Emotional isolation in Frankenstein is the most pertinent and prevalent theme throughout the novel. This theme is so important because everything the monster does or feels is directly related to his poignant isolation. The effects of this terrible burden have progressively detrimental effects on the monster, and indirectly cause him to vent his frustrations on innocents. The monster's emotional isolation gradually makes him worse until evil completely prevails. This theme is perpetuated from Mary Shelley's personal life and issues with her father and husband, which continues into the work and makes it more realistic. (Mellor 32) During the time she was writing this novel, she was experiencing the emotional pangs of her newborn baby's death and her half-sister's suicide. These events undoubtedly influenced the course of the novel, and perhaps Shelley intended the monster's deformed body to become a symbol of one or both of his losses. There are numerous other parallels to the story and his real life that further explain why the novel is so bleak and depressing. Emotional isolation is the main theme of the novel due to the parallels shared with the novel and Shelley's life, the gradual descent of the monster into evil, and the insinuations of what is to come from the novel and Shelley's life. Although Frankenstein was written because of a challenge from Lord Byron, it is part of Shelley's life. We see many insights into his anguished and sad life that would otherwise go undetected. Victor Frankenstein's family is almost an exact parallel to that of her husband, Percy Shelley's family. The creation of the life of Frankenstein, the monster, is very similar to Mary Shelley's birth of her daughter with...... middle of paper ......en Scherf. Broadview Editions. 3rd edition. 20 June 2012Consulted worksBotting, Fred. Make monstrous. Frankenstein, criticism, theory. Manchester University Press, 1991. Bann, Stephen, ed. Frankenstein: Creation and Monstrosity. NY: Reaktion Books, 1997. Print. Giant, Denise. “Dealing with the Ugly: The Case of Frankenstein.” English Literary History 67.2 (2000): 565-87. Muse of the project. Network. April 1, 2006..Glut, Donald. The Frankenstein Archives: Essays on the Monster, the Myth, the Films, and More. NY: Macfarland, 2002. Print.Thornburg, Mary K. The Monster in the Mirror: Gender and Sentimental/Gothic Myth in Frankenstein. Ann Arbor: UMI Research, 1987. Print.Veeder, William. Mary Shelley and Frankenstein: the fate of androgyny. Chicago: UChicago P, 1986. Print.