Isolation.

Isolation: a common theme throughout the semester. Frankenstein was isolated; Frankenstein’s creature was isolated. Wing Biddlebaum was isolated. Enoch Robinson was isolated. Almost every novel we have read features isolation, but it was specifically Winesburg, Ohio and Frankenstein in which isolation was prominent.

Frankenstein isolated himself in trying to create the creature. He locks himself away and creates something that he eventually regrets. He “shunned his fellow creatures” and hid in his lab (Shelley 41). He was isolated in the beginning and again, in the end, he was isolated. In the end, a “solitary cell had been [his] habitation…” (Shelley 176). Out of isolation, he created what he called, a monster, and he failed to destroy his monster. It was in isolation that he, again, almost created another monster. Victor’s isolation proved detrimental and eventually caused his death as he died after spending months isolated in the artic. It became difficult to tell whether he was the monster himself. His fits coincided with the creature’s appearances and nobody else ever saw the creature. If the creature was real, even he was isolated. Men feared him, so there were “none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist…” him (Shelley 116). Villagers ran away at the sight of him. His isolation turned him into the monster that Victor thought he was in the beginning. The creature even admits it and says, “I am malicious, because I am miserable” (Shelley 124). His isolation made him miserable and by extension, malicious. The family that he thought would protect him abandoned him. Isolation was his downfall.

Even Winesburg, Ohio was full of isolated characters. Wing, for example, is isolated out of fear. His hand forced him to fear men. He was accused of horrible crimes, so he keeps his hands “hidden away” and isolated (Anderson 12). He is “driven from the Pennsylvania town,” which is when he starts his period of isolation (Anderson 15).  His isolation made him nervous and “forever frightened” (Anderson 9). Similarly, Enoch Robinson’s isolation drove him crazy. He bought a room and left his wife, and that “took Enoch out of the world of men” (Anderson 171). This isolation then drove him crazy especially when he met a woman who only furthered his isolation. This woman’s room is never shown, and there is no proof that she is real. She is likely just one of his imaginary people. However, he screams at her and when she leaves, she takes all of his people with her, leaving him completely alone. Thus, he is forced to return to Winesburg.

All of these characters-- Victor, the creature, Wing and Enoch—were isolated and suffered because of it. Their isolation became their downfall; it ruined them. So, the main theme throughout these two novels is that isolation is usually a curse.