Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is written in the form of a frame story, or a story within a story. "Frankenstein" begins in epistolary form; Robert Walton is writing letters to his sister telling her of his journey to the North Pole. Then Walton meets a starved man lost in the freezing wilderness. This man, later we find out he is Dr. Frankenstein, begins to tell Walton his life's tale and how he managed to end up half- dead in the arctic wilderness. Dr. Frankenstein's narrative is the story within a story; Walton's letters being the first story. Later in the novel another story develops. Now, we have a story within a story, within a story (Woah, CRAZY). Shelley was very clever to write "Frankenstein" in the form of a frame story. The technique allows the reader to see the big picture and get different points of view on Frankenstein's monster. Frame story is particularly useful in setting up the monster as a sympathetic character, because we get to see his point of view.
The use of a frame story makes the novel especially interesting to modern readers because most contemporary readers have already heard the legend of Frankenstein, or at least history's skewed version of Frankenstein. The frame story allows the reader to get the real version of Frankenstein, and it is engaging to learn Dr. Frankenstein's background and the story told from a bystander's perspective and also from the monster's point of view.
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I wrote about the frame story too. I really like it. I think it helped Mary Shelley's point of making it more an "around the campfire" ghost story. I do also agree that it helps the reader be attached to many characters at once, and to understand how they feel.
ReplyDeleteThe use of frame story also allows Shelley to draw parallels between Robert Walton's life and Frankenstein's life. In the telling of his story, Frankenstein makes some of these parallels evident, such as that he and Walton were both heading for destruction through the pursuit of their dreams. Another parallel is the relationship between Robert and Margaret and the relationship between Frankenstein and Elizabeth.
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