The Handmaid's Tale

The Theme of Solitude through the Main Character 12th Grade

In the novel Frankenstein, Victor’s single-minded pursuit for knowledge drives him further into loneliness and solitude, leaving behind his family and the ones that love him like his adopted sister Elizabeth and his father. But in the Handmaid’s tale Offred is forced into solitude by the Gileadean government and rules of society of being a Handmaid, only being used in society for one purpose, ‘I have viable ovaries. I have one more chance.’ In the novel Frankenstein, Shelley explores the themes of loneliness and solitude. The novel may be a reflection of the inner state of Mary Shelley, reflecting her sufferings and loses through her life before she wrote the novel, like the guilt she felt after her mother died a few weeks after her birth. The main character in her novel, Victor Frankenstein, does not think of the possible consequences and results of his experiments once he has required the knowledge to do so. He does not think what will happen when he finally succeeds and creates a living creature going against the nature law, ‘I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit…How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I endeavored...

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