The modern society places huge expectations of conformity on the individual, forcing them to question their identity and place in the society. Parental presence and acceptance, class, income, race and physical appearance become important in how well individuals get accustomed to the often rigid demands of the society they live in. Philosophers, poets and novelists throughout history have written about the feeling of abandonment by a parental figure or a class and the resultant agony it brings to their protagonists. Werther in The Sorrows of Young Werther, the creature in Frankenstein, Lily Briscoe in To The Lighthouse and Bartleby in Bartleby the Scrivener are all individuals who experience a sense of abandonment from the parental figures or the society whose acceptance they yearn for. This yearning for acceptance and the abandonment issues they experience turns them into a shadow of their former selves. They are forced to let go of their identity and true selves in an effort to conform and be accepted and this is a reflection of the malaise of the modern society.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it is not only the creature that experiences abandonment at the hands of Victor. Victor too loses his mother and the support of his father and teachers when he chooses to pursue his interests in natural philosophy. Rejection causes Victor and the creature to change in drastic ways. Victor turns to work in a maniacal way while the creature kills people that Victor loves. Both victor and the Creature want acceptance more than anything in their lives. The society however is not ready to accept their interests or their needs. Victor is filled with paranoia and a genuine fear for his life and that of his loved ones as a result of his creation while the creature turns to killing people. Society rejects Victor’s interest in natural philosophy because it is outdated and wouldn’t do him any good, the creature because of its physical deformity. The noble intentions of both Victor and the creature are extinguished because the society isn't willing to accept them. They turn into a shadow of their former selves because they feel abandoned. In the case of Werther in The Sorrows of Young Werther, his abandonment at the hands of Lotte leads to his suicide. Along with lotte’s refusal Werther also is shocked to learn that he is not accepted by the society he yearns to be a part of. Werther is happy in the small village among the peasants. He is accepted as he is above them in class. But among people from his class he is insulted and rejected. The patronizing tone he takes on with the villagers is lost when he realizes that he too is not accepted by people richer and intelligent than him. Werther’s life is full of rules and regulations but when he meets Lotte, he forgets everything and likes to lead a carefree life. But he is still bound by rules. His attraction to lotte also stems from the strained relationship he has with his mother. He does not address her directly but addresses her through a friend. In Lotte he sees a mother figure and when he cannot get her, he kills himself. His passion for Lotte is so much that he says, “I have so much in me, and the feeling for her absorbs it all; I have so much, and without her it all comes to nothing (Goethe 113).” The abandonment at the hands of his all consuming love finally kills him. He is rejected not only by Lotte but also by the society he moves in. Although he wants to break conventions, the society isn’t willing to accept him for what he is.
In Bartleby the Scrivener, Bartleby the protagonist is an odd person. He is seen as an outcast by the people around him as he does not lead a ‘normal’ life. Although he does his work efficiently, the people around him want him to talk freely, do other odd jobs around the office and mingle which he refuses to do. The lawyer moves his office and abandons him when Bartleby refuses to move. Finally even the narrator loses hope and abandons Bartleby and he is arrested and dies in the prison. Just as the creature in Frankenstein, Bartleby was different when it came to what is normal in the society. He was rejected because he did not conform to the identity foisted on him by those around him. He was abandoned as people did not want to treat his problem, they rather wished that it would go away.The people around him were not willing to accept him and that eventually leads to his death. Lily Briscoe in Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is different from the other characters above. Lily does not feel the need for acceptance. Her inability to complete the painting of Mrs. Ramsay stems from this refusal to accept what people expect of her. She stays unmarried and cannot finish the painting till the end of the book. She refuses to conform to what Mrs. Ramsay thinks she ought to do with her life. She also rebels against the restrictions posed on her painting by Mr. Ramsay. Lily is an artist as well as a feminist who does not live according to what is expected of her. She rejects the notions of femininity as exemplified by Mrs. Ramsay. The other characters in the novel try to change her and do not encourage her. However she perseveres and evolves as a person. In fact, she rejects everything that is foisted on her and as much as she admired Mrs. Ramsay, Lily does not change from who she really is. Even though they are close and share an intimate relationship, akin to a mother and daughter, they also reject each other.
All the characters discussed above are not ‘normal’ as they ought to be according to the conventions of the society they live in. Each one of them want to be accepted by the people around them in their own way though they are ‘different’. Even Lily needs to be accepted even though this yearning does not change who she is. When the society rejects them because of their differences, they fall apart. Through these characters, the novelists expose the malaise of the modern society in history. It is a society that is based on rules, regulations and norms where individualism and identity are often sacrificed at the altar of conformity as conformity alone leads to acceptance. The victims of such as society are the people who choose to be themselves. Parental and societal rejection often leads to lifelong problems in individuals. Their problems reflect badly on the society which does not tolerate differences. The need for acceptance is in every individual, some change for it and some do not. Those who try to be themselves often pay a huge price in their lives.
Works Cited
Goethe, Von Wolfgang Johann. The Sorrows of Young Werther. London: Dover Publications. 2002.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. New York: Harcourt Inc. 1981.
Melville, Herman. Bartleby, The Scrivener A Story of Wall-Street. New York: Snowball Classics. 2016.
Shelley. W. Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Millennium Publications. 2014.
