Theme of Isolation

Theme of Isolation

Isolation is an act of being left out, making individual experience low self-esteem and loneliness. It is common in the current society with people deciding to undertake certain activities without involving people that are close to them; it may occur, for example, where people are not informed about some functions that will take place, and that concerns them. The leading cause of this is the feelings of different social classes where some feel they are more critical than others. The less privileged, the poor mainly face these challenge that causes loneliness and neglect. It leads to one having low self-esteem about themselves and worthless in the community. Isolation is evident in so many scenarios; school, religious sites, homes, and also workplaces. When not taken positively, it can lead to hatred, violence, revenge, and can be exceedingly miserable and bring destruction to oneself and the community at large. Isolation is a theme seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and A Christmas carol.

Mary Shelley is the author of the novel Frankenstein. The book depicts the theme of isolation as experienced by its characters.  Some of the characters found to come across separation are Victor Frankenstein, who earns the novel its title, Frankenstein and Robert Walton.  Robert is mentioned in the story as he looks for a new route to the Pacific Ocean through Russia via the Arctic Ocean. Shelley defines several themes in the novel that are displayed by actions by the associate characters.  She allows her characters to narrate their story to pass a message to the audience. Isolation goes all through the Shelley, with Victor been the primary prey.

Victor remains alone and solitary in the unreality he has weakly fashioned out of reality. Family is essential for everybody, and it helps in breaking emotional isolation. However, Victor is not seen close to his family, which brings him terror and agony. He lived I a lonely place that made his father, at one point, put across this statement “Once Victor accepts himself and considers them as a family, he will think about the affection of the family and hear from him regularly.”  He stayed away from his family because of a project that he was working on. He wanted to concentrate on making another being, and this made him stay away from his loved ones, friends, and family as he said: “he could not tear my thought from my employment.”

In Shelley’s novel, the main character is Victor, and the theme of alienation is seen throughout his story (Pollin and Burton 100). He goes ahead to do his research on creating a new creature but finds no one to share his achievements, failures, challenges, and new ideas with. This leads to loneliness, loneliness leads to hatred, and hatred leads to cases of murder, despair, and tragedy.   Him separating himself from family and friends leads to self-destruction and destruction of his career at the end of it all. Shelley brings it clearly that loneliness brings calamity not only to the victim but also to the society. It evident from the novel that the act of one separating himself from the community causes a lot of pain to the whole nation. According to Victor, the monster turns vengeful due to isolation that fills it with anger and hatred but not because he is terrible.

According to the novel, isolation can have good results if it is taken positively. It is through separation that Victor was able to achieve his goal of creating a creature.  He saw it as a powerful weapon for reaching his goals. However, instead of creating a beast as he anticipated, he made a monster, and that lead to his fall.

In conclusion, isolation is dangerous and should not be taken by anyone as the only option for achieving set goals. It leads to the loss of family and friends that are essential factors in one’s life.

In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, isolation is also evident throughout the novel. Dickens interested was in the welfare of children. He aimed to make sure children received proper education, good health, and acceptance in society. In the mid-nineteenth century, training was not supported in London. The few private schools that were there were too expensive because the owners started them for personal gains. Those that could not afford to pay for those costly schools were taken to bush schools that did not get any support from the government, making it difficult to provide for all the resources from the little money they got from donations.

Dickens exhibits the need for companionship and company: Left to himself as a boy, Scrooge finds friendship in stories ‘a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire.’ The theme of isolation is evident in the novel. Ebenezer Scrooge rejects the company of people as he claims that staying close with them makes him not make enough money that he would have desired to make. When a person starts thinking differently from other people, he faces rejection from society, the victim becomes alienated and shunned from different people from his unacceptable behavior.

The novel, Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, reveals the social values of the culture in the society. It was written during the Christmas season. The author believes that it is humane to give gifts to the poor and the less privileged in the community.  Scrooge says that he went to a boarding school and did not have a close relationship with his parents. He claims that he never saw his father care about him and that the only person that he felt had little care for him was his sister, Fan. Due to this feeling of rejection and isolation, he got himself a few friends during his childhood. He grew up in this state to adulthood, where he got engaged for marriage, but the bride complained about his obsession with money, which led to the cancelation of the wedding. This incident made him develop a negative attitude towards human beings and concentrate on building his business. He did not make any attempt to get himself any friends or close to his family. He also did not have any desire to get to another relationship; he became hostile and rude to anyone who tried getting close to him. He talks about three spirits appearing to him in his sleep. One for Marley and two others, Mr. Marley, warned him to change his selfish living lest he will be punished in life after death.  Three other spirits also appeared to him and warned him against the same thing, two-spirit spoke, but the last did not speak but took him to have a look at his own grave. He woke up, and to his amazement, he was still alive, and he swore to change his way of living.

He claims that it was his own decision and determination to change his life that he found happiness afterward. He became a generous man and was willing to give to people and not to hoard his wealth to himself. He realized that he could not be buried with his wealth and that it was important that someone cared if he died.

In the novel, Cratchit is also a victim of isolation. He is weak and therefore represents the less privileged in the society. The community where Scrooge and Cratchit lives is characterized by separation,  caused by social inequalities among the people. There is an unequal distribution of wealth, as seen when comparing Cratchit and Scrooge.  Cratchit has very little coal for himself, while Scrooge uses a lot of it. Dickens brings it out clearly that people are living in isolation, with harsh weather, unbearable, and not human-friendly. However, they have chosen to find happiness there even if it is not there because they got themselves used to the environment. During Christmas, Mrs. Cratchit feels that someone may come to their yard and steal from them; thus, they are living in a place that is isolated.

It shows that people around can decide to steal from their home, there is inadequacy, and there is no satisfaction. People are denied the right to basic needs like food and also other needs like education.

There is a connection between the two texts, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley’s and Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol in several ways, with the theme of isolation been predominant. In both novels, some characters face alienation in several ways has seen from their stories.  Shelley talks about family negligence which leads to Victor creating a monster. Dickens also addresses the same theme of parental responsibility, where he communicates about Scrooge not getting parental love during his childhood.

There are adverse effects of isolation in both novels; In Frankenstein’s, Victor creates a monster that leads to the destruction of his life, and in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge became inhospitable to people, selfish and rude. There is also supernatural power in both novels in that Victor makes another creature that is similar to a human being, and Scrooge is visited by three spirits that warn him against his way of living.

The connections are essential in that they create emphasis. This way, people will learn the impacts of isolation and avoid it. The audience will get a better understanding of the message is contained and be keen and cautious of what is not encouraged in society.

Works Cited

Cole, David. “Teaching Frankenstein and Wide Sargasso Sea Using Affective Literacy.” English in Australia 42.2(2007): 69

Fleck, P. D. “Mary Shelley’s Notes to Shelley’s Poems and “Frankenstein.” Studies in Romanticism (1967): 226-254

Pollin, Burton R. “Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein.” Comparative Literature 17.2 (1965): 97-108