Explore Mary Shelly's Presentation Of Alienation In Her Novel "Frankenstein"

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English  10XI                Iain Gill    10DM

Explore Mary Shelly’s Presentation Of Alienation In Her Novel “Frankenstein”

Mary Shelly wrote “Frankenstein” as a bet between her husband (Percy Shelly) and their friend (Lord Byron). Many features in the novel can be related to Shelly’s life, and I will point these out through out this essay.

The basic plot of Frankenstein is that Victor Frankenstein creates a monster that experiences huge amounts of alienation, which results in it committing three murders. Victor chases the monster to the North Pole. There Victor dies of exhaustion after telling Captain Walton his story. When the monster hears of his death he vows to commit suicide.

Captain Walton experiences of alienation are mostly self-imposed. He sails to the North Pole in exploration of the world, and his only communication is through letters that he sends by passing them to ships heading in the opposite direction. This is shown in letter III on page 13 when he writes “This letter will reach England by a merchant man now on his homeward voyage from Archangel; more fortunate than I, who may not see my native land, perhaps for many years.” This demonstrates that he knows what he is doing. But he puts himself though it any way. This may have been seen as brave or heroic in Mary Shelly’s time. Now as the North Pole and other far-flung places have been explored, it would be seen as an attempt to break a world record, or a technical scientific experiment. If maps are needed, then satellites make them for us, but back then maps were needed and the only way of making one was to go there your self. Another point is that Walton doesn’t seem to communicate with his crew. This is illustrated in his third letter when he writes: “I have no friend…I desire the company of a man could sympathise with me, whose yes would reply to mine.”  This shows that not only is he isolated from friends and family, he feels that he is separated from any life on, or around, the ship. If he were making his voyage today the ship would have radio and satellite communications, enabling him to communicate with family and close friends, and allow them to exchange feelings and give support in times of failure.

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Victor experiences heightened feelings of alienation, and like Walton most is self-inflicted. One example of this is when he alienates him self in favour of science. This is shown when he says: “…never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest…but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature.” This shows that victor is so engrossed and wrapped up in science; he doesn’t notice the world and nature around him. The use of the word “insensible” can be related to the creature’s initial state. Shelly wrote this to describe and emphasise victors rejection of the out side world. ...

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