Frankenstein Themes

1. Frankenstein Themes Derek Kearney Henry Sproul Conor Evans

2. Isolation and Estrangment • In the novel, both Dr. Frankenstein and the monster go through long periods of loneliness and isolation. They both ultimately end up in an eternal battle against one another, therefore permanently isolating themselves.

3. Quotations • “This state of mind preyed upon my health, which had perhaps never entirely recovered from the first shock it had sustained. I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation-deep, dark, death like solitude.” • “My life had hitherto been remarkably secluded and domestic; and this had given me invincible repugnance to new countenances... I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge.”

4. The Need for Companionship • Because the Doctor and the monster are so isolated, a great need for companionship develops. The monster needs someone to share his love and the Doctor needs his family to deter him from his self destructive quest for knowledge.

5. Quotations • “The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures: to see their sweet looks directed towards me with affection was the utmost limit of my ambition.” • “ 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.”

6. Suffering and Humanity • The monster’s own suffering leads him to commit acts of violence against his creator. This in turn cause great suffering for Dr. Frankenstein and creates a struggle between the two characters.

7. Quotations • “No one can conceive the anguish that I suffered during the remainder of night, which I spent, cold and wet, in the open air. But I did not feel the inconvenience of the weather; my imagination was busy in scenes of evil and despair. I considered the being who I had cast upon mankind, and endowed with the will and power to effect purposes of horror, such as the deed which he had now done, nearly in all the light of my own vampire, my own spirit let lose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me.” • “It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half- frightened, as it were instinctively finding myself so desolate. Before I quitted your apartment on a sensation of cold, I covered myself with some clothes; but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night. I was poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew and I could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.”

8. Compassion • During various parts of the novel we witness several character shifts as Dr. Frankenstein shows the need to love and be loved by his family and friends, while the monster lacks any compassion from any beings of the world.

9. Quotations • “My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being, and become linked to the chain of existence and events, from which I am now excluded.” • “We returned to our college on a Sunday afternoon: the peasants were dancing, and everyone we met appeared gay and happy. My own spirits were high, and I bounded along with feelings of un-bridled joy and hilarity.”