Isolation and Otherness in The Wasp Factory

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  • Isolation and Otherness in The Wasp Factory
    • The Island
      • There is a "Keep Out-Private Property sign suggesting that the islanders want to keep people and society away
        • Presumably Frank's father in particular wants to keep people away just in case the secret about Frank's true identity gets out
      • An island suggests to the readers straight away that there is isolation which is by choice for Frank because she is scared that the same will happen to her what happened to Eric after he left the seclusion and security of the island
      • Frank builds Sacrifice Poles to ward people away from the isalnd which is one of the factors contributing to the isolation of the island
    • Otherness
      • Eric is a clear cut example of otherness in gothic fiction. After his incident at the hospital, he starts to traumatise children and burn dogs etc. Parents tell their kids if they misbehave then Eric will get them. This is unfair as what happened to Eric wasn't his fault, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and decided to do the wrong thing.
      • Frank is another example of otherness. She (like Eric) is used as a detterent for small children not to misbehave. In addition to this, she is othered because of how she's grown up. Her father lied to her her whole life about who she  was because he wanted to rid femininity in his life completely, and saw Old Saul's attack as the perfect excuse for an experiment
      • Frank others woman-kind by calling them weak and stupid (not aware at the time that she is a woman. This othering of women has been imposed by Frank's father, who first did it when Frank was three.
        • Frank others Mrs Clamp by calling her old and sexless. He does the same to Esmerelda except she is young and sexless, but will eventually reach sexual maturity (although not in her case because she was murdered)
      • Jamie the dwarf is othered by Eric who calls him an alien. Frank is presumably friends with him because she feels like she can relate to him because they are both "disabled" and othered by the rest of society
    • Isolation
      • The Island
        • There is a "Keep Out-Private Property sign suggesting that the islanders want to keep people and society away
          • Presumably Frank's father in particular wants to keep people away just in case the secret about Frank's true identity gets out
        • An island suggests to the readers straight away that there is isolation which is by choice for Frank because she is scared that the same will happen to her what happened to Eric after he left the seclusion and security of the island
        • Frank builds Sacrifice Poles to ward people away from the isalnd which is one of the factors contributing to the isolation of the island
      • What happened to Eric
        • When Eric was attending to the dead child, he was all alone in the ward apart from the other children who had been born deformed
      • The Snake Park, The Bomb Circle and A Bunch of Flowers
        • When Frank murders his cousins and brother, he does it where nobody can see (in an isolated location)
        • The snake park can be linked to the Garden of Eden which has connotations to isolation because after Adam and Eve sin, they are exiled from God's presence and "isolated" from paradise. There is also links to the female being a dangerous temptress
        • A bunch of flowers has obvious links to femininity and innocence which is represented in flesh by Esmerelda. Frank others this by subverting our expectations of the female by being presented as a male who enjoys exaggerated masculine activities and things such as killing animals and playing war
        • Frank others Blythe as a monster for killing her and Eric's pet rabbits with a blow torch, leading to Frank becoming a monster in that moment by indirectly murdering her cousin by putting an adder in his prosthetic leg
      • The bunker is an isolated place on the island. It is full of many Gothic things such as the dried heads of dead animals, most profoundly the skull of Old Saul, which Frank uses to infiltrate Eric's sould and spirit. It is isolated which gives Frank a sense of security
      • The Wasp Factory itself is another isolated feature of the island. It is hidden away in the loft where nobody can go except Frank, Angus can't get up tothe loft because of his leg which Agnes (Frank's mother) drove over on her motorbike. This again gives Frank security
      • When Frank is alone, (before it is revealed she is a woman) she others herself from the rest of her gender (male) when looking in the mirror at herself

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