Frankenstein, by Mary

Shelley
 An allusion is a reference to a famous event, person, or place. Typically,
allusions influence the piece in some manner.

Summary of Frankenstein
• It is important to give you a brief summary of the novel to help you understand
allusions to it. Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from body parts that he
has got from the morgue. He is horrified by his creation and leaves it alone in
his apartment. When he returns, the monster is gone. After a time, Victor
learns that his brother, William, has been murdered. When he returns for the
funeral, he is reunited with the creature and learns that it is the murderer. The
creature explains that he has been rejected by humans. He is lonely and wants
a mate. Victor agrees to make him one, but changes his mind. The monster
then kills Victor's friend Henry and Victor's new bride, Elizabeth. Victor follows
the creature to the Arctic, and is found alone on an iceberg by a crew on an
ocean expedition. Victor is cared for by the crew until his death, when the
creature visits his body and tells the ship's captain, Robert Walton, that he will
not harm anyone else and will isolate himself until he dies.
 Prometheus

• To start, the full title of the novel is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
This shows us that there is a connection between Frankenstein and
Prometheus before we even begin to read the story. To better understand this,
it is important to know who Prometheus was. Prometheus is the creator of
humankind in Greek mythology. He stole fire from the Greek god Zeus to give
to humans. Zeus punished him by making the goddess Pandora open her box
of suffering and despair, which afflicts humanity. Prometheus also suffers
because Zeus ties him to a rock and has a giant eagle eat his liver each day.

• The allusion relates to the story of Victor Frankenstein because Frankenstein,

like Prometheus, is the creator of a being. Frankenstein uses lightning to bring
his being to life, much like Prometheus shares fire with humans. Frankenstein
eventually suffers because of his creation.
 Gothic Elements

• When Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818, Gothic literature, or literature that explores the exotic,
mysterious, and supernatural, was enjoying an unprecedented popularity. Now, nearly 200 years later, it is still
talked about, studied, and debated. It continues to captivate and creep us out. The monster's image appears
everywhere, from television to film to cereal boxes.

• So what makes Frankenstein so enduring? A look at Shelley's brilliant use of Gothic elements might provide some
clues.

• The Secret Gone Wild

• Gothic novels are all about secrets, who has one, and why are they hiding it. The secret is always powerful, a
matter of life or death, joy or despair, or hanging in the balance. In Shelley's novel, the secret is tinged with shame
and fear. Victor is not trying to uncover another's falsehood, sin, or mistake. As the monster's creator, Victor is the
author of his own fate.

• His secret
• It's not buried in some ancient castle, nor is it hidden in the depths of a tomb, another Gothic convention. Victor
has quite literally resurrected his secret from the grave and breathed life into it. It is an active agent able to seek
out and destroy everyone Victor most wants to shield from it: his friends and family.
• The Shadow
• One of the most prominent characteristics of Gothic literature is the constant threat, real or
imagined, that the characters must suffer. Danger lurks at every corner. Shadows menace,
populated by evils that have no face or name.

• Victor's shadow has a name and an agenda. The monster is an agent of rage, an instrument
of revenge. He loathes his creator for rejecting him at birth then abandoning him to the
cruelty of the human race. He blames Victor for subjecting him to loneliness and isolation
when he was born with a heart craving love. He also begrudges Victor for failing to give him
the one thing that would quiet his pain and prevent his war on humanity: a mate.

• The monster becomes Victor's imminent doom. His superhuman strength and speed make
him seem to be everywhere Victor goes, waiting, watching, and threatening. This monster
has a name and a face. He is not some dusky fear that is less terrible than the imagination
could conjure. He is far worse than any imagining, comprehension, or articulation.
• Victor knows the form his doom will take: to watch the
destruction of his loved ones before being destroyed himself. For
Shelley, the Gothic is not wondering what the terror will be. It is
wondering when the terror will come. It is in the awful
anticipation of the inevitable.

A Family Affair
• Gothic literature is often just a family drama infused with
supernatural elements. Gothic literature usually revolves around
some kind of ancient secret or age-old curse that threatens to
destroy the family's happiness, its unity, or its existence for
generations to come.
 Vocabulary
• Demeanor
Conduct, behavior, or the general way people present themselves to others.
• Vivacious
Full of life, energy, or spirit.
• Fervent
Passionate, fiery, and ardent.
• Dauntless
Brave and fearless.
• Zealous
To be full of zeal: to be enthusiastic and strongly supportive of something.
• Indefatigable
Not able to be 'fatigued'. To carry on without tiring.
• Exhilarated
To be made excited and invigorated.
• Ardour
Strong feeling, passion, and devotion.
• Deceit
Intentional trickery or efforts to fool someone.
• Malice
Ill will, bad intentions, and the impulse to hurt others.
• Indignation
To feel upset or angry about something that is unfair or wrong.
• Barbarity
Cruel, brutal, and crude behavior.
• Abhorrence
The state of 'abhorring' something: to hate or loathe it.
• Sagacity
The quality of being wise and in possession of good judgment.
• Veneration
Feelings of deep respect, honor, or awe.
• Illustriousness
The quality of being bright, admired, and distinguished.
• A closer look at Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' can give us insight into the author and her anxieties over children, into the problems
and conditions of her time, and offers a warning about hubris.
• The Original Science Fiction
• What do the movies The Matrix, Terminator, or Ex Machina, and TV shows like The Walking Dead and Battlestar Galactica have in
common? Well, all these shows are inspired by a story written by a young 19-year old writer in 1816 named Mary Shelley.

• Her book Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is often considered the mother of science fiction. In it, Shelley poses questions
about whether the places science can go are places it should. Since its publication in 1818, Frankenstein has attracted many analyses
about its author, its time, and its message.

• Shelley as Mother
• Literary critics, philosophers, and historians have all looked at Shelley's Frankenstein through many different lenses, but most
analyses focus on how the book can help us understand Shelley herself, the historical and political world she lived in, and the
message she sent about the pursuit of science and the enlightenment.

• Mary Shelley
• Mary Shelley
• In reading Frankenstein with an eye towards the author, we learn that Shelley's inspiration came to her soon after losing her first child
to a premature birth and shortly after the birth of her second child. Shelley wrote in her journal following her first child's death that
she had recurring dreams that her child had come to life again.

• Understanding her mindset as a young woman in a world where children and mothers often died young, analysts look at Frankenstein
as a story about the anxiety of a new mother towards her child.
• Social Engineering
• Frankenstein is also read in light of the social and historical changes of the time Shelley lived in. In 1816 when
Shelley dreamed of Frankenstein, Europe had just defeated Napoleon and exiled him. The ideas of the French
Revolution and the writings of Rousseau on liberating human nature still resonated in Europe, and Shelley's
writing about creating a new man is read as a criticism of the social engineering agendas of revolutionaries, i.e.
the idea that people can be retrained to be different.

• Victor Frankenstein's inspiration for his creature is driven in Chapter 4 by his dismay that mankind dies and
decays, the same sort of dismay is expressed by Rousseau in his dismay that man is born free, but is then
chained by civilization. Frankenstein can be read then as a critique of the revolutionary passions of the time
that sought to upset and recreate the established order. Shelley may be suggesting that the creature that is
created by such passions will not bring the future they intend.

• Title page to the famous novel

• Frankenstein Title Page
• Feminist Critique
• Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is most frequently read and interpreted as a Gothic horror on the
dangers of the unbridled optimism of science. Gothic horror is a subset of romanticism as a genre that thrives
on the excitement and terror of the mystery of nature and the supernatural.
 Key Themes in Frankenstein

• When in 1818 Mary Shelley put to paper the story that she had originally conceived as a 17-year-old telling ghost stories with her friends, little could
she have imagined that she would create one of the most iconic horror stories of all time. But Frankenstein proved to be an instant classic and rightly
so. Because aside from being a good old-fashioned thriller, Frankenstein brilliantly explores the big questions that all humans, no matter who, what, or
where we are, grapple with: what is the nature of wisdom? How should I love and be loved? And where is the line between justice and revenge?

• Mary Shelley

• Wisdom Versus Knowledge

• One of the most significant questions in Frankenstein is what is the nature of wisdom and how is this distinct from knowledge, from learning? Dr.
Frankenstein is a born scholar. His entire life is devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. But just because he is learned doesn't mean that he is wise. This is
apparent early on when he becomes enamored as a young man with ancient philosophers--alchemists, who sought to transform base metals into gold,
and metaphysicians, those who subscribe more to supernatural than to empirical studies.

• Frankenstein's misguided studies as a young man foreshadow what is to come in his adulthood. In pursuing knowledge, he unwisely steps far beyond
what it is in the mortal condition to know. In trying to harness the essence of life and defy the laws of death, he also flouts the rules of nature and
presumes to make himself higher, wiser, and more powerful even than God. The result of foolish pride and his arrogant learning is his own destruction
and the destruction of all he loves.

• Illustration from 1831 edition

• Frankenstein
• What Is Love?
• Love is another prevailing theme in Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein's greatest terror and sharpest pains come not from his own suffering, but from the
suffering his actions bring down upon his dearest ones. This suggests that as human beings, we are never truly alone: our deeds reflect and
reverberate on those around us, even as the ties that bind us to others are also the cords that cut us most deeply.
 Love
• But it is in the figure of Frankenstein's monster that the theme of love plays out most poignantly. The truth is that the monster is not
born bad. He may not be bad at all. But he is hurting.

• He wants to belong, to love, and be loved. And yet Dr. Frankenstein recoils from him from the moment of his unnatural birth.
Sickened and appalled by what he has done, by the laws of nature he has so flagrantly violated, Dr. Frankenstein cannot bear the
sight of his creation as an animated, living being.

• The monster, still just a newborn, though grotesquely deformed and frightfully large, flees into the streets, where terrified villagers
drive him from the town with blows, screams, and threats. This is how the monster is introduced to humanity. These are his first
moments alive on Earth.

• But an innately good heart beats beneath the scarred flesh, and when the monster finds refuge hiding undetected in the home of the
Delacey family, he learns for the first time in his life what familial love is. This is the connection that he longs for, and for a time he
holds out hope that he can be loved in spite of his fearsome appearance. He performs small acts of kindness for the Delaceys, while
also learning their language and their manners, believing that he will be able to make himself acceptable to them, that he will
someday be welcomed into their home, into their hearts.

• But that is not to be. When he reveals himself at last, even the Delaceys, the kind and happy family, respond with revulsion, rage, and
terror. The monster learns that there is no safe haven for him; there is no love in the human heart for one such as himself.

• This is what prompts him to issue the ultimatum that ultimately seals all their fate: either Dr. Frankenstein creates a mate for the
monster, one that the monster can love and be loved by, or the monster will destroy Frankenstein's loved ones, ensuring that
Frankenstein is as alone in the world as the monster he created.
 Themes:
• The epistolary structure of the frame story of Mary Shelley's 1817 novel ''Frankenstein'' grounds the fantastic narrative with a
plausible connection to the everyday. It introduces the themes of nature, science, and humanity's engagement with both.
• Exploring Nature in the Early Nineteenth Century
• The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were a time of intense research, and rapid scientific advancement. The
opportunities - and dangers - of exploring nature's potential form one of the main themes of the work, and this is
foregrounded in the novel's frame narrative. This takes the form of letters written by Robert Walton, a young English explorer,
to his sister Margaret. Robert works in the cutting-edge field of magnetism, and is bound for the North Pole. His expedition,
and his attitude towards it, parallel the work and attitudes of Dr. Frankenstein.

• Nature, Science, and Hubris

• Although Margaret is worried about the dangers of his undertaking, Robert couldn't be more thrilled. Finally, he's going to the
North Pole! No one knows anything about it! It might be awesome! Robert is convinced that he's going to discover the laws of
nature. To judge by his first letter to Margaret, he's prepared for his journey more by training himself than by studying science.
He hopes the North Pole might be warm, since the sun shines there all the time. It's not surprising that Robert got his start in
science by reading poetry. Ominously, the poem that most inspired him was about a doomed sea-voyage.

• Because of his hard work, Robert's convinced that he deserves success. This optimism is not just the attitude of a spoiled child
who wants a gold star on every homework assignment. It borders on hubris, excessive pride that invites retribution from fate.
Robert sees even the stars existing as 'witnesses and testimonies of my triumph.' This is a triumph that he hasn't had yet, and
his attitude is dangerously self-centered. Rhetorically, Robert poses a question that is central to the book: 'What can stop the
determined heart and resolved will of man?'
Shipwreck... and Friendship
• There is just one drawback to Robert's current state as he sees it: he doesn't have a friend. Having another person to
confide in, to be emotionally close to, he muses to Margaret, is an essential part of being human. This idea is central to the
novel. As Robert and his crew get closer to the North Pole, they become surrounded by ice. Over the ice, to their surprise,
they see a sledge, driven by 'a being which had the shape of a man.' Robert assumes that this being must be 'a savage
inhabitant of some undiscovered island.'

• After the ice breaks up, they find, to their surprise, another sledge, floating. One of the dogs is dead. The driver is
exhausted, half-frozen, and half-starved... and he insists on knowing where Robert's ship is headed before agreeing to
come on board. All that he will tell Robert is that he is seeking someone who ran away from him (the other sledge-driver).
Robert is absolutely fascinated. Starved for companionship, he all but falls in love with the stranger, whom he praises as
noble and wise. Robert ends up enthusing to the mysterious man about his own goals, and his determination to achieve
them, whatever the cost. At this, the man bursts into tears. Recovering, he says that he must tell Robert his own story, in
order to stop the younger man's foolishness. His story forms the body of the novel, for the stranger is in fact Victor
Frankenstein.

• Frankenstein and His Creature

• Frankenstein himself tells his story in grief and remorse. At its conclusion, Robert describes him as 'infinitely miserable.'
Also, however, Robert continues to speak of him with great admiration, failing to take warning from the parallels between
Frankenstein's temperament and his own. He even wants to know how Frankenstein made his creature. Understandably,
Frankenstein refuses, rebuking him. All that Frankenstein has to live for, in his own estimation, is his duty to kill the
creature he made in the first place.
 Loneliness
• The novel deals with, among many other things, the theme of loneliness and its effects on
the human psyche. The first character we meet is named Robert Walton. Through letters
addressed to his sister Margaret Saville, we learn that Walton has traveled to Northern
Europe and has hired a boat and crew to find passage through the North Pole to North
America. Walton details some aspects of his childhood and education so that we may learn
that he is a restless wanderer, upset at being unfit to be a true poet. The exploration he
undertakes is, in some sense, a replacement for his failures. If he succeeds, it will bring him
purpose. However, the journey proves to be full of dangerous obstacles.

• Shelley quite clearly borrowed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem 'The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner' to express the loneliness of a seafaring man. (In fact, Shelley directly
refers to 'Ancient Mariner' in the 1831 edition of the novel.) Walton loses control over his
crew and is very much isolated aboard the ship. Ultimately, he meets and rescues Victor
Frankenstein. They form a fast friendship, based on mutual ambitions, and Walton
attentively transcribes Victor's story. After Victor's death, however, we remain unsure of
Walton's fate, and never know whether he succeeds in his endeavor or whether he makes it
back home at all.
 Born Alone to Die Alone: Alienation in Frankenstein

• Mary Shelley's 1818 masterpiece, Frankenstein, presents one of the greatest science fiction-horror stories of all time. The story of Dr.
Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation has captivated audiences for almost 200 years now. A large part of the novel's staying
power can be attributed to its ability to address universal human themes--the thoughts and feelings with which we can all identify.

• This is particularly true of the novel's exploration of alienation, that terrible feeling of being misunderstood, isolated, and alone, even in
the middle of a crowd. Shelley suggests that alienation is a feeling we all endure and it can make us do desperate and terrible things.

• Victor fleeing his creation, from 1831 edition

• Frankenstein
• Misunderstood, Rejected, and Alone: Frankenstein's Lonely Triad
• Frankenstein's Monster: The Loneliest of Them All
• Of course, no one in Shelley's novel is more alienated than the monster himself. His first encounter with humankind is rejection: his
creator, Victor Frankenstein, is horrified by what he has done and recoils from the monster at the moment of his birth.

• Within hours, the monster is driven into the forest by terrified townspeople, who viciously attack him on sight.

• Eventually, he stumbles upon the DeLacey home, where he hides for months. As he watches them, he learns about love and family,
something he desperately craves.

• His infant experiences haunt him. He knows that his physical appearance is terrifying and that he must somehow compensate for his
terrible outer shell if he is to be understood and accepted by the DeLaceys.
 Victor Frankenstein: The Isolation of Genius and Guilt

• Victor's sense of alienation doesn't begin with the monster's vow of vengeance, of course. No, he has been
alienated in one way or another all his life. As a young man, he would lock himself away to pursue his studies.
Even those closest to him couldn't understand the depth of his work or his ambitions behind it.

• His isolation became more pronounced when he began in earnest his project to harness the powers of life and
death. His lofty ambitions to create life stem partially from grief. Victor is haunted by the death of his mother, who
passed away just before he left for the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. Due to the intellectual distance
between himself and his family and friends, no one realizes the scope of his grief, or that it would manifest in such
a terrifying form.

• Victor's alienation as a scholar and scientist is nothing, however, compared to his alienation after the monster is
born. His guilt is even worse than his isolation as a scholar. Victor has only himself to blame for the monster.
Victor is not just ashamed of what he's done. He's terrified. He's violated the laws of nature. He's presumed to
play God.

• He wonders how anyone can possibly forgive or love him again. He shuts up his secret and slowly withers inside,
withdrawing from the dear ones who can't possibly understand him. For Victor, his is a secret too diabolical ever
to share. What he has done alienates him forever from his family, and from the rest of humanity.
• During the night, he performs many small acts of kindness for them without their knowledge, such as
bringing them firewood and food from the forest. When he can, he practices speech and softening his
voice to a gentle timbre. He watches how the family moves and behaves toward one another, all in the
desperate hope that his gentle heart and loving spirit will be recognized above his gruesome appearance.

• It is not to be. The DeLaceys react with the same horror and terror as his creator and the townspeople.
The monster realizes that he will never be accepted into the human family. He will never overcome his
alienation from humankind.

• So he seeks revenge on the man responsible for his outcast birth. But first, he offers one last solution: a
mate. If Victor will create for him a wife, someone to end his loneliness, then he and his bride will retreat
to the jungles of South America and never bother humanity again. Victor imagines an entire race of
monsters springing from this one couple, and refuses his creation's request. The monster vows to make
his creator as lonely, isolated, and miserable as he.

• The monster's existence shows how miserable, and ultimately destructive, alienation is. The monster has
the capacity to be a profoundly gentle and loving being, but he can only withstand his loneliness for so
long. The rage and destruction that follow merely reflect the depth of his pain.
 Victor Frankenstein's Lonely Experiment

• The beginning of Victor Frankenstein's story details his upbringing and his
education, the latter of which shows him becoming increasingly isolated from his
friends and family. He is initially inspired by the theory of galvanism, the use of
electricity to stimulate matter. Although he becomes briefly disenchanted with
the natural sciences, he is reinvigorated while studying at university. There he
loses contact with his loved ones, and especially with his Elizabeth, whom he is
betrothed to marry. At the height of his obsession, Victor basks in his self-
appointed loneliness. He believes his creation will be his only friend. This is not
the case. Victor abandons the creature and falls deathly ill. With the aid of his
childhood friend Henry Clerval, Victor recovers, but he never regains the full
ability to be sociable--especially when he and his family are being hunted by the
creature. Eventually, all of Victor's loved ones die, and he is completely isolated.
This feeling of irreversible loneliness drives his vengeance against the creature.
 Revenge in the Gothic Genre

• The Gothic Genre

• Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley and was first published in 1818. The novel is a noteworthy
piece of the Gothic genre, an artistic mode that focuses on supernatural and other dark elements.
Critics generally agree that Gothic literature began with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in
1764. The genre was subsequently taken up by such authors as Ann Radcliffe and Matthew 'Monk'
Lewis, and has influenced numerous authors since, from Jane Austen to Oscar Wilde. By the time that
Shelley wrote Frankenstein, Gothic literature was established and wildly popular. However, Shelley
transformed the genre and the themes and characters in 'Frankenstein' continue to have a presence in
our culture today.

• Revenge in the Gothic Genre

• Frankenstein was certainly not the first piece of literature to deal strongly with the theme of revenge.
Shakespeare's plays, for example, are littered with characters seeking vengeance for supposed
wrongdoings. Indeed, Shelley was also borrowing from the very genre that she was writing in, for the
Gothic had already established the theme of revenge in much of its earlier literature. Walpole's Otranto
deals with revenge throughout, both through the actions of characters and through supernatural
interventions. Perhaps even more importantly, Shelley's father, William Godwin, wrote Caleb Williams
(1794), a novel that places revenge as one of its central thematic elements. However, Shelley certainly
ups the ante in Frankenstein, making revenge the principal motivation for at least two of its characters.
 Revenge in Frankenstein

Revenge in Frankenstein

• In the novel, the brilliant but impetuous young scientist Victor Frankenstein succeeds at creating
life. Once his creation breathes his first breath, however, Victor is horrified by what he's made, and
he flees. The creature must fend for himself, with no help or companionship. He manages to learn
customs and language from a family he observes as he hides out in some remote woods. He grows
to love this family, and one day summons the nerve to approach them. He is violently rebuked,
however, and is subsequently assailed by another man--all for being misshapen and different. From
this point onward, the creature vows revenge against humanity.

The Creature's Revenge

• The creature happens upon William, Victor's younger brother, and he strangles him in an act of
vengeance. With blood on his hands, the creature sets out to ruin Victor's life further. He frames
the Frankensteins' favorite maid, Justine, for William's murder. She is prosecuted and hanged for
the crime. Then, the creature kills Victor's childhood friend, Henry Clerval, who had just helped
Victor return to health after a debilitating illness. Finally, the creature turns his attentions to Victor's
romantic love, Elizabeth, promising to be with the couple on their wedding night. Despite Victor's
precautions, the creature succeeds in killing Elizabeth the night of the wedding.
 Victor Frankenstein Character

• Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. He's an ambitious,
intelligent, and hardworking scientist. Oh yes, and it's important to mention that he's completely obsessed with the concept of
reanimation, or reawakening the dead, which is just what he does - create life from a corpse, and it pretty much ruins his life.

• Frankenstein's mother passed away when he was only seventeen, which fueled his obsession with death. He shows himself early on
to be a whiz in science, especially chemistry. He falls in love with his cousin (in a later edition of the novel, she's his adopted sister)
Elizabeth, eventually getting engaged to her, although she's killed by Frankenstein's creation on their wedding night. Frankenstein, as
mentioned before, stubbornly pursues his scientific interests, and unfortunately it's this that eventually leads to his downfall, along
with a few important character traits.

• Frankenstein Traits: Intelligence

• From the start, Victor Frankenstein shows a great aptitude for science, although he does pull away from it for a brief period as a boy.
He's a voracious reader and a quick learner as a youngster, and he reads out-of-date works by ancient physicians and alchemists. He's
very smart, and pursues his interests in chemistry and the human body at the University of Ingolstadt. Interestingly enough, although
he's intelligent and at one of the premier learning institutions in Europe at the time, he chooses to study the idea of reanimation. He
devotes himself to his studies, pushing his intelligence to the utmost, using his brains for an idea those around him think is bonkers.

• Someone who is as smart as Frankenstein could maybe lend his intelligence to some other pursuit, curing a disease or discovering
penicillin or something, but no, not Frankenstein. He applies his brain to a far more dangerous pursuit, and, through constant
perseverance and his intelligence, he winds up creating life from death and making his monster a reality. However, his brains also
come in handy later when he must track this creature across the Arctic, pursuing it in revenge and hoping to destroy it.
 Frankenstein Traits: Pride & Ambition

• You can imagine that it takes a lot of ambition and a lot of faith in yourself to reanimate the
dead, and you'd be right in thinking that not every average Joe would struggle with his effort
for more than two years. But Frankenstein does. His ambition knows no bounds. He
absolutely will be the first man to give life to the dead, despite all the odds against him, and
this leads him to struggle on.

• Not only this, but it's Frankenstein's overwhelming pride, his hubris, that leads to the
obsession that ruins his life. Hubris, or extreme arrogance, can lead people to do some fairly
dumb stuff. Like, for example, tamper with the forces of life and death one may not fully
understand, playing God in a way no human being should. You know, the way so many horror
films begin. And it's this trait that makes Victor Frankenstein the perfect tragic hero, or
character who is doomed to suffer due to his or her own actions. He relentlessly pursues an
idea he pretty much has no business meddling in and suffers grievously for it. He thinks he
can truly raise the dead, bridge that gap between the here and the hereafter, and in doing so
creates a being he finds monstrous and hideous, a creature he cannot control and winds up
running away from.
 Creation of a Monster

• The monster in Mary Shelley's masterpiece, Frankenstein, has spurred fascination and debate ever since his literary debut in 1818.
The fearsome brainchild of his then 20-year-old author, the monster has been both revered and reviled, loved and loathed. But, like
all good monsters, he defies simple categorization and labels. At once sensitive and savage, the monster embodies all that is best and
worst in humanity.

• Who Is Frankenstein's Monster?

• So, who is Frankenstein's monster? First and foremost, he is the abandoned child. At its heart, Frankenstein is the story of parental
neglect in the extreme. The brilliant doctor foolhardily rushes into his creation, intoxicated by the thought that he alone might
discover the power to create life from nothingness.

• But when his creature does, indeed, live, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is repulsed and appalled. The creature is deformed and menacingly
powerful, and Frankenstein, in horror, casts him out into the streets. There, the creature, for all intents and purposes an infant, is
driven into the forest by the horrified townspeople who attack or flee from him at first sight.

• Through a slow and painful process, the monster begins to learn to use his senses to see, hear, and touch and then to supply for his
bodily needs for food, warmth, and shelter. It is only by hiding in a hovel and watching the daily life of a family, the DeLaceys, that he
gradually learns to speak and, eventually, to read. Here, he also learns of relationships between families and, in particular, of the love
and the duty of a father to his children, a duty the monster's own creator/father so callously repudiated.

• Frankenstein's monster is also the frustrated bridegroom. The monster is, perhaps above all else, lonely. Indeed, despite the
rejection of his creator and the brutality of the townspeople scarring his first encounters with the human race, the monster wants
nothing more than a family, nothing more than to connect with and be accepted by others.
• As he hides in the home of the DeLacey family, watching the blind father with his son and daughter, he dreams of
joining them; dreams that someday his sensitive nature, fierce intelligence, and good heart will enable them to
overlook his many deformities and love him in spite of outward appearance. However, when he tries to reveal
himself, the family drives him away with even greater brutality than he had encountered from the townspeople.

• Embittered, the monster determines he can never be accepted by the human race and vows vengeance, killing
Frankenstein's young brother, William , and framing Justine, a beloved servant, for the act. He then confronts his
creator and promises to make peace with humanity, but only on one condition: that Dr. Frankenstein create a
creature as deformed as the monster, one to be the creature's companion in his isolation, far removed from the
hatred of humanity. Only this will satiate the monster's rage, only this will bring peace, because only one like himself
can offer him an end to solitude and scorn.

• Frankenstein's monster also acts like an angel (or demon) of vengeance. The complexity of the monster lies in the
excesses of his traits: on the one hand, he possesses the capacity for profound love and loyalty. Indeed, we find at
many moments greater compassion and tenderness in the monster than in his creator; where the monster weeps at
the death of his creator, the idea of the monster's death brings only joy to Frankenstein.

• And yet the monster also exhibits a capacity for unspeakable, inhuman rage and envy. This rage vents itself in the
systematic destruction of Frankenstein's family. In this, the monster might be seen as the appalling outcome of one's
foolish choices, rash decisions, and the hubris that drives ambition. After all, Dr. Frankenstein had sought to play God,
and in so doing, he unleashed the powers of hell.
 Setting in Frankenstein

• Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein is one of the world's most iconic novels. Shelley's strategic use of setting
gives the novel much of its power, enabling her to explore the sometimes terrible conflict between science
and nature.

• As a leading figure in the Romantic Movement, or the philosophical and artistic movement celebrating
nature, Shelley shows us how the world we live in both shapes and mirrors us in body, mind, and spirit. Victor
and his monster are the perfect examples of this.

• An Alpine Eden
• Like her fellow Romantics, Shelley is often skeptical of modernization, of forces of progress that so frequently
take us away from the natural world. Much of Frankenstein is set amid the glories of this natural world,
particularly Victor's native Geneva, with its stunning Alpine peaks and crystalline lakes. When Victor is at his
lowest, tormented by guilt and terrified at having unleashed his monster, it is nature that restores him.
Nature alone can soothe Victor's troubled spirit.

• Victor may be weak and foolish, he may have tampered with forces beyond his control and understanding,
but nature is eternal and indomitable. It has seen and endured all. Nature provides the perspective the
tormented genius so desperately needs.
 The Cramped and Chaotic City

• Victor's idyllic life ends when he enters the University of Ingoldstadt in Germany. He goes
from being nestled and secure in his remote Alpine home to being jostled and harried by the
chaos of the university town.

• Here, all is rush and disorder. Victor learns to hustle his way through the streets, just as he
learns to hustle his way to the top of his class. He is a scientific genius in an age of geniuses,
the Enlightenment Era of the late 18th century. This period is characterized by a zeal for
learning, an unquestioned faith in scientific knowledge and the onward march of civilization.
All that matters is to know more and to be more, to innovate and change the world.

• Romantics were the first to sound the alarm on the reckless scientific progressivism of
Enlightenment, arguing that modernizing forces take us from the clean air and life-giving,
soul-inspiring expanses of nature. They thrust us into the dirt, gloom, and frenzy of the
cramped city streets, into the suffocating closeness of squat, ramshackle apartments and the
cold sterility of offices, classrooms, and scientific laboratories.
 Setting
• The move from Geneva to Ingoldstadt changes Victor. This is where
his ambition ignites. No longer is he simply some humble scholar,
reading his father's books alone among the whispering winds and in
the nourishing sunshine of Geneva's mountain slopes. Now he is
what the Romantics feared, just another rat in modernity's race,
jockeying for preeminence among a sea of other nameless
professionals. To be known in the throngs of the modern city, such as
Ingolstadt, you've got to do something bold.

• Victor's reckless ambition to harness the spark of life, to do what no

human had ever done before, was born in this university town. It
emerged like so much modern innovation does, from seeing what the
other guy is doing and trying to do him one better.
 Science

• Victor Frankenstein Making His Creature

• Frankenstein in his Laboratory
• Mary Shelley's build up to the creation of the creature in Frankenstein captures a fevered and
obsessive process of science very different from the dry texts of Francis Bacon or the reflective
process of Isaac Newton. Rather, Victor Frankenstein's drive anthropomorphizes (or makes human)
the motivation of science to explore the boundaries of our world. In Chapter 4, Victor Frankenstein's
obsessive drive is captured in this passage:

“No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first
enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break
through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (Chapter 4)

• This quote illustrates more than a scientific curiosity about out the world works; but rather a moral
worldview where science is the source of light, and the natural boundaries of the world are darkness
that must be overcome. This arrogance of Victor Frankenstein speaks to a deeper arrogance that
Shelley critiques as a Romantic: namely that the Enlightenment lacks regard for anything but scientific
progress and domination of nature.
 Human Endeavors

• Shelley's novel frequently contrasts the ideals of humanity

against the disappointment of reality, and two passages in
particular illustrate this difference. The first is the reaction
of Victor upon his completion of his creature. In Chapter 5,
Frankenstein is confronted by the horror that he has made:

“I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded

moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the
dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my
heart.” (Chapter 5)
 Knowledge in Frankenstein
• The quest for knowledge and the sometimes awful consequences of achieving it lie at the heart of Mary Shelley's 1818
masterpiece ''Frankenstein''. Far more than a classic sci-fi horror story, ''Frankenstein'' is about the sorrow of knowing too
much.
• Have you ever wanted something so bad that you just couldn't rest? Has it consumed your every waking thought, your every
action? Whether it was merely a candy bar or a grand ambition for your future, you can probably relate to the idea of
wanting something . Victor is obsessed with discovering the spark of life, while his monster is driven to unlock the mystery
of his true nature.

• But in Frankenstein, knowledge is not the empowering, illuminating, and liberating force our protagonists hope. In Shelley's
classic horror story, Victor Frankenstein and his monster pursue knowledge to their own destruction.
Knowledge as Self-Sacrifice
• Shelley suggests that the obsessive quest for knowledge often begins as a story of self-sacrifice, a sort of noble
rationalization that this obsession is all for the greater good of humanity. Nowhere is this more evident than when Robert
Walton, the Arctic sea captain who rescues Victor from the ice floes, explains his ambition to discover a northern passage to
the Atlantic.

• Walton describes his quest to Victor in this way: 'One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement
of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.'

• This seems all well and good at first, of course. After all, who can argue with somebody willing to give up everything for the
greater good of mankind? That's a pretty great way of making yourself sound humble and selfless--heroic even. But Victor
sees through Walton's haze of self-deception. After all, Victor's been there himself. And he knows that what Walton
envisions as a glorious dream of nobility and greatness is nothing more than reckless ambition and destructive arrogance.
This is why Walton is the first and only human ever to hear the story of Victor's monstrous creation: Victor wants to warn
him from the same fate.
 Knowledge as Danger and False Pride

• Victor tells Walton, 'Learn from me…how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much
happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater
than his nature will allow.' Victor's pursuit of knowledge has taken him beyond his station, beyond the
limits of his understanding or control. His hubris, or reckless pride, destroys him and everyone he loves.

• As brilliant as Victor is, he is still only human, and that means he is limited and fallible. He is like a toddler
playing with dynamite. Sooner or later, someone's going to get hurt. The powers Victor has played with,
he suggests, belong to God, not to a weak and foolish human like himself.

• Knowledge as Estrangement
• The root of the destruction wrought by Victor's pursuit of knowledge is in its effect on his relationships.
Victor says, 'I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which
you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and destroy your taste for those simple
pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not
befitting the human mind.'

• When Victor reached the university, his lifelong tendency to isolate himself with his studies reached
dangerous proportions. As his obsession with his project grew, his connection to those he loved
weakened. He failed to write letters home; he scarcely glanced at the letters he received.
 The quotes reveal how the monster feels about his own
existence, about his creator, and about the world.

• Rejected at Birth
• Frankenstein's creature is bewildered to learn that his creator is horrified by him. This rejection from the person who could have guided him in
the world greatly affects the creature. He wonders why he exists and why he is forever separated from companionship and understanding.
These feelings progress from sadness and isolation to rage and a thirst for revenge. The creature's words reveal his deep existential confusion
and sadness. An existential crisis is when someone questions the purpose, value, and meaning of his or her life. Let's look at some of the
creature's own words.

• Creator vs. Creation

• The creature learns to read and tries to make sense of his life through stories, such as the creation story in the Bible. He compares Frankenstein
creating him to God creating Adam, but he's angry that he was not given the opportunity for a relationship or sympathy from his creator. The
creature wanted companionship and acceptance, but he finds that it is not possible because of the way he looks. Instead, he turns his creator
into his archenemy.

• Here, the creature describes how he felt after reading Frankenstein's journal entries about his creation.

• ''Everything is related. . . the minutest description of my odious and loathsome person is given, in language which painted your own horrors
and rendered mine indelible. I sickened as I read....Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?''

• In these next two quotes, the creature confronts Frankenstein about his abandonment and tells Frankenstein that if he will never be loved,
he will blot out love and happiness in Frankenstein's life.

• ''I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed
him.''
 Eternally Alone

• ''I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy, because
my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. . . I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your
heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.''

• The creature begins with feelings of kindness toward humans, but he realizes that he will forever be separate from
people because people will never accept him. All of the following quotes are of the creature speaking to Frankenstein.

• ''Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and instead of
injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude. . . But that cannot be.''

• ''I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man.
. . When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which
all men fled and whom all men disowned?''

• Frankenstein's creature even rescues a young woman, and instead of being thanked, he is physically injured.

• ''This was then the reward of my benevolence! I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I
now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and
gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth.''
 Heroes and Villains

• We should also focus on the concept of protagonist and antagonist, or rather the roles of hero and
villain. It is perhaps customary to think of Victor as the novel's hero; he is the central character, and
we root for him to succeed.

• With that in mind, we usually consider the creature that he creates as the villain. After all, the
creature does go on a murderous rampage, picking off Victor's friends and family. 'I too can create
desolation,' the creature reflects: 'my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to
him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.' Indeed, the creature has
become a monster in our culture, part of the Halloween dress-up game alongside vampires and
mummies.

• But Shelley muddles these categories. The creature is often heroic, and Victor is often villainous.
When the creature tells his personal and emotional story, he becomes the protagonist of the novel,
and readers care about his struggles. And when Victor tears to pieces the creature's incomplete
mate, he exhibits his own sort of violence and blood lust. Thus, both characters are hard to define,
and each might be considered as an 'anti-hero'--a figure we see regularly today in film and in
television.
 The Novel's Frame Structure

• A frame narrative occurs when one narrative introduces another narrative (and so
on). The technique has been around since at least the Arabian Nights, in which a
young bride, Scheherazade, avoids death at the hands of the murderous king
Shahryar by telling a series of stories. In Frankenstein, Shelley borrows from this
rich formal tradition by setting up a series of narratives that introduce one
another.

• The novel begins with letters penned by Robert Walton to his sister. Walton
embarks on an ambitious journey to find passage through to the North Pole. The
voyage is treacherous, however, and at the height of his troubles Walton rescues
Victor, who was aboard a dog sled on some nearby ice. After Victor is given some
time to recover, he begins his story, which Walton carefully transcribes. Thus,
Walton's narrative embeds Victor's narrative; it acts like a frame around a central
picture.
 Creation of a Monster

• The monster in Mary Shelley's masterpiece, Frankenstein, has spurred fascination and debate ever since his literary debut in 1818. The fearsome
brainchild of his then 20-year-old author, the monster has been both revered and reviled, loved and loathed. But, like all good monsters, he defies simple
categorization and labels. At once sensitive and savage, the monster embodies all that is best and worst in humanity.

• Who Is Frankenstein's Monster?

• So, who is Frankenstein's monster? First and foremost, he is the abandoned child. At its heart, Frankenstein is the story of parental neglect in the extreme.
The brilliant doctor foolhardily rushes into his creation, intoxicated by the thought that he alone might discover the power to create life from nothingness.

• But when his creature does, indeed, live, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is repulsed and appalled. The creature is deformed and menacingly powerful, and
Frankenstein, in horror, casts him out into the streets. There, the creature, for all intents and purposes an infant, is driven into the forest by the horrified
townspeople who attack or flee from him at first sight.

• Through a slow and painful process, the monster begins to learn to use his senses to see, hear, and touch and then to supply for his bodily needs for food,
warmth, and shelter. It is only by hiding in a hovel and watching the daily life of a family, the DeLaceys, that he gradually learns to speak and, eventually, to
read. Here, he also learns of relationships between families and, in particular, of the love and the duty of a father to his children, a duty the monster's own
creator/father so callously repudiated.

• Frankenstein's monster is also the frustrated bridegroom. The monster is, perhaps above all else, lonely. Indeed, despite the rejection of his creator and
the brutality of the townspeople scarring his first encounters with the human race, the monster wants nothing more than a family, nothing more than to
connect with and be accepted by others.

• As he hides in the home of the DeLacey family, watching the blind father with his son and daughter, he dreams of joining them; dreams that someday his
sensitive nature, fierce intelligence, and good heart will enable them to overlook his many deformities and love him in spite of outward appearance.
However, when he tries to reveal himself, the family drives him away with even greater brutality than he had encountered from the townspeople.
• Embittered, the monster determines he can never be accepted by the human race and vows
vengeance, killing Frankenstein's young brother, William , and framing Justine, a beloved servant, for
the act. He then confronts his creator and promises to make peace with humanity, but only on one
condition: that Dr. Frankenstein create a creature as deformed as the monster, one to be the
creature's companion in his isolation, far removed from the hatred of humanity. Only this will satiate
the monster's rage, only this will bring peace, because only one like himself can offer him an end to
solitude and scorn.

• Frankenstein's monster also acts like an angel (or demon) of vengeance. The complexity of the
monster lies in the excesses of his traits: on the one hand, he possesses the capacity for profound
love and loyalty. Indeed, we find at many moments greater compassion and tenderness in the
monster than in his creator; where the monster weeps at the death of his creator, the idea of the
monster's death brings only joy to Frankenstein.

• And yet the monster also exhibits a capacity for unspeakable, inhuman rage and envy. This rage vents
itself in the systematic destruction of Frankenstein's family. In this, the monster might be seen as the
appalling outcome of one's foolish choices, rash decisions, and the hubris that drives ambition. After
all, Dr. Frankenstein had sought to play God, and in so doing, he unleashed the powers of hell.
 Frankenstein's Elizabeth Lavenza

• Though a secondary character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,' Elizabeth Lavenza plays a
vital role. As Victor Frankenstein's doomed fiancee, Elizabeth both exemplifies and interrogates late 18th century models of angelic
femininity.
• Frankenstein's Elizabeth Lavenza
• The daughter of the pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, author of the iconic 1818 novel, Frankenstein, embraced
many of her mother's feminist ideals. Feminine tendencies toward cooperation and relationship, Shelley's later writings suggest,
provide a potent antidote to the more masculine traits of competition and dominance. Given Shelley's personal and familial
connections to feminism, her portrayal of Victor Frankenstein's fiancée, Elizabeth Lavenza, in the novel may come as a surprise.

• Elizabeth seems to model all of the traditional characteristics of a woman of her era: she is beautiful, sweet, and nurturing. She
seems to exist only by and through her relationships to others, especially through her relationship with her future husband. But is
there more to Elizabeth than meets the eye? Is she just another pretty ornament and selfless caretaker? Or is she something more?
Passages from Shelley's text may provide some insight.

•
• Many Faces of Elizabeth Lavenza
• The orphaned daughter of an Italian aristocrat who had fallen into poverty, Elizabeth was adopted at the age of four into the
Frankenstein family. Her lifelong connection to Victor seems to have been assumed from the beginning. But what is that connection,
truly? And who is the real Elizabeth Lavenza? Let's look at a quote from the novel:

• 'I have a pretty present for my Victor - tomorrow he shall have it.' And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her
promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine - mine to protect, love,
and cherish.'
 Elizabeth
• Victor is promised his 'present' by his mother on the night before Elizabeth joins the Frankenstein family, but the possessiveness that Victor
demonstrates from the beginning is common and expected. Women in late 18th century Europe had few legal rights. They could not vote or own
property, had few rights in marriage and even fewer in divorce, and were extremely limited in regard to education and employment. They were, for all
intents and purposes, the possessions of the men in their lives.

• The premise of the femme couvert, or 'covered woman, guided most gender relationships at this time. The patriarch, or male head of the household,
was to provide for, protect, and 'cover' the women in his life, especially his wives and daughters.

• Elizabeth seems to fit this mold perfectly. She comes into Victor's household poor and vulnerable, in need of healing and protection. She enables the
Frankenstein family to demonstrate their moral virtue, not to mention their economic superiority in taking in the now-destitute daughter of an
aristocrat.

• Elizabeth becomes for Victor the means to demonstrate his own status as future patriarch. He learns through his relationship with Elizabeth how to
take care of his own femme couvert.

• 'The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home. Her sympathy was ours; her smile, her soft voice, the sweet
glance of her celestial eyes were ever there to bless and animate us. She was the living spirit of love to soften and attract.'

• In the 18th and 19th centuries the separate spheres theory held that each gender has a unique and God-given domain. The man's sphere was the
public sphere of work, politics, and money-making. The woman's sphere was the private sphere of the home, of caring for her husband and children.
Elizabeth here is already fulfilling such a role. Though as yet unmarried and childless, she is nevertheless the moral center of the Frankenstein home
and of Victor's life. Her loving influence, selflessness, and nurturing spirit form the spiritual heart of the Frankenstein family. She is as angelic as the
gender norms, or gender roles and requirements, of her era demand.

• 'She busied herself with following the aeriel creations of the poets. . . While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the
magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes.'
Walton serves as an important foil for Victor Frankenstein,
helping Shelley to explore themes of ambition .
Epistolary Frame Narrative

• You probably have some dreams and ambitions. What would you be willing to give up to
achieve them? Your whole life? The life of another?

• Mary Shelley's 1818 classic, Frankenstein, asks just these questions. The novel is narrated by
Robert Walton, an ambitious sea captain and Arctic explorer who recounts the chilling story of
Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation through a series of letters home to his sister.

• So why would Shelley choose to tell her story in epistolary form, that is, a novel in the form of
fictional letters? And why would she choose to use a character like Walton for her narrator?

• Less well remembered than Frankenstein's other characters, Walton actually serves an
important purpose. Walton is a foil for Victor, that is, a character used to explore a contrast
with another character. Victor teaches powerful lessons to Walton about the dangers of
ambition. The question is: will Walton learn them?
 Aspiring to Greatness

• Like Victor, Walton seeks greatness. He wants to be remembered for doing what no human has ever done. He
imagines the impossible and has the guts to make it happen--or at least die trying.

• Walton, instead, wants to be the first to discover a northern passage to the Atlantic through the Arctic. But it is a
fool's mission, and like Victor, he imperils the souls of those who rely on him in the process. Victor's family and
friends die as a result of his reckless ambition, and Walton's crew comes perilously close to the same fate.

• In fact, this is how Walton learns Victor's terrifying story. Victor recognizes the virus of ambition in Walton, and so
tells him his story in the hope that Walton will not repeat his errors; that he will save himself before it is too late.
Victor knows there is a point of no return. Once Victor's monster was unleashed, he could not be drawn back
again. And if Walton leads his crew beyond the boundaries, he may be powerless ever to restore them to safety.

• But here's the thing: Walton has already done something unimaginable. He is the first human to hear the story of
Frankenstein's monster; he and his crew are the first, other than Victor, to see the monster and survive. And he's
the first to write down this incredible story in his letters to his sister.

The question remains, though: will it be enough for Walton? Shelly may be asking some questions here. When do
we reach the point that we can be satisfied with who we are and what we've done? When does ambition morph
into obsession?
 Justine
• Though a minor character, Justine plays a pivotal role in advancing the plot while exemplifying key themes of the
Romantic movement.
Justine Mortiz in Frankenstein
• Mary Shelley's 1818 classic, Frankenstein, gave to the world of literature some truly memorable characters. Even
today, Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation are pop culture icons, appearing everywhere from film to
television to cereal boxes.

• One frequently overlooked character is Justine Moritz, a ward of the aristocratic Frankenstein family and the
caretaker of Victor's youngest sibling, William. Though a minor character, Justine is instrumental in advancing the
plot. She and William are the first dominoes to fall in the monster's horrifying chain of revenge.

• Maybe even more important is Justine's illustration of Shelley's commitment to the Romantic movement, a
philosophical and literary movement celebrating nature and those seemingly untouched by modern civilization:
children, the poor, the sick, and the 'noble savage'.

• The Poor Are Always With Us: Justine as the Scapegoat

• Justine's death shows just how diabolical the monster has become. After all, until Justine and William die, we
really only see the monster's softer side. We see him rejected by his creator, Victor, within moments of his birth.
We see the monster mere hours later and still technically a newborn driven away by the brutal attacks of terrified
townspeople.
 Justine
• We see the monster struggle but survive. We watch him develop a profound love for the DeLacey family, in whose
home he hides for months, waiting and learning. We understand how he yearns for their acceptance and we ache for
him when they, too, violently drive him away.

• We experience the monster's disappointment--even if we feel some relief--when Victor refuses the his demand for a
mate. And maybe we shudder when the monster vows his revenge, promising to leave Victor as alone and
heartbroken as his creation.

• But it isn't until we see what happens with Justine that we realize just how sinister the monster has become. Yes, the
monster may have been born with an immense capacity to love. But suffering has corroded that love into an equally
vast capacity for hate. His talent for revenge makes Don Corleone look like a cream puff.

• William and Justine are the first to die in the monster's quest for revenge. But it's the manner in which they die that
is most bloodcurdling. Not only does the monster strangle the innocent and lovely young William with his bare
hands, but he ingeniously frames Justine for the murder. So airtight is the evidence the monster cunningly plants
against Justine, she can't even dream of escape. She's quickly convicted and executed.

• Justine's death demonstrates that Victor's enemy is not just some bloodthirsty brute. His vengeance is not the clumsy
havoc of some powerful animal. Victor's enemy is strategic and subtle. He is formidable. He knows what he's doing
and he has the power to do it. Justine's death suggests that Victor has unleashed a truly unstoppable force.
 The novel's structure and the way that its narratives
mirror one another.

