Being on your own and alone in the world can be extremely frightening, especially when the loneliness becomes long term. When someone tends to be lonely, they try to find a companion to confide in and feel close to, a support system. In the popular novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, two of the main characters Victor and his creation, the monster face the despairs of loneliness and abandonment throughout certain events in their lives. This is told by Victor later on to a man he approaches by ship, Walton, who is very amazed with Victor’s emancipated appearance and the story of his life, including the production his monster. Victor, a bright student studying chemistry and psychology, turns down a dark path and thus creates a monster who ends up being just as emotionally depressed and alone as him.

After experiencing the death of his beloved mother and having to struggle with his father and siblings, Victor has already been coping with depression. Since attending the University of Ingelstad in Germany, Victor began to feel lonely and had few relationships, except frequent conversations with a few of his professors. With his family in Geneva and his closest friend Henry Clerval working alongside his father, Victor took his problems into his own hands and decided to observe corpses, significantly intrigued by the human anatomy. It was then that he decided to create a person out of many discarded bodies and bring that disheveled person to life. By doing this, Victor spend most of his time in a small, secluded workspace, slowly conniving his creation, thus maximizing all his attention towards completing and achieving the goal of bringing his fellow companion to life.

Once the product had finally been completed, Victor begins having vivid dreams about the monster coming to life and being an evil disturbance, frightening him that he had made a terrible mistake. To his disbelief the monster had actually been awakened and had come to life, causing Victor to rush out of his apartment and escape the hideous monster that  was fully his responsibility.

In my opinion, considering how lonely Victor had been in his months since entering University at Ingelstad, he should have shown empathy towards the monster, especially since he is the creator. Knowing he connected every body part and created this creature, Victor should not have been fearful, for he took part in every step of the process. He knew what he was getting himself involved with, even if he was considered partially psychotic. This monster was completely abandoned by Victor and now alone since there was no other individual similar to him. To be abandoned by the one that had took long hours and arduous work to create him is extremely disheartening to the monster and worsens his emotions of being unwanted and not fitting into society. He had tried to be delicate and friendly to the cottagers, but they expressed no signs of friendship in return and resorted to beating him instead. He was constantly being judged for his appearance instead of his gentle personality.

It is understandable for one to be lonesome and to want a companion. Victor creating this character was mainly due to the fact that he was alone and had no one to confide in. Creating the monster was the gateway to the startup of a friendship, but after seeing how ugly his creation had turned out, Victor decided he wanted nothing to do with him. This is shameful to Victor has he poured all his time and effort into this monster and then became frightened and ran out. The monster, with nothing to turn to and no one to talk to him, had to resort to finding his own path and starting a life on his own with no assistance or acts of benevolence. After the monster had spent months reflecting off of the lives of the cottagers living next to the hut he spent a majority of his time in, he then learned most of his life skills at a rapid pace. He admired them and wished that he could talk to them, especially since he was all alone. It was not till he had built up the courage to speak to (which cottager; blind), that he realized that no one would want to become friends with a monster as hideous as him. The cottagers were disgusted and frightened by him and resorted to beating him till he left the premises. The monster horrified by this, then saw his reflection when looking down at the lake, eventually agreeing with the cottagers that they had the right reactions to be scared. Even though he had a delicate and friendly personality, these cottagers, as well as everyone else, would only judge him on his physical appearance and would never care to get to know him for who he really was. It was then that he decided that if no one would accept him, that anger would get the best of him and he should turn to revenge, especially towards his creator Victor.