Isolation

Isolation

1. Walton

   • Novel starts with Walton's complaints to his sister about his lack of companionship.
     • pg. 19: "I bitterly feel the want of a friend"
   • Finds company in Victor - sees him as his intellectual equal.
     • pg. 28: "I begin to love him as a brother" "He is so gentle, yet so wise"
   • Remote setting of the Arctic Circle
     • pg. 25: "vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end."

2. Victor

   • His sufferings are primarily caused by his (self-inflicted) alienation from others.
     • pg. 163: "I saw an insurmountable barrier placed between me and my fellow men..."
   • Victor insists that his isolation is imposed because of the monster's crimes.
     • pg. 95: "I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness."
   • Chooses to isolate himself from family and friends to carry out his scientific experiments.
     • pg. 157: "I must absent myself from all I loved while thus employed."

3. The creature

   • His sufferings are primarily caused by man alienating him.
     • pg. 147: "I am malicious because I am miserable"
     • His creator abandons him.
       • pg. 102: "You, my creator, deteste and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound"
     • Persecuted by mankind.
   • Longs for companionship and affection. His unhappiness comes from his awareness that he will never experience love.
     • pg. 134: "No Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone."