It seems that Frankenstein's demon does not get a name, nor his life - no one needs, no one remembers, no one loves - reason enough for a name to be meaningless. Victor called him a devil, Frankenstein was also created with the same thought as the human desire to counteract a natural law that was executed by Mary Shelley. The most prominent of Shelly's writing career could be Frankenstein; this story was aimed at reflecting her suffering, which is loneliness. Mary Shelley's pages have never been cold when filmmakers took turns dragging them to the screen. Bride of Frankenstein adaptation by James Whale has shown us that the loneliness of a monster is different way from The New Annotated Frankenstein story, through the monster character, author Shelly points out a tragedy that has existed in the life of Frankenstein monsters, which is the lonely tragedy reflect from her life.
In The New Annotated Frankenstein, loneliness is one of the main themes of the novel: all of the main characters of the novel have traumatic loneliness experience - monsters, Victor and Walton, experience these feelings. Walton desires for a companion with the same interests in the boat; Victor Frankenstein devoted all his time and energy to science that goes beyond the limited ability of human control. Similar to Victor, Walton is an adventurer, pursuing greatness, both of them seem to be remembered, admired for doing what no human has ever done, they want to overcome their limits human. Walton wanted to be a pioneer to discover a path north to the Atlantic through the Arctic. On the boat that found what he wanted, he felt lonely, and he showed his loneliness by writing letters to his sister."I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me..." (Shelly,19). Walton complained to his sister when she was about her loneliness on the trip. However, the truth is that he is not alone during this time: ships and crews surround him. The only reason he felt lonely was that he felt there was nothing in common with the men on the boat because of different social classes, disparities, hierarchy, lack of education it seemed to be the same. Walton fantasized about finding a friend who would share his interests and views, who shared his ambitions. Instead of sharing with others, Walton chose to keep himself far away from people. The author describes in great detail the relationship Victor's family; Victor did not attempt to support any relationship with his family. Victor could not find a way out of negative emotions and create a feature as a way to entertain and escape loneliness. “ I remained for several years their only child...according to as they fulfilled their duties towards me”(Shelley,38). Mary Shelley seems to show her own experiences from her childhood to the creation of Victor. This emotional express Victor Frankenstein's belief that parents are obliged to make him happy and successful in life. The last line of passages represents a belief that any parent owes their children happiness and love. I felt extremely hypocritical Frankenstein, put too much responsibility and pressure on my parents' shoulders, instead of escaping negative emotions, he blamed them for anything wrong in his life. He always blames fate for his stupid actions when they are out of his parent's control.
Mary Shelly has also encountered life's hardships. The isolated life in her family has pushed Mary to lonely and grow up with a lack of motherhood may have helped Mary Shelly better understand the dark side of people. The loneliness in his own family made the author create a lonely from the beginning. From the beginning of the novel, we see the reflection in the life of the author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein monster has simple dreams about a peaceful life despite being abandoned by Victor since being created. The Monster in Frankenstein started just naive like a child, was depicted with the passage, "But where were my friends and relations? …I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me." (Shelley, 159). This passage illustrated entirely innocent form with the most primitive love of the heart. It just wants to love, be conscientious, and be curious, and he does not hurt anyone. Monsters show us innocence in the soul like a child with a big body. He asked for "intercourse with" someone that proves he has no friend. Moreover, the monster lack of protector help him or guide him with the phrase "friends and relation." He did not even realize what he was, which made him feel more strongly isolated between the new world. Human verifies their identity by being surrounded by others, but the monster has no one else like him. The author has shown the importance of community and family to the formation of an individual. “…no Eve soothed my sorrows … he had abandoned me" (Shelley, 171). When everyone sees a couple with a pair, in the depths of the monster's soul also yearns for a mate like "Adam" with "Eve." Shelley creates a similar point between Victor and the monster that both must suffer. Victor, Walton, monster feel lonely when they lose connection with the world around.
Through Milton's Paradise Lost, the monster knew about the story of Satan, he noticed the similarity between him and Satan but felt unjust because he did not have a companion. Link with “the monster is a category crisis" (6), that is "contested cultural space" (7) and clarify the difference between Satan and the Monster. The monster could not classify himself with others; he attempts to figure out by investigating with Victor. That conveys Mary Shelley could not recognize her role in the family; she could not get along with her stepmother; she grew up in a lonely inner soul. The loneliness of the monster begins to be extremely fierce because he knows that he will be rejected when trying to reach anyone because the appearance of thugs has a grim appearance. "Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred "(Shelley, 169 ). In this passage, Shelly convey the meaning that most living creatures feel necessary or empty when alone, not necessarily fear or insecurity, just yearning for another creature or someone nearby and the monster is an exception. Language has shape the word 'loneliness' to be sorrow, but Shelley uses the word “solitary” to sympathize the loneliness of a monster. Monsters with lamentable, poor backgrounds, he was abandoned after being created. Furthermore, "…I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of…envy rose within me" (Shelley, 170). The monster seems to be asking Victor for a creator's responsibility. I feel that passage illustrated that the monster loneliness and misguided, but he said everything acts like a well-grounded individual and adequate education person. Victor's irresponsibility pushed the monster to the scorn and "horror of mankind," not only that it wanted a responsive response from Victor. In the movie, monsters can only say simple words like "friends," "good," "drink," it is not as intelligent as monsters in Shelly's novel. He does not know how to read Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Sorrows of Werter, a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and John Milton's Paradise Lost, the last of which has the most significant effect on the monster.
