Four Novels--Common Theme

             Similar to the Congo in Heart of Darkness, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein possesses two settings that lead to conflict within the protagonist. Frankenstein's Ingolstadt University is a setting that leads to emotional conflict that the protagonist feels. Ingolstadt represents Victor Frankenstein's ill-willed ambitions, and serves as a place where he hopes to become a brilliant metaphycisist. It is also the setting where Victor creates the monster that destroys his family and leads to the emotional devastation of his own life ""when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred I had no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness which was yet in my power to bestow- (132). The emotional downfall created in Ingolstadt contrast the simpler, yet loving Geneva home, a setting that symbolizes the childhood years and love of both Henry and Elizabeth that Victor cherishes. These central values void in Ingolstadt, which serves to show why Victor feels such emotional conflict throughout the novel "Ingolstadt breeds the creation of Victor's cold-hearted ambitions, whereas Geneva breeds Victor's most peaceful years.
             The feelings Victor so often represses and subdues in Frankenstein are parallel to what the existent, yet submerged emotions the protagonist possesses in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. It is thus easy for the reader to see how Darlington Hall is another setting that provokes and forces emotional conflict within the protagonist. The values that are central to any human being "love, friendship, opinion, and self-respect are all vanquished by Darlington Hall and Stevens' submission. The absence of any such feelings explains why Stevens feels so affected when Mrs. Kenton catches him reading a romance novel, and serves to show how repressed Stevens' really is. The romance novel represents something Stevens' suppresses all of his life "love.