Victims in 'Frankenstein'

Who are the victims in Frankenstein? What do they have in common? For example, what are the similarities between the backgrounds and situations of Elizabeth and Justine? How do they differ? What is it that defines them as victims? Justine is a victim of the monster, but she is also a victim of an unjust judicial system.

Many of the victims in Frankenstein are victims of the desire for revenge. However, instead of taking revenge against the perceived perpetrator of the original offense, the most effective form of revenge is presented as an act against the innocent friend or relative of, for example, Victor. The monster takes his revenge through attacking those most dear to Victor. So, by abnegating his responsibility for his creation, Victor rejects the monster and sets in motion a chain of events over which he subsequently has no control.

The framing of 'Frankenstein'

To what extent does 'Frankenstein' offer multiple narrators in order to provide multiple points of view? Can it be argued that, while offering alternative viewpoints, Shelley and, arguably Bronte in 'Wuthering Heights', do not differentiate between the voices accorded to their various narrators?

Beth Newman in 'The Frame Structure of Frankenstein' argues:

The novel fails to provide significant differences in tone, diction and sentence structure that alone can serve, in a written text , to represent individual human voices, and so blurs the distinction that it asks us to make between the voices of its characters.

How far do you agree with this view?

Predictably off on a tangent...

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a1896

Our homework requires us to look at a source of Dore's pictures of TRotAM. However, since he's also done pictures for Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy and The Raven (prolific, really, isn't he? I'm thinking of borrowing him for my art project now...), his work's very appropriate for our Gothic topic. : )

So, just a quick link to his stuff on Gutenberg.

Mary's mother!

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/03/mary_mary_always_contrary.html

I stumbled across this article browsing the Guardian blogs.

It even mentions Aphra Behn!

Just loosely related and interesting.

Frankenstein'08

Frankenstein opens with a series of letters written by the outer frame narrator, Richard Walton, to his sister, Mrs Saville. The fourth, and final letter at this stage of the novel, is in three parts, written on three separate days over a two week period. These letters represent a time span of approximately eight months, from the December of one year through to the August of the next, and take place during the final decade of the 18th century. This series of letters is then once again taken up at the end of the novel, when Walton resumes his narration of the events from his perspective.

These initial four, and then five final letters - the last one dated September 12th - 'bookend' the the inner narrations of Frankenstein and then the Creature, and then Frankenstein once more. Thus, the Creature's narrative is located at the heart of the novel, embedded within the framing narratives of Frankenstein and Walton.

In addition to the use of multiple narrators, Shelley also use letters within the text, thus giving a distinctive voice to other characters in the novel.

Through these techniques, Shelley enables the reader to view both Frankenstein and the creature (and their actions) from other viewpoints. (By restricting the use of the first person viewpoint to just one narrator, a novelist inevitably limits the reader's ability to make an informed assessment about narratorial reliability.) In Frankenstein, however, Shelley is inviting the reader to make judgements about Frankenstein and his actions, by presenting certain events and actions from opposing viewpoints.

Consider, for example, Frankenstein's view of the Creature's early life and the reasons why he abandoned his creation, and then compare these with the Creature's account of his upbringing:

"It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively, finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes, but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

"Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees.*I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of berries. I was still cold when under one of the trees I found a huge cloak, with which I covered myself, and sat down upon the ground. No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me; the only object that I could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure.

"Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensations from each other. I gradually saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink and the trees that shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes. I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me. Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds but was unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again."

Consider the 'voice' that Shelley has created for the creature - what is the tone? How is his innocence and vulnerability portrayed? Compare this with the ways in which Frankenstein portrays his creation.