Overview of Foreshadowing
• Foreshadowing is when the author provides early hints of what is to
come later in the work. This technique occurs not only in literature,
but also in plays, television, and movies, among other narrative forms.
Have you ever heard of 'Chekhov's Gun'? It is a principle of drama
coined by the writer Anton Chekhov that stipulates that if you see a
gun in the first act of a play, it should go off later on. Foreshadowing
works in similar ways. For example, a character may say something
ominous that comes true at the end of the story. Or, similarly, the
author might take extra time to describe an object or a setting early on
that will be particularly relevant at the work's climax. In the case of
Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, however, the foreshadowing
elements are best seen through an analysis of the text's structure.
 Walton's Narrative

• Frankenstein begins with the narrative of Robert Walton, who is aboard a

ship looking to find passage through the North Pole. Walton writes letters
to his sister, Margaret Saville, who is living back in England. For the
purpose of informing readers about his life, Walton includes some details
about what drove him to attempt the treacherous journey. He relates that
he wanted to become a poet, a creator of new things, but failed at the
enterprise. 'You are well acquainted with my failure and how heavily I
bore the disappointment.' Because of this disappointment, he undertakes
another venture, one that seems almost to be a death sentence. The
ship's journey is dangerous, and the crew riots against Walton's rule. It is
at this point, at the height of his difficulties, that Walton meets Victor
Frankenstein, who is passing by the ship on a dog sled.
 Victor’s Narrative
• Walton's narrative of his life and dangerous journey foreshadow many of
the themes of Victor's subsequent narrative. Both men are ambitious to
a fault, and attempt to accomplish feats without fully thinking of the
consequences. Victor relates to Walton the story of his upbringing and
education, and then provides some of the details of his gathering
materials to bring dead matter back to life. In some ways, then, Victor
becomes the poet that Walton could not become. By taking different
human parts (words) and stitching them together (into lines), the
creature is a sort of text - a poem that Victor composes. Just like
Walton's adventure, however, Victor's experiment spells doom. The
being that he creates is hideous. 'I had selected his features as beautiful.
Beautiful! Great God!' Victor abandons his creature with disgust, which
mirrors, in some sense, Walton's failures in the earlier narrative.
 Imagery
• Imagery occurs when writing appeals to our senses, making us experience the text in different ways. Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein uses imagery a great deal.

Robert Walton's Disastrous Voyage

• Frankenstein features what is known as a frame narrative, which is an outer story that introduces the central
narrative. In Shelley's novel, Robert Walton is aboard a ship trying to find passage through the North Pole. He writes
letters, which become journal entries, to his sister back in England. Eventually Walton meets Victor Frankenstein, who
tells the famous story of creating his creature.

• To narrate the story of Walton's voyage, Shelley used vivid, descriptive language. She borrowed from Samuel Taylor
Coleridge's Poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' which is filled with imagery of a doomed ship stuck in the ice:
'The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around: / It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, / Like
noises in a swound!'

• Walton initially writes to Margaret with words of hope: 'I am. . . in good spirits: my men are bold and apparently firm
of purpose, nor do the floating sheets of ice that continually pass us,. . . appear to dismay them.'

• There is something distinctly ominous about his language here. Shelley uses imagery to make readers feel the ice that
is beginning to close around the ship as it heads north. Indeed, this is only the beginning, and Walton later faces both
mutiny and the prospect of death.
 Imagery
• The Creation of the Creature
• Victor Frankenstein is a passionate young student who becomes
obsessed at his university with bringing life back to dead tissue. He
gathers materials for his grand experiment, and after many months of
toil, he brings his creation to life.

• Shelley describes the scene with spectacular imagery, making readers

feel Victor's disgust: 'His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of
muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only
formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed
almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they
were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips.'
 Similes in Frankenstein

• As he hung over the coffin, his face was concealed by long locks of ragged hair; but one
vast hand was extended, in colour and apparent texture like that of a mummy.

• A recreation of the creature based on the text

• The Creature by Derrick Tyson
• When you read this passage, can you picture the creature that Shelley used to terrify
readers for generations? Make-up artist Derrick Tyson did and, using only passages from
the text, made his own rendition of the Creature. The comparison of the creature's skin
to that of a mummy by a simile , or an overt comparison using 'like' or 'as,' allows you to
imagine how Frankenstein's creation would look and feel. Mary Shelley's gothic horror
Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus dove into uncharted territory as she cautions
against the power of science to control the natural world. In order to explore these
themes, Shelley uses similes to connect Frankenstein to biblical themes and the
Romantic movement to illustrate the messages contained in Frankenstein.
 Personification

• Personification means giving human characteristics to an inhuman or inanimate object. This creates a more
relatable picture in your mind for something that might otherwise be too abstract or difficult to comprehend.
Here's a good example from Frankenstein:

• 'He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery.'

• What's being personified here? Nature itself is given the human characteristic of a face. Not only that, but a
face being unveiled, the way a groom lifts the veil off the face of his bride. Does nature have a face? No. What
Shelley is doing here is making an artful comparison to help the reader understand what Victor Frankenstein
is thinking and feeling. He is contemplating how the ancient physicians he studied as a child tried and failed
to discover the mysteries of nature in order to bring the dead back to life. However, the way Shelley describes
it is much more powerful and interesting.

Symbolism
• Symbolism is using a person, place, or thing to represent a larger, more complex idea. For example, the heart
is a concrete object with a definite function, but it is often used to symbolize the abstract idea of love.
Symbolism helps communicate complicated ideas in a simpler, more tangible way.
 Symbolism
• In Frankenstein, one of the themes is the idea of exploration, which was a very big deal in the early 1800s, when the novel
was written. And though exploration is an abstract idea, Shelley ingeniously uses Captain Walton's trip to symbolize the idea
of it and its inherent quest for glory.

• Polar exploration was a dangerous business, but it brought fame to those who were successful. Captain Walton journeys to
the Arctic in search of that fame. He states that '...I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path,'
which shows that he, like Victor, has a desire for immortal greatness.

• Shelley uses Captain Walton's quest for glory as a symbol for the danger of scientific exploration, such as Victor's quest to
create life. Where Captain Walton journeys into unknown, dangerous geographic territory, which he is not able to navigate
successfully, so too, Victor journeys into dangerous scientific territory he doesn't fully understand. Captain Walton's outer
quest symbolizes the danger of Victor's scientific one.

Simile and Metaphor

• Similes are comparisons of two unlike things, using 'like' or 'as.' They make text more beautiful and descriptive and offer a
more interesting way for the reader to visualize the image. Here's an example from Frankenstein:

• 'Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of
truth.'
 Frankenstein and Romanticism in Similes

• The Romantic movement, of which gothic horror is a subset, celebrated the awe and
power of nature and questioned the goals of science and the enlightenment to control
nature. Throughout Frankenstein, Shelley references the majesty of nature in Victor
Frankenstein's travels, and she links it directly to the divine in Chapter 9:

“The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side, the sound of the
river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around spoke of a power
mighty as Omnipotence--and I ceased to fear or to bend before any being less almighty than
that which had created and ruled the elements, here displayed in their most terrific guise.”

In this passage, Shelley displays the classic vision of the Romantics to view nature with a
sense of awe and worship. Her use of the simile to omnipotence makes nature something
that is holy. This comparison only further highlights how Victor Frankenstein's lack of
respect for nature in creating his creature is not just unwise, but profane.
 Frankenstein and Biblical Reference

• Mary Shelley's character of the creature is the first

scientifically reanimated creature in literature, and that
means that to understand its mentality requires
connecting it to other literary relationships. To relate the
creature to our understanding of the relationship of
creator and creation, Shelley uses a simile reference to the
story of Adam to provide a common reference as seen
here in Chapter 15:
“Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other
being in existence”.