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Essay: How do Margaret Atwood and Mary Shelley portray isolation in Frankenstein and The Handmaid's Tale?
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A* Practice essay for Unit 2-Prose of the Pearson Edexcel A-level.
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Essay- Explore the ways in which the authors of your chosen texts depict isolationIn both ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘The Handmaid’s tale’, authors Shelley and Atwood construct
characters that become physically, as well as emotionally isolated in order to generate
societal warnings. Indeed, whilst Shelley draws from the contexts of the 18 th century
enlightenment period, in order to imply the issues of scientific overreaching, Atwood
presents a hyperbolized consequence of Right-wing collectives such as ‘The New Right’
movement in order to present a warning about the treatment of women, and the
consequential isolation of these women within repressive societies.
Moreover, both authors construct characters that become physically alienated from the
domestic sphere by separation from their loved ones which has a consequentially negative
effect on wellbeing. However, whilst Shelley’s character ‘Victor’ chooses such isolation,
Atwood’s protagonist ‘Offred’ is forced away from her family. In order to display this,
Shelley presents juxtaposed notions of domestic affections and loneliness due to physical
isolation as Victor reflects on his choice to leave behind his family. In this case, Victor uses
highly sophisticated language stating that he ‘had ever been surrounded by amiable
companions’, in this case use of the pre-modifying lofty adjective ‘amiable’ and the abstract
notion of ‘pleasure’ connote the positive beneficial effect that Victor receives when he is
physically with his loved ones. Contrast is presented by the use of the dash in the line ‘-I was
now alone’ which presents a direct shift to the present tense, whilst also being reflective of
Victor’s physical transition to an isolated location. Victor parallels Walton in the sense that
both are isolated from the domestic sphere through the use of the Chinese box narrative
structure which ultimately links the perspectives of these two isolated individuals. The
distinct similarities between the two is made evident in Walton’s letters to his sister,
complaining ‘I have no friend’ which equally displays a negative implication of physical
isolation. In this sense, Shelley’s construction of these two men in isolated locations
including that harsh settings of both Orkney and The North Pole draws intertextually from
Coleridge’s epic poem ‘The rime of the ancient Mariner’ as the sailor in this poem embarks
on an a pursuit of knowledge akin to Victor and Walton’s in terms of isolated setting. In this
sense, Shelley is able to draw on this poem in order to present a warning about the issues of
enlightenment and purposeful isolation from the domestic sphere as Victor carries a ‘deadly
weight’ around his neck, much like the sailor’s punishment in carrying the Albatross he so
recklessly kills.
In a similar way, Atwood constructs Offred as a character who also becomes physically
isolated from domestic affections, however she is forced into such separations. Hence, it can
be argued that the audience sympathize more with Offred’s physical isolation through the
use of the first person slave narrative than they do for Victor and Walton’s self-isolation
through the Chinese box narrative. Indeed, in a similar way to Shelley, Atwood provides a
reflective view which is initially positive through use of the verb ‘believe’ as Offred claims
that she believes ‘all three contradictory versions of Luke’ which she has constructed in
order to keep his memory alive, just as Victor initially reminisces about the ‘mutual
pleasure’ derived from domestic affections. However, a shift is presented by the use of the
adverb ‘contradictory’ which implies a lack of tangibility to Luke’s memory, thus implying
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