Montroy 1
Sarah Montroy
Ms.Ostrom
Mini English 10
February 12, 2014
Made to Be Together
Contained within the action-packed pages of Mary Shelley’s science fiction
novel, Frankenstein (1831), an important theme is demonstrated: people need
companionship and closeness with society in order to remain content throughout their
lives. Shelley employs this theme using the motif of isolation, which is a big part in the
lives of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the Creature.
The story begins with the letters of Robert Walton, captain of a beautiful ship on a
voyage to the North Pole. He at first comes across as passionate about his travels, but
after many days preparing for his voyage he begins to feel lonely, and in want of a friend.
In letters to his sister he expresses this saying, “I have no friend Margaret: When I am
growing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am
assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection” (18). When
Walton and his crew happen upon Frankenstein, he believes he has finally found a person
worthy of his companionship. When he realizes that Frankenstein is dying, he is
devastated: “Must I then lose this admirable being? I have longed for a friend; I have
sought one who would sympathize with and love me. Behold, on these desert seas I have
found such a one, but I fear I have gained him only to know his value and lose him”
(201). The book finishes with Robert feeling heavy with sadness over the loss of a
potential friend, shrouded with a cloud of isolation that he cannot get rid of.
Montroy 2
The next character, Victor Frankenstein, struggles with feelings of solitude,
isolation, and depression all throughout this novel. It starts as he begins to create his
gruesome creature and delve into the dark corners of science and philosophy. “Two years
passed in this matter, during which I paid no visit to Geneva” (49). As he pieces together
the emaciated parts of corpses, enclosed within his room, the tasks that he performs
separate him from society and the rest of the world, rendering him utterly alone. From
this time on, Victor continues to shun his family and remain separate from them and his
surroundings, because of the things he has done. Even as he travels to beautiful countries
with Henry he mentions, “The same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around
me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I
had not seen for so long a time” (53). Throughout Victor’s life, the theme of solitude
never leaves him no matter how hard he tries to forget his problems and gain
companionship once again.
From the moment the creature is jolted to life, he is an outcast. With no one in the
world to sympathize with him and even look upon his ugly face with a smile rather than a
shout, he learns to hate all people and long for a companion of his own. As he tells Victor
in a cave, “Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I
am solitary and abhorred” (124). The creature goes on to tell Victor of how in the
beginning, he was intrigued by people and thought that he could live with them in
harmony if only he did it right, but he soon learned that that is not the truth. As he
watched people from afar he realized that, “Increase of knowledge only discovered to me
more clearly what a wretched outcast I was” (125). His whole life is nothing because of
Montroy 3
the fact that he has no one to share it with, and isolation from society turns him into a
violent and despicable being.
Time and time again Frankenstein demonstrates how people need other people
and proximity with society to maintain an all-around happy life. Walton, Victor, and the
creature experience different levels of isolation that greatly influence their experiences
and decisions later in life. Shelley does a spectacular job at showing the reader that
humans (and creatures) cannot function alone, and that they were made to be together.