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Theme of Isolation Comparison Essay Frankenstein & The Handmaid's Tale
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Alhena KasemIsolation in its simplest form can be described as being alone, separated from any other person or in
a completely remote location – this however is only physical isolation. Isolation can also be mental
and emotional as well and often this comes hand in hand with physical isolation. Both Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley written in 1816 and first published in 1818 and Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s
Tale display the causes and effects of physical, mental and emotional isolation and the wider
implications isolation has on people and events. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein physically
isolates himself believing himself to be better than his peers and intending to transgress natural
boundaries of life and death, as a consequence of his transgressions enabled by his isolation from his
friends and family, Victor’s health deteriorates and only improves when he is in the presence of his
friends and family. Conversely, Offred the protagonist in A Handmaid’s Tale experiences isolation
despite being surrounded with people and being watched at all times, this is both mental and
emotional isolation in response to the awful situation she is in (trapped and enslaved by Gilead, an
extremist theocratic regime turning women into Handmaids and using the for reproduction in
response to a possible event which caused radioactivity triggering reduced fertility in women and
event which could be envisioned as that like Chernobyl or the Three Mile Island explosion). Offred’s
emotional and mental isolation can be quantified in her descriptions of feeling numb from the
thoughts, feelings and actions of those around her and her inability to share her emotions with
anyone around her. Both Frankenstein and A Handmaid’s Tale are cautionary tales warning of the
consequences of physical, emotional and mental isolation despite being written 167 years apart.
Notably, both Victor Frankenstein and Offred isolate themselves, though in very different ways and
in response to different people/events, as a form of escape from the world and the people in it. In
Frankenstein, Victor physically isolates himself in his workshop as an escape from other people
including his friends, peers and family in order to abuse his power and transgress natural boundaries
by creating the creature for the purpose of fame and glory: ‘solitary chamber...my workshop of filthy
creation’. The adjective ‘solitary’ conveys how isolated he is in the fact that not only is he himself
solitary but so is his workshop. The workshop is described using the adjective ‘filthy’ connoting that
it is extremely inhospitable and hostile to not only other people but also to Victor himself a sort of
analogy for the effects of isolation itself – detrimental to a person’s physical and emotional
wellbeing. The secluded state of his workshop and Victor’s overall isolation could be a part of why
his physical health deteriorates: ‘I had deprived myself of rest and health’. The verb ‘deprived’
indicates that Victor’s ambition and self-imposed physical isolation caused him to neglect his own
health and well-being causing him to be ‘oppressed by a slow fever’. The verb ‘oppressed’ shows
that Victor became burdened by his own abuse of power and that his isolation, guilt, remorse and
fear was also affecting his health. Similarly, in A Handmaid’s Tale Offred isolates her mind and
emotions as an escape from the horrors of her life, such as the Ceremony in which she is raped by
the Commander because in the eyes of Gilead her only function is procreation – she is simply a
vessel for a child with no other purpose: ‘the lower part of my body’. Here during the ceremony she
is detaching/isolating herself and her mind from her physical body as coping mechanism. In a way
Offred is also physically isolated despite being around people, in the way that she is isolated from
people who care and love her, from people who she can freely share her thoughts and feelings with:
‘I feel like the word shatter. I want to be with someone’. Offred is desperate to not be isolated, she
craves human touch and interaction. Her humanity has been forcibly removed by Gilead implied
through the verb ‘shatter’ which is quite violent and brutal a consequence of her isolation from
those who love her. Whilst Offred does not show any outward signs of the consequences of her
isolation by way of an illness like Victor, her mental health is affected as shown by her descriptions
of her emotions and feelings to the readers. It is scientifically proven that physical and emotional
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