On an uncomplicated psychological plane Mary Shelley is representing the simple dynamics
of the Creature's alienation. With no other presence to balance or feel for this injustice,
in his solitude he works himself into a confirmed opposition to the world that has
rejected and threatened him. The Enlightenment virtues of benevolence and sympathy,
were they ever to be encountered by the Creature, would by their very nature undercut
his introverted and exclusionary mental state and enforce a social communion. Once
again, as in Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Alastor; or, the Spirit of Solitude," published
in March 1816, we recognize that solitude constitutes an evil spirit leading one to
ill. The opening paragraph of Volume 2, in which Victor Frankenstein reveals himself
similarly introverted and plotting revenge as a means of assuaging his self-hatred
is, indeed, an appropriate introduction to this dynamic that arches across the volume
(see II:1:1 and note).