Frankenstein; Possible texts.

Frankenstein: Possible texts

1) Secrecy and isolation:

Victor and the Creature are similar because they are both loners and isolated. They are both rejected by society. They try to make everything to be happy. But they don't have a normal life as the others. Victor feels guilty because he has create a monster which is dangerous for society. Both are isolate from society because of Victor: Victor is isolated because of his guilt and obsession with the creature, he feels guilty of the death of William, Justine and Elizabeth. But Victor cannot say his secret because people will believe that he is crazy. Moreover after the death of William and Justine, Victor said that there is a barrier between him and the other men, this barrier was confirmed with the blood of William and Justine. The creature is isolated because of its appearance, everybody is afraid of it, and also because Victor abandoned it. Not to feel alone, the creature wants that Victor creates it a woman but he refuses. They are also both feeling very lonely and just want to return in the past. Victor and the monster are similar because they are both hiding themselves. They are isolated, far from the society. When they meet Walton, they reveal and share their secret. They are not any more alone to know this secret.

2) Texts and language:

"Frankenstein" is composed of different kinds of texts. There are several short stories included by the larger story. It begins with the letters of Walton to introduce the story of Frankenstein. These letters make that story is more realistic and create a link between Robert's loneliness and that of Victor. Mary Shelley wants that the readers connect these two characters. There are multiple narrators: We begin with Walton who would like to discover something useful for science, then it's Victor Frankenstein who shows us that to find something new can be dangerous and warns Walton, to finish with the monster which refortify the tragedy and describes its loneliness and its sadness, and how people treat him... If the creature couldn't speak thanks to the villagers who lived next to him, I won't have the same feelings if he hadn't described its suffering. Mary Shelley uses several perspectives to make the novel more realistic and more credible. She’s trying to support the ideas through multiple narrators. It creates suspense also: the more the story progresses, the more the reader is interested. By using several perspectives, Shelley wrote the narrative as ghost's story with the oral tradition of telling ghost stories: Victor told the story to Walton, Walton to his sister ... etc.

3) The pursuit of knowledge:

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a titan who created mankind and stole fire from the gods. He gave the fire to the humans. Prometheus was very intelligent, he had a lot of ambition. He was punished by Zeus. He was tied to a rock and an eagle devoured the liver. Until that he was saved by Hercules. The novel is subtitled “the Modern Prometheus” because there is a link between these two stories. In Greek mythology Prometheus was the Titan who created mankind, and Victor also wanted to create a man and to know the secret of the life and the death. It's something supernatural and dangerous. He has create a monster which punished him. Prometheus was also punished by Zeus. Both rebel against the laws of nature. They were both finally punished. Thus these two stories are similar because Victor Frankenstein creates human life, similarly to how Prometheus did in the myths. Victor realizes his ambition was the cause for the deaths of his family and his friends. “Frankenstein” is thus a warning against the pursuit of knowledge and a demonstration of its risks.

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