Isolation and Alienation in Frankenstein and The Metamorphosis

Isolation and alienation are ingrained in the human condition. Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis explore these themes through characters rejected by society and cut off from meaningful human connection. Victor Frankenstein’s Creature and Gregor Samsa are tragic figures not because of some inherent nature but because of how society and their families respond to their differences. In both texts, isolation becomes an emotional and psychological torment that dehumanizes the characters and ultimately leads to despair and destruction.

In Frankenstein, the Creature’s isolation begins at the very moment of his creation. Horrified by what he has brought to life, Victor Frankenstein flees in terror. “Breathless horror and disgust filled my heart,” Victor confesses as he abandons the Creature (Shelley, Ch. 5). This moment sets the tone for the rest of the novel: the Creature is denied companionship, understanding, and even a name. Though he initially seeks connection by hiding in the forest, learning to speak, and secretly helping the De Lacey family, he is consistently met with fear and violence.

The most heartbreaking expression of his alienation comes when he confronts Victor and pleads for a companion: “I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me… I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as myself” (Shelley, Ch. 17). His isolation is so profound that he begs for someone who will not recoil from him in disgust. The despair and rage he feels as a result of this rejection lead him to violence.

Shelley’s novel is compelling in exploring how social alienation can create monsters. His repeated rejection undermines the Creature’s desire to do good. He says, “I was benevolent and good—misery made me a fiend” (Shelley, Ch. 10), emphasizing that his violence is a consequence of his exclusion, not his nature. Shelley critiques a society that judges by appearance and abandons those who are different.

In Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself transformed into a giant insect, a physical manifestation of his alienation and dehumanization. What’s striking about Kafka’s story is how quickly Gregor’s family shifts from concern to indifference and, eventually, resentment. At first, they attempt to care for him, though mainly out of obligation. However, as time passes and Gregor becomes a burden, they treat him less like a family member and more like a pest.

Gregor’s physical transformation reflects how he was treated before his metamorphosis: as a tool for labor. “He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone,” Kafka writes (Part 1). Even before his transformation, Gregor is overworked, emotionally neglected, and trapped in a family dynamic that values him only for his ability to provide. Once he is no longer useful, his family no longer seems to care for his well-being.

His isolation intensifies as he becomes confined to his room, barely fed, and increasingly repulsive to those around him. The most devastating moment comes when Gregor realizes “He must go” and that his family had already silently wished for his death (Part 3). His eventual demise is met with relief. In contrast to Shelley’s Creature, Gregor doesn’t respond with rage but internalizes rejection, succumbing to self-loathing and dying. Kafka thus presents alienation as more of a slow erosion of self-worth.

Both Shelley and Kafka depict protagonists whose differences isolate them from society, yet the texts approach the consequences of alienation in distinct ways. The Creature in Frankenstein is eloquent, articulate, and desperate to be understood. He teaches himself a language, reads Milton and Plutarch, and tries to appeal to Victor through reason and emotion. His tragedy is that he is painfully aware of what he is missing.

In contrast, Gregor loses his voice early in The Metamorphosis. Even when he tries to communicate, he is misunderstood: “Gregor had wanted to answer in detail and explain everything, but in the circumstances contented himself with saying ‘Yes, yes, thank you, mother. I’m getting up now.’” (Kafka, Part 1). His family only hears disturbing insect-like noises. Kafka’s use of voice, or the lack of it, emphasizes the depth of Gregor’s alienation. He literally cannot make himself understood.

Shelley and Kafka also critique the failures of empathy in their societies. Victor Frankenstein refuses to take responsibility for the Creature, even when begged to create a companion. Gregor’s family rejects their obligations once he is no longer economically valuable. Both authors show how society’s inability to see past the physical or the functional leads to different people's suffering.

Yet, where Shelley’s Creature externalizes his suffering through violence, Kafka’s Gregor internalizes it until he wastes away. Both responses, however, highlight how isolation distorts the human spirit.

Frankenstein and The Metamorphosis are meditations on the consequences of alienation. Shelley shows how rejection can transform a sensitive soul into a vengeful outcast. At the same time, Kafka portrays the suffocating horror of a man made invisible and inhuman by those closest to him. Despite their differences in tone and narrative style, both texts agree on a fundamental truth: to be denied connection is to be denied humanity. The tragedy of both Gregor and the Creature is not their physical difference but the world’s refusal to look beyond it.