Essay Example on Literary Analysis of Frankenstein

Introduction

The quality and direction of one's life are significantly determined by friends the person is associating with. At one point of one's life, all people have to battle with loneliness even though what matters the most is how one handles the loneliness as it determines the battle outcome. Loneliness is sadness that is impacted by the lack of company or friends. Loneliness is the most prevailing and substantial theme throughout Mary Shelley's Frankenstein entire novel. Many characters in the Frankenstein novel breaks the norm of spending time with people around them either family, friends, strangers or coworkers but instead spend countless time alone to have time in reflecting and thinking about everything. The loneliness issue is more significant to the extent that the characters remain to be lonely even when around friends. Shelley takes the novel readers on a tumultuous journey depicting how loneliness can lead to tragedy using the novel characters Victor Frankenstein and his creation and Robert Walton (Pollin). The loneliness theme in the novel develops from the personal life of Shelley and the problems with her father and husband that carries over to the novel making it more practical and realistic.

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At the time Mary Shelley was writing Frankenstein she was undergoing and experiencing her newborn's death emotional pain in addition to the suicide pain of her half-sister. Both of these happenings undoubtedly impact the course of the novel and perhaps acts as a reflection of a lonely person (Shelley herself). She references her past painful experiences into the novel characters (Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the creature) as mentioned above. In Frankenstein novel, loneliness and solitude only impact to despair.

Mary Shelly's background

Mary Shelly, a daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote the book "A Vindication of rights of women" and whom nowadays critics refers as the earliest feminist. She was a revolutionist since her book "A vindication" supports equal chances to education for all gender which by then was dominated by male. Some of her contemporaries did not acknowledge her or her ideas making her underrated and underestimated. Wollstonecraft who was married to William Godwin, died ten days after giving birth to Mary Godwin leaving half way literary work some of which were published later by her husband. Then, her husband began to write her life story as a celebration. He had a deep admiration of her courage and wisdom of politics. Godwin's publications resulted in Wollstonecraft's influence and reputation as an advocate of women's rights was sabotaged for a long period. Married women could no longer follow her feminist claims since she lost her respect and that she was not spokeswoman anymore. Most respectable English women des not openly associate themselves with Wollstonecraft feminist views. William Godwin also entertained radical ideas, and his Caleb Williams was highly accredited. Mary Shelly never felt that Godwin, who she was sincerely devoted to loved her.

Peer Rejection

Mary Shelly brings up a serious social prejudice topic in the novel. The novel "Frankenstein" shows a good example of how continued rejection from one's family or peers can cause damage to a people turning them bad, for instance, a murderer or instead do nasty things, equally it can lead to one becoming a suicide committer. People today, as in Frankenstein, instead of being judged in reference to their behavior or rather benevolence they are judged based on their physical appearance. Babies have been abandoned because of physical defects; ridiculed, ignored, bullied adults and children are teased because of their clothes, hair, skin texture, face, race among other factors. Serious consequences are associated with this judgmental nature of humans not only for who are being judged but also who are judging. Most often the victim of continued ridicule will finally register a violent behavior due to change.

Rejection, one of the issues associated with social prejudice in Shelly's novel is clearly brought up when the monster in Frankenstein is deserted because of his frightful features. The monster creator, Victor cannot look upon what he has brought to life. The monster's response to Victor is like that of a child who looks to his father for acceptance. Although the monster was not a child considering his physical appearance, his emotional state resembles of a young child. This shows the pain people feel when they are rejected not only emotional but also physical equally. Research has it that people that are denied, teased, abandoned, or taunted by their peers may at first try to do significant things as the monster in the novel tried to do which may not result to acceptance. The same, weak people can come out with devastating impacts.

Loneliness in Frankenstein Characters

Robert Walton

In the novel, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein looks into two human nature phenomena, loneliness, and scientific curiosity; the first-mentioned is the focus of this essay. She starts her novel by examining an explorer (Robert Walton) who longs for and lack companionship on his voyage, with no friends or family to write to apart from his sister. This establishes and creates the theme of loneliness immediately. Robert Walton introduces the theme of loneliness in the novel, as the first discussed character through letters that he writes to his sister, Margaret Saville. "I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine." (Shelley 10). He tries in writing letters to his sister to mend the loneliness but is not enough. The first evidence that practically tells the Frankenstein readers that Walton is lonely and has no one else to write the letters to is through the contents of the letters- that he has no friends though he wishes so much to have one. He says, "But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy, and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most sever evil. I have no friend..." (Letter 2). He continues to talk about his wants and wishes of having a friend who he can share with his dreams and goals. Also, he writes how his traveling plans will take him to an isolated place to his sisters. He states, "I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight." (Letter 1). Despite Walton knowing the place he is going will be desolate place; still, he chooses to go.

Victor Frankenstein

The creature and Victor Frankenstein are the main characters that Mary Shelley uses to put more emphasis on how loneliness can eventually impact to a tragic fate in one's life. Frankenstein an anti-social person especially when it comes to strangers. He has close companionships and loves his family. At times, Frankenstein feels estranged or alienated in some way when with his parents more specifically, his father. After being fascinated with Agrippa book, Frankenstein shows it to his father, but as much as he sees the book as a treasure, his father does not as he answer him with "Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash." (Shelley, 24). Later, Frankenstein dedicates his time mostly to his studies when he goes to Ingolstadt for university education thus neglecting to communicate with his family. He starts researching concerning life creation, and afterward, he ends into solitude after creating the creature, due to the fear of his invention and runs into Henry Clerval, his old friend. His dedication to studies and choosing to live a solitude life brings a lot of misery to his own life because he decides to create a creature that was not supposed to exist and he feels the necessity of stopping what he created.

The Creature

The creature, similar to Victor Frankenstein suffers and experiences loneliness as his "father" deserts him. Frankenstein actions to abandoning the creature were not only caused by fear but also for the inability to view the perspective of the creature perhaps. Even though they shared the loneliness aspect, Frankenstein opts for his way of life while on the other hand, the creature wishes and wants for Frankenstein to accept him of which Frankenstein may not know how to view him. This is depicted clearly with his conversation to the old man who for several months, he had been watching, he states "I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and, in some degree, beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster." (Shelley, 114). In spite of the creature attempts to find friends, he is unsuccessful and its continual loneliness impacts it to swearing vengeance against his creator (Victor Frankenstein) and all of humanity.

Conclusion

The theme of loneliness is undoubtedly the most essential and discussed theme in Frankenstein. The theme is a common denominator among the novel characters. Among the three characters, Victor Frankenstein is the only one who selects to live in solitude due to his knowledge desires, and in the end, he becomes a prison of his own created creature. The creature on the other hand experiences life situations that reflects its actions (monstrous) as despite its friendly intentions, it is treated with violence and disgust thus forced to live in solitude for survival and turns to the savage that humans think it is. Robert Walton acts as a balance between the creature and Frankenstein as a healthy human. All the characters of Mary Shelley's novel are victims of loneliness.

Works Cited

Botting, Fred. "Reflections of excess: Frankenstein, the French Revolution, and monstrosity." Reflections of Revolution. Routledge, 2016. 26-38.

Hoeveler, Diane. "Frankenstein, feminism, and literary theory." (2003).

Pollin, Burton R. "Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein." Comparative Literature 17.2 (1965): 97-108.

Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein." Medicine and Literature, Volume Two. CRC Press, 2018. 35-52.