Lastly, the Frankenstein monster in the novel asks Victor to create a female companion for him. In his argument that close, loving relationships are essential to the monster as the following passage "." I am alone and miserable...as myself would not deny herself to me…same species and has the same defects" (Shelley, 184). These passages indicate the craving of a female companion; the monster reminds us of Adam in Paradise. Moreover, in the movie, the monster only yearns for a companion regardless of gender that links with a thesis “monster are the gates of difference” (7) that interpret the different ideology is the “catalyst” to struggle things. Maybe that state the inner voice of Mary Shelley, the voice of women at the period had no place to claim for a feminist. Women in the eyes of men at that time seemed to be the only thing to honour their values. After his companion is destroyed, he threatens Victor, who created him. It showed his desperation in loneliness when he killed the last ray of hope. Everyone needs to connect with others that describes for his demand "You must create a female for me...sympathies necessary for my being" (Shelley, 185). There are no friends, so the monster wants to have someone in his life who will release emptiness and companionship, "The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil... in his desolation; I am alone." (Shelley,275) .Once again, the monster compares its nature to the "fallen angel," we see helpless loneliness when he wishes to have "a friend," he is single while Satan has companions and devotees. Near the end of the story, when the creature boarded Walton's ship, he mourned Victor's death and spoke of himself. The creature's experiences, his crimes and his terrible isolation made him become less than human that he declares himself the miserable. With this passage, Shelly turned the monster to the climax part of the original story and shortened the plot to quick die and sad ending with the monster to convey effectively to the readers the loneliness could kill features.
In the film, his loneliness is similarly played out, but it seems that the monster in the movie does not inherit the same wisdom as the monster, according to Shelley's novel. Loneliness makes the monster feel empty, and the feeling of craving someone knows its existence in the world. The movie works perfectly in its way, as a sequel to Whale's "Frankenstein" (1931), recounting Monsters as an outcast and lack of friendship. The best scene of the movie is to create wandering, awkward in walking indefinitely and then the monster has entered the hut of a lonely blind hermit who cannot see and therefore cannot evaluate the appearance of Monsters. The blind elder showed his kindness by him that are very touching me. He provides food for creatures, water and a place to sleep, and teaches him the most basic forms of communication that need to be in a human being. The monster is allowed some humanity; some privilege that makes him more pathetic and human. The monster and the blind man is an education and a friendship that the Monster steps by steps away from the 'monster' tag and closer to the 'human being' tag. The limit of his language is the limit of his knowledge and interaction with mankind. The Monster beam develops emotions of pity when it sees someone in the forest in trouble and attempts to rescue them. When the monster finally back in the Frankenstein laboratory, he insists on a 'friend' for himself. It is a real mess that Henry has gotten himself in again, and he must create a bride for a monster. The monster's bride has a beautiful appearance; she treats coldly and strangely with monsters, moreover she dodges nimbly and hisses as the monster touches her. It signifies her disgust, disgust towards the monster. In the movie, the monster was isolated by his bride because of his ugly appearance that seems to have led the lone monster to anger, resentment; he was denied, isolated from the creator and his companion. At the end of the movie, monster ended his life at the collapsed castle and chasing his creator from the collapsing castle so he could survive that connect with the thesis that monster never gone (6), loneliness never gone, that keep through in life and destroy the soul of everyone. It shows that in the end, no matter how lousy loneliness is, it will always cling, no one will be someone else that escape someone and stay with someone else. The loneliness of Mary Shelley is changing and adapting.
Shelly gave the reader a distressing reality about his life and destiny when he was alienated and abandoned by the whole society. "Frankenstein" is a story that torments readers, obsessing over the extreme pain, the loneliness of being left to despair. More than anyone else, Mary Shelley has shown affection, love, and a sharp look in her story. However, Mary Shelley wrote about the monster to reflect the natural human. This novel enables us to find someone's secret about their life, such as Mary Shelley childhood. The monster she created was a very human creature. Sometimes the outcome or appearance of the incident does not correctly reflect the nature of the action or being. Frankenstein is not only a stubborn indictment for the ruthless society that has pushed people and the most pathetic path but also the work which is a testimony of love as a necessity; people are not alone. The new version of Frankenstein is a movie that an adaption of the story leads an audience to have a new ideology about loneliness.
Works cited
Shelley, Mary, Leslie S. Klinger, Guillermo Del Toro, and Anne K. Mellor. The New Annotated Frankenstein. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017. Print.
Bride of Frankenstein. Dir. James Whale. Perf. Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Valerie Hobson, and Ernest Thesiger. Universal Pictures, 1935. Film
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, editor. Monster Theory: Reading Culture. New edition ed., University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
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