Frankenstein Isolation Essay

Haunted by the manmade horrors of science and the initial human fear of isolation, the gothic novel, Frankenstein, written enchantingly by Mary W. Shelley, mainly takes place in Geneva, Switzerland. Shelley follows two main characters throughout the novel in which they both experience the disturbing repercussions of isolation. Frankenstein mainly spotlights Victor Frankenstein, a young and brilliant scientist, who has discovered the path to creating life through chemistry and alchemy. Working alone in his laboratory, Victor successfully parents a living life form known only as the wretched monster or the creature. Initially, when the creature is brought into the world, he is full of naiveté and a lust to be involved in society. Throughout this …show more content…
Even as a young child, Victor Frankenstein spent much of his time by himself in a preferential reclusiveness. As Victor reflects on his childhood, “it was [his] temper to avoid a crowd and to attach [himself] fervently to a few” (Shelley 29). He gradually grows more and more reclusive into his young adult years until he escapes to his university in Ingolstadt, virtually cutting off all communications with his family. During his studies at Ingolstadt, his professors ridicule and shun him for his views on natural science and his passion for the ancient studies of the German alchymist, Cornelius Agrippa. As Victor is reflecting, he reaches the twisted resolution that his father is to blame for his downfall. “It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin” (31). Victor believes that if only his father had physically stopped him from reading Agrippa’s work, then he also would have stopped him from being inspired to become …show more content…
The moment Victor creates him, Victor flees the room and locks the monster in the solitary prison of the laboratory. The creature genuinely seeks for the companionship and warmth of society, but instead is met with the faces of horror from everyone who merely glances at him, for his physical appearances are gruesome, large, and petrifying. As he realizes that he cannot be accepted into society, he escapes to the mountains of Geneva in which he lives as a hermit, alone and unreceiving of human interaction. The monster craves to be able to react with others, and to experience the natural human emotions of love, sadness, and simple happiness with another individual. In the mountains, he has the opportunity to watch the everyday activities of the De Lacey family, with which he is never able to interact with, but only silently observe them from afar. The creature watches the De Lacey family with a child-like innocence and appears to absorb the concepts of human emotion through the events of the family. The monster notes the occasional unhappiness between the family; however, he fails to realize the cause of their unhappiness. To him, if they have each other then they have no reason for such unhappiness, and “it was less strange that [he], an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched” (93). At one point, he even envies Satan, because he at least “had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and