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Joshua Bass
Pierce
AP English
5/25/16

What can Loneliness do to You?

Throughout society, there are instances where a person does not fit in or is shunned based
on certain qualities. In doing this, that person is left to experience loneliness. Loneliness is the
perception of being alone and isolated. There are many causes such as moving to a new location,
or low self-esteem. The effects that come from loneliness are usually negative. Some of those
effects are depression, antisocial behavior, poor decision-making, and increased stress levels.
These effects can be contagious and sometimes solved. Wuthering Heights, Kite Runner, Native
Son, and Frankenstein all show evidence of characters that experience loneliness and are affected
in negative ways.
Within Frankenstein, there are two main characters that suffer from loneliness, Victor
Frankenstein and the Creature. These two characters experience loneliness and have different
results from their experiences. Victor Frankenstein was an anti-social scientist. He always loved
his family and friends and cherished his childhood. Victor mention that, No human being could
have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of
kindness and indulgence (Shelley). Even though he had a happy childhood and his parents were
filled with kindness and indulgence, he still felt like he was different.
His father was one person that he always felt different around. After his father called his
work sad trash, Victor began to fall into loneliness and suppressed himself with his studies and

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work. In creating this life of solitude, he began to make the Creature to cure this loneliness. At
the beginning of his creation, the Creature did solve the problem for Victor, but soon after the
Creature also fell into the realm of loneliness making Victors problems worse.
When the Creature was created, he did not come out the way he was intended to. He was
described as having scarce yellowish skin This was how his father, Frankenstein, and the
society saw him. Having this perception from other people made the Creature fall into loneliness
and not be accepted. Since the Creature knew that he would never be accepted by society and
that Frankenstein had chose the path of his life, he began to seek out to gain revenge on all
humanity and his creator. Loneliness began to make the Creature make negative decisions and
hurt others. Some of the negative things he did was killing someone that was mocking him, his
creators childhood friend, and his creators wife. This was all done because of the loneliness that
the creature was experiencing from the lack of love from his father, Victor Frankenstein.
To solve the loneliness of the Creature, Frankenstein could have created him differently
or raised him in a better way. The Creature did not know right from wrong and how to fit in. He
did not have the leadership of a fatherly figure because Frankenstein betrayed him and also saw
him as an outcast. He did not have the love that he wanted and needed, especially since
Frankenstein would not create him a significant other. The Creature did gain some love from the
De Laceys, which made some of the loneliness go away. How the Creature and Victor could had
overcome their loneliness is by loving and being there for each other no matter how society and
others viewed them. They should have taken care of each other and they would not have felt the
loneliness that they encountered.
Frankenstein could have also created a significant other for the creature, so that he would
not be the one of a kind, but would share his species with someone else. The creature said to

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Victor, "'I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and
horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and
have the same defects. This being you must create (Shelley).'" He thought that the love he would
share between the companion and him would solve his loneliness, which it could have. For
Victor, he was afraid that the companion would be just like the creature and be violent, which
would cause more problems and make his loneliness worse.
Wuthering Heights is a novel that has many characters and instances that involve
loneliness. The society, in general, is something that lives in solitude. This is seen by how there
is a separation of Wuthering Heights and and the Lintons and Thrushcross Grange. Lockwood
mention this solitude when he said, I am now quite cured from seeking pleasure in society, be it
country or town. A sensible man out to find sufficient company in himself (Bronte). This
solitude was not just seen has a living style, but in the families, there were issues of solitude with
the ways the children were being loved.
The Linton and Earnshaw children in general both experience loneliness, but in different
instance. The Linton family is portrayed as a family that overloved their children. This serves as
an example of where they actually are afraid of being lonely. Having this fear sets the mental
state as if there will always be someone there for the person, but that is not the case. If the
children were to experience loneliness, they would not know or be prepared how to handle
loneliness and would probably end in negative mental and physical health. For the Earnshaw
family, the children were not loved as much as they needed to, which led them to loneliness.
The children were not the only ones that felt lonely through love, but Heathcliff also had
a problem with his loneliness and love. The loneliness that he experienced was not a common
example of a lonely person. He was married to Isabelle Linton, but was in love with someone

