Frankenstein Review
Romanticism: 1785-1830 The Romantics emphasized passion over reason and the imagination.
Romantic works reflect issues of the heart (as opposed to the brain), imagination, natural scenes,
and the supernatural.
Quotation to remember: “Strangeness in Beauty” and “Beauty in Strangeness” (which brings in
the Gothic side of Romanticism)
The Romantics ennobled the idea of making decisions based on feelings rather than logic. In that
sense, the novel fits the Romantic notion of questioning the status quo. Mary Shelley was a
teenager (and teens are frequently mired in their emotions and in trying to express them and
questioning hierarchy), raised without a mother, the second wife to a famous (and also selfimportant) poet who was searching for her voice, who felt like she was an outsider to his cronies.
She and her novel fit this Romantic rebellion.
Also, the only solace found in the novel is when the characters are in nature and away from
civilization
Various views of the novel:
 A critique of the Industrial Revolution
 A critique of value-free experimental science
 A critique of the Romantic Prometheanism (“no limits to human experience and
experimentation”)
Education: Victor was educated by the Lockean famous theory of education that the mind was a
blank slate. He builds his knowledge of science from that blank slate, but with the “brakes’ of
friends and family or even teachers (remember, he isolates himself). He has mostly book learning
practiced on the dead.
The creature is also a blank slate filled by the study of books. He parallels the Romantic belief of
expressing a free range of emotions (that Romantic reaction against the Age of Reason). His
studies also influence his thought, especially Paradise Lost and Werther. (How? What if he’d
found other books? Remember how we talk about choices an author makes?)
Subtitle: Modern Prometheus: Prometheus was the ½ Titan (giant race of men)/1/2 god who
brought fire from Olympus for the betterment of humanity. The gods punished him by chaining
him on the mtn and letting an eagle pluck out his liver daily. He found solace in seeing the fires.
Frankenstein steals “fire” (galvanism), but not to help mankind.
Themes: (Remember- you do NOT EVER just list words like these! These are to encourage
discussion!)
Alienation and Loneliness (What is the effect of abandonment? How many affected?)
Nature vs Nurture (What is the effect of the Lockean “blank slate”?)
Duty vs Responsibility (Consider more than Victor: Mom, Felix,)
Justice vs Injustice (Those who listen vs those who don’t?)
Elizabeth for Justine
Henry Clerval for Victor (by Creature’s hands)
Mr. Kerwin for Victor
Creature and the DeLaceys
Felix and Safie’s dad
Margaret and Robert
Walton and Margaret/sailors
Structure: Frame story (or Chinese boxes or 3 legged stool ideas)
Opening letters from Robert Walton to his sister Margaret. He is a foil to Victor (he is trying to
find a sea route through the North Pole and is irresponsible) so he responds Romantically to him.
Sets up first half of novel, as Victor tells Robert his story.
Chapters 1-10- Victor’s story: he tells it like he’s the victim (hubris). The creature catches up
with him at the end of Chapter 10 and has Victor hear his story. At this point, the story is told in
quotation marks- the creature’s own words:
Chapters 11- 17- Creature’s story. Tells of how he had to teach himself how to survive. Then
he tells the De Lacy’s story (Old Man DeLacy, Felix, Agatha, and Felix’s beloved Safie). They
too knew betrayal and hardship. He helps them (foil, theme, characterization). But they, like
everyone else, end up treating him horribly. He gives up on being good.
Chapters 17-21- Creature wants a female companion. Henry and Victor go to Orkney Islands in
northernmost part of Scotland. Henry travels; Victor builds (it’s been 3 years since Creature was
made); however, Victor cannot go through with his project, destroys in, is seen by Creature.
Creature kills Henry Clerval, and Victor is jailed for his murder (yet everyone treats him
humanely).
Chapters 22-24- After his father comes to get him, he and dad return home; he marries
Elizabeth; she’s murdered on honeymoon, father dies of sadness, and we get to the “present” on
the ship. Victor tries to extract from Walton a promise to “seek him and satisfy my vengeance in
his death.” He also says at this point (haha) that he is not selfish!!!!
Final letters: Victor, in Robert’s first letter at the end of the novel, admonishes Robert not to
seek his formula for making a human (“Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your
own.”) This is Victor’s anagnorisis. Robert has one a few letters later when he tells his sister
that if he continues on his journey and all are lost, it will be due to his “mad schemes.” (Earlier
he’s said that it wouldn’t be a problem to lose some if a greater goal was achieved ( How
Hegelian!) Victor is not happy with his decision, and Victor is still alive- and says once again
that he’d like for Robert to continue after the Creature, but says he might be misled by passion.
Creature comes to Frankenstein’s deathbed and compares himself to Satan: “a fallen angel
becomes a malignant devil.” “I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there
no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against
me?” The Creature then says he will destroy himself and leaves.
That summary is mine. Here’s another plot version I borrowed. You might like it better:
Plot: Robert Walton, in a series of letters to his sister, tells of finding a man on an ice flow who is chasing his enemy.
Victor first describes his early life in Geneva. At the end of a blissful childhood spent with wonderful parents and in
the company of Elizabeth Lavenza and friend Henry Clerval, Victor enters the university of Ingolstadt to study natural
philosophy and chemistry. He is successful in creating what is to him a monster, but the sight horrifies him, and he
runs into the streets and runs into Henry, who has come to study at the university. Though the monster is gone,
Victor falls into a feverish illness .
When he recovers from the illness he finds that William has been murdered. Grief-stricken, Victor hurries home.
While passing through the woods where William was strangled, he catches sight of the monster and becomes
convinced that the monster is his brother’s murderer. Arriving in Geneva, Victor finds that Justine Moritz, a kind,
gentle girl who had been adopted by the Frankenstein household, has been accused. She is tried, condemned, and
executed, despite her assertions of innocence. Victor grows despondent, but doesn’t stand up for the truth.
When he goes to the mountains for healing, the monster come to him, admits to the murder of William but begs for
understanding. Lonely, shunned, and forlorn, he says that he struck out at William in a desperate attempt to injure
Victor, his cruel creator. The monster begs Victor to create a mate for him, a monster equally grotesque to serve as
his sole companion.
Victor goes to an island off the coast of Scotland to make the new creature. One night, struck by doubts about the
morality of his actions, Victor glances out the window to see the monster glaring in at him with a frightening grin.
Horrified by the possible consequences of his work, Victor destroys his new creation. The monster, enraged, vows
revenge, swearing that he will be with Victor on Victor’s wedding night. When Victor returns to land, he is arrested
and informed that he will be tried for a murder discovered the previous night. Victor denies any knowledge of the
murder, but when shown the body, he is shocked to behold his friend Henry Clerval. Again, Victor falls apart. This
time, his father comes.
Shortly after returning to Geneva with his father, Victor marries Elizabeth. While he awaits the monster, he hears
Elizabeth scream and realizes that the monster had been hinting at killing his new bride, not himself. Victor returns
home to his father, who dies of grief a short time later. Victor vows to devote the rest of his life to revenge, and tracks
the monster ever northward into the ice. At this point, Walton encounters Victor, and the narrative catches up to the
time of Walton’s fourth letter to his sister.
Walton tells the remainder of the story in another series of letters to his sister. Victor dies and Walton returns to the
room and is startled to see the monster weeping over Victor. The monster tells Walton of his suffering, hatred, and
remorse. He asserts that now that his creator has died, he too can end his suffering. The monster then departs for the
northernmost ice to die.
When all’s said and done: Parallels to Wuthering Heights? (and are there not parallels to
Wuthering Heights in Gatsby?- Just a sidebar!) I guess we all just want to be loved! How
simple! 