The Dangers of Isolation and Alienation
Monster literature is one of the renowned genres of literature which encompasses a combination of different characters both the good and the wicked in its development of thematic concerns and style of presentation. This idea of monster literature appeared from the 18th century in the period of Gothic literature (Anolik 251). The characters who are the builders of the plot are often portrayed by fear-instilling and grotesque images intentionally by the writer to convey a specific message. As such, we must remind ourselves that the writer being the creator of such characters derives immensely from the surrounding society to form a corresponding image to reveal the actual occurrences in the real world. Although the monsters are represented with a subverted sense of moral observance that depicts them to be unique form the real world, it’s the same undermined sense of being that happens in the real human society. Therefore, such presentation leaves us with loneliness, a sense of fear and isolation through the suffering that the characters undergo. Isolation and alienation though necessary sometimes, can be dangerous and produce negative results as we will see in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Alienation of Victor
First and foremost, Victor Frankenstein experiences alienation from his childhood, scientific work, family and even society. As a young boy interested in the new knowledge and science, Victor is endeavoured in the constant struggle to understand the modern world and creating monsters, a form of life. At first, he lives there home to a different town in pursuit of education, something that he considers inherent. “Books of natural philosophy became the friends of my adolescence. I endeavoured to teach myself the wonders of science, mathematics, and anatomy…” It’s this drive that triggers the young Victor too much close to books than anything else. While studying Victor losing touch with the parent and only talks with the parents at his condition. Further, Victor only has Clerval as a true friend with who we could share with the experience and challenges of his experiment. However, he chooses to be alienated from his friend and mostly locked in the room studying.
Also, while in Ingolstadt, Victor chooses to set his laboratory in a chamber to replace the school laboratory. “In a solitary chamber at the top of the house, I kept my workshop of filthy creation” (Shelley, 78). In this sense, Victor alienates himself from the surrounding people through his consent to complete his scientific research which, according to him, is the priority. He does this despite the long time he has taken to hear from his family. “I had long neglected those friends and family who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time. I knew my silence disquieted them, but I could not tear my thoughts from my employment, which had taken a powerful hold of my imagination” (Shelley 79). Accordingly, this sense of alienation, according to Victor is rationalized in the mind that the experiment in which he has heavily invested his imaginations and time should come first before any other things including family and friends.
Subsequently, the alienation of Victor has become consequential in many fronts. All over the world, the family unit is the fabric that holds society together. Because of his isolation, he fails to live according to his mother’s dying wish of unity and togetherness of the family. As a result, he is haunted by the same misery as witnessed in his last word with Walton. “…Seek happiness in tranquillity and renounce your ambitions; they will bring you aught but misery.” It is therefore evident that in the end, Victor feels ashamed to have not lived in happiness and peace as the focus was on his ambitions.
Alienation in Robert Walton
Walton, like Victor, also chooses isolation in pursuit of knowledge. “There is love for my the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore” (Shelley 20). In the constant lust for the acquisition of new knowledge, Wilton isolates form himself from his family. However, the difference between him and Victor is his cognizance of the critical role of the family unit on an individual’s life. It is because of this knowledge that he engages in communication with his sisters Mrs Saville in his letters even unto the death of Victor.
Also, sailing through the Arctic ocean, which is an excluded part of the larger society, creates a more meaningful sense of self-isolation that separates one from the broader community. Wilton meets Victor, who narrates his suffering and misery he has had about the creature he had created (Novotney, Par.11). In their last conversation with Victor, he learns of the significance of peace which the community offers that ambitions cannot give. “I hasten to their arms. Farewell, Walton! Seek happiness in tranquillity and renounce your ambitions; they will bring you aught but misery” (Shelley 221). It’s in the earing of such sentiments that formed the decision of Robert Walton to cancel his trip to the North pole. As such he posits “His final words moved me deeply, and I resolved if ever the ice were to set my ship free, that I would not subject my men to a moment’s further jeopardy. I would turn our vessel around and fix our course for a return to England”. As such, one can confidently argue that in the learning of the absence of peace and tranquillity in pursuing ambitions as narrated by Victor, one is enabled to appreciate the presence of family and society. It’s in this realization that Wilton opted for a return to England.
