Learn to be Lonely - Novel Blog 10 (Frankenstein)

"Here then I retreated, and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man."

~ Frankenstein, page 74

Time for a fun blog. Now I was thinking about Frankenstein's creature and I realized that Wicked isn't the only musical that relates to him - also, one of my favorites, The Phantom of the Opera is wonderfully applicable in this situation.

Basically, this man was born with an infection that disfigured his face, so he was sold into a traveling circus for show and publicly beaten. Eventually, he got sick of it and strangled his captor. The only witnesses were a couple spectators, one of whom was a ballet student at Paris' Opera Populaire, and she helped him escape the crime scene and hid him in the dungeons of the Opera house. When he got older, he started giving a ballerina in the corps vocal lessons, she steps in for the absent lead soprano, he tries to cultivate her career, she falls in love with her childhood sweetheart, he gets ridiculously jealous because he's in love with her (but he's also like a father figure? It's pretty sick) and all chaos ensues. Anyway, this song won't make much sense in context, but there are some lyrics that you can pick out and they exactly match the creature in Frankenstein.

This is actually from the movie, but it's still good. Here are some lyrics:

"Why, you ask,Was I bound and chainedIn this cold and dismal place?Not for any mortal sinBut the wickedness of my abhorrent face!"

"Hounded out by everyoneMet with hatred everywhereNo kind words from anyoneNo compassion anywhere"
"The tears I might have shedFor your dark fate,Grow cold and turn to tears of hate!"

This one is another that relates really well to the creature's situation
"Child of the wildernessborn into emptinesslearn to be lonelylearn to find your way in darkness
who will be there for youcomfort and care for youlearn to be lonely learn to be your one companion
never dreamt out in the worldthere are arms to hold youyou've always known your heart was on its own
so laugh in your lonelinesschild of the wildernesslearn to be lonelylearn how to love life that is lived alone
learn to be lonelylife can be lived, life can be loved alone"
Well, that's pretty depressing, but there it is. Phantom = Creature. Here's some more POTO fun. 

It's got Gerard Butler. How can you go wrong??

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.