. The uninhabitable land of the Arctic Circle makes for an unimaginable home to most creatures, especially humans. But Shelley places men there, exploring and trekking across leagues of grim wasteland and snow, sailing into a storm searching for a plug for their curiosities.
She introduces us to the lonely character of Walton, and later on Victor Frankenstein and his virulent creation. These three forsaken bodies are the specimens Shelley uses to study the effects that isolation induces on human mentality and morality. Isolationism is a state or process in which persons, groups, or cultures lose or do not have communication with one another, often resulting in open conflict (“social isolation”). It is the absence of a like-bodied companionship--a wandering spirit devoid of another living, breathing soul. It’s the near complete lack of contact …show more content…
The only time the monster and Victor are presented together with another being is at the very end, when Victor dies from the consequence of his secluded and shameful existence. Walton is the only character that witnesses the master and his creation standing side-by-side. Shelley does this on purpose, since Frankenstein’s and the monster’s development grows in
Mrs. King
Advanced Composition II 2016
Frankenstein: An Analysis of the Effects of Isolation and Alienation
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein opens to a desolate landscape encompassed by cold and ice. The scene is quiet and bare, with few traces of life and little comfort. The region offers no solace or convalescence to its travellers, marking the beginning of the novel’s predicted calamity. The uninhabitable land of the Arctic Circle makes for an unimaginable home to most creatures, especially humans. But Shelley places men there, exploring and trekking across leagues of grim wasteland and snow, sailing into a storm searching for a plug for their curiosities.
She introduces us to the lonely character of Walton, and later on Victor Frankenstein and his virulent creation. These three forsaken bodies are the specimens Shelley uses to study the effects that isolation induces on human mentality and morality. Isolationism is a state or process in which persons, groups, or cultures lose or do not have communication with one another, often resulting in open conflict (“social isolation”). It is the absence of a like-bodied companionship--a wandering spirit devoid of another living, breathing soul. It’s the near complete lack of contact …show more content…
The only time the monster and Victor are presented together with another being is at the very end, when Victor dies from the consequence of his secluded and shameful existence. Walton is the only character that witnesses the master and his creation standing side-by-side. Shelley does this on purpose, since Frankenstein’s and the monster’s development grows in