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else, Catherine Earnshaw. The cause of his loneliness was simply not gaining the attention that
he wanted from Catherine. To solve this loneliness, he began to seek out revenge on everyone
that interrupted his path to get to Catherine.
The main person that Heathcliff goes after to get to Catherine is her elder brother,
Hindley. Heathcliff and Hindley have always had a hatred of each other because Mr.Linton,
Catherines and Hindleys father, liked Heathcliff more than Hindley. In Hindleys hatred for
Heathcliff, he made sure that Heathcliff could never be qualified to marry his sister. He did this
by making Heathcliff never became educated and forcing him to be a servant. After Mr.Lintons
and Hindleys wifes death, Hindley began to drink heavily and develop a gambling problem.
Knowing this, Heathcliff took the opportunity to gain revenge on Hindley. Heathcliff decided
that he would gamble with the drunk Hindley to gain all of his possessions, and won against
Hindley.
Trying to gain revenge on the people that was in the way of him getting to Catherine was
wrong, especially Hindley. To solve his loneliness, he should have realized that he could not
have Catherine and moved on with his actual wife, Isabelle. When his Catherine died, he stopped
eating and eventually died, but this did not stop his love for Catherine. Gaining revenge, trying to
hurt others to get Catherine, and hurting himself, should have never crossed his mind. When he
took all of Hindleys possessions and Wuthering Heights, he should have felt guilty and realized
that his loneliness and love was not more important that his friendship with Hindley. This type of
loneliness and effects experienced is also portrayed in the Kite Runner.
In the Kite Runner, there is one main character that really experiences loneliness, Amir.
Throughout the story, Amir had a hard time gaining the attention of his father, Baba. There were
instances where Amir would want to spend time with his father, but his father would reply with,

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"Go on, now," he'd say. "This is grown-ups' time. Why don't you go read one of those books of
yours?(Hosseini)." Then, Baba would just close the door on Amir, and leave him to read alone
while Baba is talking, laughing, and having fun.
Besides Baba sometimes neglecting Amir, he felt like Hassan, their servant, got more
attention from his father than he did. This made him feel lonely and lead to him making some
poor decisions. To gain attention from his father, he first worked with Hassan to win the kite
fighting contest and brought home the blue kits. He also begins to mock Hassans ignorance and
play tricks on him. It gets to the point where Amir carries out a plan of accusing Hassan of being
a thief by hiding Babas watch and some of his birthday money under Hassans pillow. When
Hassan gets caught, his father, Ali, insists that the must leave and move to another location. Amir
realizes that his loneliness was not worth losing his best friend once Hassan had moved.
When he realized that Hassan ment more than his loneliness and the attention from his
father, it was too late. He began to notice that Hassan was the best friend the he could have had
and that his father did love him the whole time. Amir said, Hassan and I fed from the same
breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we
spoke our first words (Hosseini). He also found out from Rahim Khan, a family friend, that
Hassan was actually is half-brother. This was the start of the solution of Amirs loneliness
because he found out that he had a brother, but the sad part was that Hassan had died. Since
Hassan had died, his son, Sohrab, was in an orphanage and Rahim Khan told Amir to go get him.
When Amir got him and brought him back to Islamabad, he realizes the responsibility that he has
just taken and the loneliness that he will not be feeling later on.
Having Sohrab to take care was the solution to Amirs loneliness. The book ends with I
ran. symbolizing the Amir running just like Hassan did. This marks the end of Amirs loneliness

