Literary Analysis: The Need for Community in Frankenstein

It's nearly Halloween, the most popular time of the year to correct your friends on the fact that Frankenstein is not the monster's name, but the name of his creator--or maybe to explain that they're each monsters in their own way. If you need a refresher, you can get the book here. If you're already caught up, then keep reading on for an analysis of the themes of community versus isolation within the famed 1818 novel.

“I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy,” Walton writes, “I have no friend” (Shelley 3).  Community versus isolation is a struggle faced by nearly all characters within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, though it is encountered under different circumstances for each. Our frame narrator, on an exploration by choice, still struggles with a need for kinship as evident in the quote above. Victor Frankenstein’s self-imposed isolation during the creation of his monster affects not only his own health, but leads to the suffering and/or demise of his loved ones and his creation. The creature, enduring isolation without a choice, is also aware of his loneliness and advocates for a created companion, while ultimately finding a twisted companionship in the chase with Victor. Shelley puts emphasis on linking isolation to tragedy, even weaving these themes into the frame narrator, to push the idea of community as a need. Characters may want other things--they may want to isolate or travel for personal accomplishments over connections, like Walton or Victor--but they need a sense of community, and suffer without.

        Victor and Walton face isolation in a similar way: self-imposed, and born of ambition rather than craving solitude. We see this in Victor as he becomes increasingly absorbed in his studies and creation of the creature, to the point of his health failing while avoiding others: “Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree… I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime” (Shelley 29). In this instance, lacking community takes a toll on one’s physical health rather than just mental health to strengthen the severity of Victor’s isolation and express the negative aspects of it. The inclusion of both Victor’s health decline and avoidance of others in this single line links them together, as Shelley builds the idea of community as a need. Walton’s situation is very different in terms of his isolation, as he is not truly isolated; he has a crew with him, but prior to Victor’s arrival, there is no one among him to connect with strongly enough for a sense of kinship and community. Walton also differs in that he is not entirely blinded by his ambition and still recognizes the necessity of community. He is willing to return to England when his crew asks though it displeases him, showing that he is not as stubbornly stuck to his goals as Victor was with his creation, and he recognizes and acknowledges his desire for friendship while on his journey in his letters to his sister. Thirdly in their contrast, Victor is a tragic example to the reader while Walton is a beacon of hope, as to be explained.

Victor’s failing health during his creature’s creation as well as in his chase with the creature and aboard Walton’s ship, followed by his death, is utilized by Shelley to represent the physical tolls of isolation. This is supported particularly following the creature’s creation, when Henry Clerval arrives and Victor’s health begins to improve in the presence of his friend: “But I was in reality very ill; and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life” (Shelley 33). Clerval, a part of Victor’s community, is the remedy to Victor’s illness--community quite literally saves Victor in this sense. Granted, this is Victor’s retelling rather than an unbiased narrator, so perhaps “surely nothing but… my friend could have restored me to life” could be interpreted as Victor’s exaggeration. Still, Shelley made a point of Henry’s presence improving Victor’s health following an isolation that deteriorated it. There is clearly a negative connection that Shelley is making between physical health and isolation, with Victor’s actions to represent it. In a sense, though, these actions also represent the toll on the mind--whenever Victor turns away from community and toward isolation for a goal (creation of creature and hunting down the creature, for examples), he seems to lose pieces of his humanity. In solitude, there is nobody to hold Victor morally responsible for his actions other than himself, ultimately resulting in no responsibility being taken at all. He also loses the regular enjoyments of life. Through Victor’s character, Shelley tells us that to have a community is to be healthy, is to be human.

In equating community to what it means to be human, it is time to look to Victor’s creature and question his humanity. Despite being rejected by his creator and attacked upon entering any public place, the creature not only learns of emotions like compassion, but feels them as well. By observing the de Lacey family, the creature sees what it is to be human and live in a family. Before he had even made sense of their sounds and communications, he recognized their hardships and went out of his way to aid them: “I found that the youth spent a great part of each day in collecting wood for the family fire; and, during the night I often took his tools… and brought home firing sufficient for the consumption of several days” (Shelley 66). Without prompt or direction, the creature realized the necessity of firewood and “often” chose to alleviate this hardship from them despite the family not even knowing of the creature’s existence. In the creature’s developing desire for community, he already contributed to and cared for the community he was on the outside of. Observing community and wanting to be within one allowed the creature to develop emotionally. He became as human as he could be without someone else to recognize his humanity and form a healthy community with him, and only seemed to lose his sense of humanity and compassion following forced isolation (rejection from the de Lacey family and Victor’s refusal to complete a companion). With any possible community stripped from the creature, he wanted to strip his creator of the same thing, leading to the murders of Victor’s loved ones. These monstrous acts likely would never have taken place if the creature had a sense of community. Isolation and rejection were the cause of the creature’s monstrous actions, while companionship could have been a remedy as Henry was to Victor.

Ultimately, Victor’s hunt across the ice for the creature becomes a form of twisted companionship for both Victor and his creation. One could argue that the creature solely wanted to keep Victor alive so he could suffer longer, but given the creature’s remorse following Victor’s death, other options are to be explored. We can consider that this did become the creature’s sense of community because he again recognized the needs of others and met them, this time with food rather than firewood: “Sometimes...he left marks in writing…’Follow me… if you follow not to tardily, a dead hare; eat and be refreshed” (Shelley 130). The creature is clearly crueler now than before his monstrous acts and previous rejections, but he still cares enough to leave food and notes to ensure that it is found. Despite cruelty in the matter, this is the creature’s only thread of community, his own creator. He is content to spend the rest of his existence in chase with Victor, and plans to kill himself following Victor’s death. Though it is not normal or by any means healthy, the creature makes the only sense of community he can. The creature shows that compassion and humanity can be learned, but community is necessary to maintain it as it gives us a reason to want to be human.

With the creature as an example of what we take for granted and Victor as a character taking his community for granted, Shelley leaves us with our survivor and frame narrator, Walton. Walton is extremely ambitious in his travels, but still recognizes the need for a friend. Unlike Victor, he writes letters back to his family, hence the letters to his sister. Unlike Victor, there is still hope for him. Walton has his ambitions, but has not yet let them consume his other needs--he is human. He has listened to Victor’s tale, to the creature’s mourning, and he now sails back to England where he can choose to either follow in his friend Victor’s footsteps or forge a less tragic future for himself: a future of nurture through his community.