Loneliness And Irony In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells a fictitious tale of the scientist Victor Frankenstein executing his dream of forming life. As soon as his creation awakens, Frankenstein sprints away full of disappointment and dread. Consequently, this sparks the beginning of the creature’s infamous attitude of anger. Despite him carrying around the stereotype of emitting evil, the creature counters it throughout the novel. Part of the novel examines his immense kindness and his unavoidable loneliness. Unfortunately, those two, manageable emotions don’t last long due to his unmanageable rage outweighing them. Shelley conveys these three sentiments on pages 128-131 through imagery and tone in order to tie those rhetorical functions into the greater theme

Loneliness. It’s obvious that the monster will face this saddening sensation because of his appearance. Shelley exemplifies it through describing the wintry setting: “nature decayed around [him]” represents his feeling on the inside; “the sun became heatless” represents his rapidly freezing heart; “rain and snow poured around [him]” represents his overwhelming trials; “mighty rivers were frozen” represents his life halting; “the surface of the earth was hard and chill, and bare,” represents his perspective on life (129). In general, Frankenstein’s monster endures all this pain and suffering due to the terrible treatment he encounters. He “has no shelter” (Shelley 129) to save him from his lamentable predicament. Afterwards, the author writes about the monster, later, enjoying the spring scenery. Happiness. This overflows the monster, as Shelley captures through this portion with imagery. With the sun defrosting his heart, the river of his life flowing- allowing him to receive enjoyment, and the earth not bombarding him with hurtful words/ actions; he experiences joy and liberation and, most importantly, being human. Sadly, all of this is taken away by a single bullet. Anger. At this point in the story, Mary Shelley uses imagery to not convey the five main senses, but to communicate the

Just like how the imagery shifts, so does the tone. Shelley favors the monster throughout this novel due to him constantly trudging through a life filled with judgment. So, in the beginning, the tone is sympathy because of the frigid environment described replicating the monster’s loneliness. Within the middle of the passage, Shelley has a joyful attitude towards the monster’s revel in the beauty surrounding him. Tragically, one weapon flipped everything upside down. This event caused the tone to shift to anger. Emphasized by Frankenstein’s monster saying “the labours I endured were no longer to be alleviated by the bright sun or gentle breezes of spring,” the tone discloses the frustration of the monster not being able to live a normal life free of negativity (Shelley