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Essay on 'Frankenstein is a warning about the dangers of isolation'
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Essay on 'Frankenstein is a warning about the dangers of isolation'
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Frankenstein is a warning about the dangers of isolationFirstly, Shelley illuminates the novel as a warning about the dangers of isolation in the
character of Robert Walton; “I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy…I
have no friend.” Shelley uses Walton’s first-person narration to display the void isolation
creates within a human soul. Shelley portrays Walton as a man of wealth and adventure and
yet he remains unhappy and unfulfilled as he has no companion. The structuring of the
novel indicates the importance of this theme as it appears time and time again. Shelley’s
effective use of epistolary form adds a hollow echo to Walton’s account in the opening
letters of the novel. The unidirectional syntax adds and parallels the loneliness that Robert
Walton. We clearly see that Walton is lonely and that is sympathy provoking but what
danger looms as a result of isolation in Walton’s case is made explicitly clear. Many see
Walton as careless with human life, the reason for which many put down to his ego and
extreme ambition. However, I believe it is due to his isolation. We see his lack of care when
we read, “success shall crown my head…What can stop the determined heart and resolved
will of man?” Walton’s verbose lexis and direct tone is very explicit in it depicting Walton as
driven beyond care. Despite his many assurances to his sister Walton makes no recognition
of the consequences that might befall the people in his employ that trek this dangerous
arena of nature that many in the Age of Enlightenment have attempted to explore. At a
time of great discovery Walton is following the waves of real-world artic explorers, such as
Henry Stephenson, that made the perilous journey. Many of these explorers met their
deaths at the hands of the elements and this fact demonstrates the gravity of duty Walton
has to his fellow sailors. Isolation has made him lose the skill of empathy and so ambition
festers in his mind and controls every action endangering his crew and his own life clearly
showing that Frankenstein is a warning about isolation.
Furthermore, the character that is synonymous with the theme of dangers of isolation,
Victor Frankenstein, exhibits many reasons why the novel is a warning about these dangers.
One reason is how Victor’s human relationships diminish as a result of his isolation; “Two
years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva.” This quote reminds the
reader of the retrospective narrative that is used in this novel. It is used in this quote to
demonstrate how isolation begets isolation and that is the warning this part of the text tries
to cry out. This first period of isolation made evident in Shelley’s use of a timescale leads to
further periods of self-imposed isolation for Victor, perhaps in pursuit of solace but instead
usually results in misery. These periods of isolation become longer and longer in varying
locations and leading Victor farther and farther from his friends and family. It takes the
murder of Victor’s brother for him to return to his kindred that he loves so dearly and love
him too. This pitfall of isolation is further seen in where Victor, “fixed himself on one of the
remotest of the Orkneys...” Hence abandoning his best friend and travelling companion
Clerval on the Scottish mainland. Shelley uses the doppelganger throughout her novel and a
clear double can be drawn between Victor and Walton in their treatment of those around
them. Victor becomes so disclosed to his closest companions not by a small distance but the
farthest and isolated he can be as shown by Shelley’s use of the superlative above. The
doubling is only made clearer as when Victor engages in longer and longer periods of
isolation not only does he lose sight of other he becomes so self-absorbed that he ignores
the danger the Creature poses to his dear beloved Elizabeth in his threat of, “I shall be with
you on your wedding night.” The cautionary aspect that is clearly apparent within the novel
is often likened to Samuel Coleridge’s the Rime of the Ancient Mariner due to Shelley’s
many allusions to it within the text. The Mariner is doomed to walk the earth alone just like
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