Isolation in the character of creature/monster
Moreover, Victor Frankenstein’s creation does exhibit a different trajectory compared to other characters in the story. Whereas other characters are like Victor and Wilton are engaged in self -alienation from their family, friends and society, the creature faces rejection from the very person who created it. “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelley 81). In such state, the creature is left in awe unto where it belongs and what it is. This would later form its violent personality that would result in the death of its creator. Like human society, the monstrosity stories are but merely a reflection of the contemporary society (Abbott 398). Usually, an environment that surrounds every human child at birth serves as its first agent of socialization. As a result, the immediate setting provides the foundational maxim, which is imitated as one grows up. Therefore, a child born in and rejected will be uncomfortable around other people presumptively based on their phenotypical characterization (Botting 25). They can, therefore, reject many people around them much they receive. The same is witnessed with the behavioural malpractices of the creature can be associated with the rejection it got from the first “parent,” Victor Frankenstein.
Additionally, the creature is forcefully alienated from human society by the villagers. “I had hardly placed my foot within the door, before the children shrieked, and one of the women fainted. The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons” (Shelley 125). For the second time again, the creature gets rejected by the general society who are scared of it. Being attacked and brutally injured with various kind of weapons by the whole village is the debased form of expulsion from the community that one can ever imagine. As a result of this eviction, the creature, therefore, isolates itself from the rest of the human family into a place it can be accepted. “Here then I retreated, and lay down, happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man”. Through such vivid description of events, Shelley (125) attempts to reveal that monstrosity also exists within the human self and not just the exact monsters we see in the stories. For instance, the contemporary society also has various away of rejection based on race, religion, sex, ethnicity and language (Kominko 375). Thus, rejection breeds hate and violent actions among different groups which eventually results in revenge and death as was done by the creature.
Besides, the creature’s immoral hideous behaviour is formed as a result of the previous volatile interaction with humanity. This is depicted more succinctly when it gets evicted from the DcLacey family. “Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung” (Shelley 152). Ideally, this was the first family unit of the creature after the previous rejections. In this family, the animal admired to a more significant extent how the family structure is organized, something that it has never seen since it was created. Like any other creature animal or human, the family unit is integral to the existence of both. Apart from providing a sense of security, it also gives one a sense of belonging and therefore, identity. On the contrary, when anyone is denied the same, it creates a gap so deep to fill (Novotney, Par.13). Shelley, therefore, draws the attention of the critical readers onto looking at the essence of the family as an embodiment of a vital system in the broader community. However, this can only be appreciated by lack of it in the form of desperation and loneliness as witnessed by the creature.
Subsequently, having failed in several attempts to be admitted into the human family, the creature declares revenge on the human species as a retaliation. From being rejected by the owner to the whole village eviction, and eventually, with the DcLacey family, there is practically no hope for acceptance and recognition. As a result, the creature reiterates “there was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed…” (Shelley 153). In like manner that it was met with by the human species, the creature engages in violent retaliation for its misery.
The murder of Henry Clerval, Victor’s best friend is construed tom have been done by the monster that Victor created. “He had apparently been strangled; for there was no sign of any violence, except the black mark of fingers on his neck” (Shelley 167). Next is the murder of Elizabeth Victor’s wife. Upon demanding a companion from Victor, failure on the latter causes revenge on his innocent wife, Elizabeth. The killings of the innocent people like Clerval can be equated to the forceful rejection that was met upon the honest monster by the village people, Victor, the creator and the DcLacey family. As such, the same treatment they gave to the innocent monsters is the same with which they are served.
Summarily, the monster stories are the creations of the author whose thoughts are informed by the surrounding environment. Through depiction aesthetic presentation of characters and development of a coherent plot, the writer presents different thematic concerns that do not only impact the monsters, but also the real physical world. Thus, Shelley presents the theme of isolation and alienation as one that can either be self-imposed or inflicted by other external forces. That both alienation and isolation have repulsive consequence in the same manner as their implicit and external causes are unavoidable.