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because now that he has Sohrab and is back in kite fighting, he will always have a memory of
Hassan and know that he is always there with him in spirit.
In Native Son, the main character, Bigger, experience loneliness that is caused by
increased stress levels. At home, Bigger did not have a father figure and had to step up to the
plate to take care of his family. His family consisted of his mother and two siblings, but none of
them had a job and they were poor. Since there was no father figure, Bigger blamed himself for
the family not having money. Having this feeling, made him feel lonely because none of his
friend or family understood the way he feels.
His first thought was to rob a white persons store with his friends. That plan did not go
through, but he was offered a job at the Dalton family home. This helped with his aloneness
because he could now help his mother out with the family, but while he was on the job, he killed
Mary, the daughter of the family. The killing was a mistake and was suppose to help Mary, but
did not go as plan. After his sentencing, he was put in jail and he fell back into the lonely stage.
While he was in his jail cell, loneliness really kicked in. His family and friends came and visited
him, which made him realize that he actually does affect others lives and is not alone.
Each of the characters that experience loneliness have a story to tell. By their experience,
they are now a different person. They learned a lesson that has taught them ways to change their
lives or make them better. Learning from their loneliness has also changed the way they treat
others and themselves. For Victor, he has realized that he was not the father he should have been
to the creature, and that he made the wrong decision in creating it. For the creature, he knows
that even though he is not accepted by society, there are people in the world that actually care for
people. He also knows that he can figure out what is right from wrong without his creator.

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As for Bigger, he realized that what he did, did not affect just him. He was the father
figure in his family and what he did affected his siblings because they looked up to him. In
reality, he was never alone because his mother and siblings understood how it felt to be poor. He
could not support them financially, but he did support them emotionally and physically.
Heathcliff ended up with his lover, Catherine, all along. His loneliness taught him never to give
up. The effect of depression and eventually suicided took over Heathcliffs life. When he died, he
was buried next to Catherine and there is mentioning of their ghosts walking the moors together.
For Hassan, is now a fatherly figure to his brothers child. This taught him that he will not
experience loneliness and what it means to have family. He noticed that his loneliness that he
was having from getting attention from his father was not more important that he had with his
friend, and half brother.
The Kite Runner, Native Son, Wuthering Heights, and Frankenstein each have loneliness
being experienced by one or more characters. Each character had different experiences and
negative effects, but each one of them handled it in a manner to help themselves. They did not all
succeed in their plans, but they did try. Loneliness can affect you, but make sure that you take it
and try to solve it.

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Works Cited

Bronte, Emily, Fritz Eichenberg, and Bruce Rogers. Wuthering Heights. New York:
Random House, 1943. Print.
Wuthering Heights is the story of two childhood lovers, Heathcliff and Catherine
Earnshaw, who grow up on the Yorkshire Moors. When Catherine marries another man, Edgar
Linton, Heathcliff attempts to take revenge on the entire Linton and Earnshaw families. When he
is trying to gain revenge, he realizes that he is alone and his hurting himself more than anyone
else. The loneliness that he felt after Catherine left him, made him go towards the bad decision
making. In this paper, the use of this book will be to explain the negative effects that come from
feeling alone. One of the main negative effects is making wrong choices and trying to gain
revenge on the ones that hurt you or left you alone. This paper will also include different ways
that characters that experienced loneliness in the book could have solved it or prevented it.
Wuthering Heights will be a good source for all of this information.

Cherry, Kendra. "Feeling Lonely? What You Should Know." Verywell. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
This article talks about the definition, effect, causes, treatments, and the prevention ways
of loneliness. This will help me analyze the characters within the Kite Runner, Wuthering
Heights, and Frankenstein to explain their experience of feeling lonely. This website will give
examples of some of the causes of loneliness and explain the contagiousness of loneliness. With
this knowledge, it will help analyze the book to see if the loneliness was or can be fixed and if
someone close to the character can be affected by the characters loneliness. Lastly, this paper

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will go into depth about the effects that come from being lonely. This website will give good
information and support to affirm the parts of the paper that is cited with this source.

