Texts and Traditions - Research Essay Julie Blackett SID 17354921

In Frankenstein, there are two outsiders, although they are portrayed in extremely different ways. Both Victor Frankenstein and his creation are social outcasts, but for different reasons. This will explore how they are portrayed as outcasts and how that is influenced by kinship. Victor does not start out as an outsider. He has what is described as a blissful childhood. It is not until he enters university that Victor becomes an outsider. While studying, Victor becomes obsessed with the idea of discovering the secret to life. This obsession isolates Victor from his peers and society in general. This is however, Victors choice. He shunned ... fellow creatures and forgot those friends who were so many miles absent.1 Victors belief that he has discovered the secret to life and the subsequent creation of the monster further separates him from society as he hides his experiment and works tirelessly for months. After his creation is finished and comes to life, Victor falls ill and is isolated while he recovers. During this time, he plans to return to his home in Geneva and return to society in general. Before he can do so, he learns that his brother has been murdered and suspects that his creation is the one who killed him. Once again, his creation causes Victor to become an outsider. Victor is isolated even further by his creation, as it continues to seek revenge on Victor by killing his wife and best friend, and indirectly causing the deaths of his adoptive sister and father. Victor is the only person who knows what his creature has done. This also causes him to isolate himself from other people, as he tries to deal with the guilt of what his creation has done. When Victor decides to spend his life by finding the creature and stopping him. This hunt sets Victor apart and eventually consumes him in the Arctic, showing further separation from societies norms. The manner in which the monster is an outsider is much more obvious and at first glance is only because of appearance. The monster is a hideous creature and its ugliness and deformity causes it to be an automatic outcast when seen. Although the creature originally tries to help people and be accepted, mankinds dislike and distrust of him causes them to react negatively. As the creature begins to learn to read, he learns more about the world and about human history and wisdom, he begins to feel even more isolated.2 The creature has come to understand the nature of human love, but has discovered that he can never share it; he has learned of human society, but has been made to feel he will never be a part of it.3 This is because he is the only one of his kind, and his rejection by his creator and those with whom he identified with and from whom he hoped to gain acceptance and friendship, causes the creature to feel overcome with rage and revenge and declare everlasting war against the human species and especially
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Shelley, Frankenstein, 56-57 Keyishian, Vindictiveness and the Search..., 206 3 Ibid, 206

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against his creator.4 This leads the creature to acts of revenge which further separate him from society. The murders of William and Elizabeth are the creatures way of punishing Victor and are also his only way of reacting to the violence that his appearance causes. As people treat him with violence and abuse, so he reacts against Victor in the same manner. This causes Victor to become just as alone and isolated as the creature is, which may also have been part of the motivation. Victors status as an outsider before he succeeds in creating the creature has more to do with his obsession in finding the secret of life than with troubled relationships with his kin. Although it could be argued that the death of his mother left a hole and gave him the desire to find the secret to life and perhaps prevent him losing anyone else. His obsession with science and desire to keep his experiment from others lead to his isolation. This does not really reflect a troubled relationship with his kin. However, after Victor succeeds in creating the creature this changes. Once again, Victor does not tell his family and friends what he has done and as the creature begins to kill his family, Victor withdraws even further into himself and becomes more of an outsider. By the time the creature has killed or caused the deaths of all of Victors kin, he becomes completely isolated and a total outsider. His only connection now is with the creature and his desperate need to stop him. The creatures status as an outsider definitely has a lot to do with his relationship with his kin. Since he was created, not born, his only real family is Victor. When Victor completely rejects his creation right after it is completed-or born-the creature is truly alone in the world, as there are no others like him. His hideous appearance further separates him from society, as their reaction is one of fear and violence towards that which is different. As the creature tries to help others and find his place in the world, society is unable to accept him because he is so different. This continued rejection causes the creature to seek revenge on the person who first rejected him-Victor, his creator or father. This desire for revenge causes the creature to kill Victors brother, William and frame his adoptive sister, Justine. When the creature confronts Victor, he begs him to create a companion for him so he will no longer be alone. Victor reluctantly agrees but before this companion is completed, he changes his mind. Out of fear of what he has already created and what could happen if there was another creature, Victor destroys the companion. This act of betrayal sends the creature even further into madness and revenge. The creature then goes after the rest of Victors family, seeking to make him as isolated and alone as he is. The creature kills both Elizabeth and Henry and Victors father dies
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Keyishian, Vindictiveness and the Search ..., 206-207

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during this time also. This means that Victor is now just as alone as the creature. All either of them has is the other. This leads to their quest of destruction of the other, for the creature cannot forgive its fathers rejection and abandonment and Victor cannot forgive the deaths the creature caused. As the creature and Victor continue to hunt each other, they move further and further away from society, eventually ending up in the Arctic region. This is about as far away from society as a person can get and emphasises how much of an outsider both the creature and Victor really are. When Victor dies, the creature comes to him and we see how he understands that he is now truly alone, and how sorry he is for all that has happened. Here is clear evidence of the creatures humanity, a humanity that was lacking in Victor. As the creature now knows that he is completely alone in the world and no longer has anything to live for, he continues to travel north, where he intends to die alone in the freezing northern region, as alone as he is in the world, showing once again that he is a complete outsider. The story of Frankenstein shows how society rejects the unfamiliar and how kin can provide either a haven for all, especially those who are different and are considered outsiders, or can be a final straw in making someone a complete outsider with no one to turn to and nowhere to go. The relationships with kin can have the greatest effect upon people, as can be seen with the creature seeking revenge upon Victor rather than everybody.

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Bibliography Keyishian, Harry. Vindictiveness and the Search for Glory in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. In American Journal of Psychoanalysis, issue 49:3, 1989 Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London, England: Penguin Books, 1st ed. 1818, current ed. 1992

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