Tuesday, April 3, 2012

One Is the Loneliest Number, But Two's Not Much Better - Novel Blog 4 (Frankenstein)

"Like one, on a lonesome road who, Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once truned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread."

~ Frankenstein, page 36 (Coleridge, Ancient Mariner)

So once again, I found myself looking in the themes section for what to write about, and I had a minor epiphany. Well, maybe not so much an epiphany, but just some observations about the alienation/solitude theme. I realized that not only is Cornelius pretty much in solitude the whole time, but every time Victor is caught up with him, he is dragged into that alienation. When Robert Walton finds them in the Antarctic (or wherever they are), they are completely alone. Except for the dogs. When Victor is first creating Cornelius, he neglects his family and practically everybody else because he is so devoted to that endeavor. Even the idea of Cornelius just running around in the wild makes Victor crazy and distances him from his family and peers. Cornelius is the epitome of lonely and misunderstood, which is kind of a shame, because he seems like a pretty nice person monster thing, so when Victor associates with him, he therefore is dragged into that isolation. It's like in high school when you move into another clique and then certain people avoid you because of it. Only this time, those certain people are, you know, everybody.

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