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead, 2003. Print.
The Kite Runner includes a story about a family that has a father and one son, Amir, but
later in the book, the secret of another son, Hassan, is exposed. Hassan was excluded from the
family and never got the real experience of his actual family. Amir was trying to gain attention
from his father because he felt like he was alone and wasnt being treated as a real son should be
treated. As a result of this, he planted a scheme on Hassan to make him seem like a theft. This
plan was suppose to fix his problem of being alone, but instead he regretted his actions and
realized that Hassan was his only best friend and took good care of him. In reality, he was never
alone. He had people that was there for him and cared for him, but he did not realize it and
betrayed them. This book will help analyze the loneliness that Amir was feeling and the effects
he had from feeling lonely.

Kevorkian, Edward. "AP English Blog: Loneliness in Frankenstein." AP English Blog:

Loneliness in Frankenstein. 23 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
This website is a blog that talks specifically about loneliness in Frankenstein and how the
characters experience and are affected by it. In this paper, there will be specific examples from
the Frankenstein text of the characters actions from being lonely. The website will be used to
support this information and help to elaborate on the subject.
Victor Frankenstein and the Creature are the two main characters that experience
loneliness. This blog talks about those two in depth on their fate that comes from the loneliness.
The blog mentions how both Victor and the Creature experienced being distant from their

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parental figure. They were both antisocial and began to dislike each other. Frankenstein started to
regret creating the Creature, but did so to decrease his loneliness. When he realized this, it was
already too late because the Creature already decreed that he was declaring war on the species
and especially the man the created him. This was all because he began to feel lonely. This blog
will help analyze Frankenstein and the loneliness that was felt by the Creature.

Levy, Eric. The psychology of loneliness in Wuthering Heights. Studies in the Novel 28.2
(1996): 158. Web Source.
This section of Studies in the Novel is a great source for information on the loneliness in
Wuthering Heights. It gives specifics examples of the loneliness and elaborates in great detail
about it. It also goes even deeper than just examples and goes into the psychology of what is
happening to the characters. Eric Levy, the author, really does a great job on explaining and
giving good examples. For example, Levy talks about the Earnshaw household and how they
represent a house where children are neglected and abused, while the Linton family is the
complete opposite and overprotects their children. Another example is how Levy goes into great
detail about Heathcliff. Heathcliff will be the biggest example of loneliness within Wuthering
Heights. Levy mentions that the suffering that Heathcliff is experiencing pushes him beyond pity,
but his worst because of the hurt that he makes others feel. He does this because he is lonely
himself and does not know how to deal with it. This section reflects on the mental aspect of
loneliness and what it does to the characters in Wuthering Heights.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.

Shellys Frankenstein portrays a story about a monster that is created by a scientist, and is
not raised in the right what he should go. This results in the monster making bad decisions and

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being discriminated within society. The monster was seen as an ugly, evil thing which affected
him in a negative way. This made him feel like he was alone in the world. He tried to fall in love
with someone, but his creator did not let him. There was a family named the De Laceys that
actually cared for the monster and did not shun him. They taught him how to read and took care
of him when the rest of society did not. This helped him feel like someone cared for him and that
he was not alone. The effect from feeling alone that the monster experienced was fighting. He
did this in many cases throughout the book. One example is when the monster declared war
against the species and especially the one that created him. Frankenstein houses many examples
of what loneliness can do to someone. These examples will be reflected in the paper.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper & Bros., 1940. Print.
In this book, there is a character named Bigger. He is the example of someone feeling
alone. Even though he has a mother and siblings, he feels like no one understands him. At home,
he feels as if the poor life his family lives is because of him. This makes him go out and want to
rob a white persons store with his friends. He was offered a job at the Dalton family home. This
helped with his aloneness, but when he killed the daughter of the family, he fell back into the
lonely stage. While he was in his jail cell, he really began to feel alone. His family and friends
came and visited him, which made him realize that he actually does affect others lives and is not
alone. The effects of his loneliness ended in bad decision making and regretting his actions. At
the end of the story, he has a change of heart. This book will support the topic of loneliness and
the effects that it has on the person.