The Narrative Voice In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Shelley uses point of view to allow Walton and Victor to express themselves in the first person. When Robert Walton is writing to his sister about his passion to find a passage way, he says, "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man"(Shelley 7)? If he puts his mind to the task at hand nothing will be able to stop him; therefore, he states he has ambition and Walton gets to explain how he feels. Another example of point of view in the story is Victor creating the monster. When he realizes the creature had come alive he says, "I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body"(Shelley 35).

Walton desires to search for the Northwest Passage, this displays Walton’s ambition and hunger for what is unknown to him and humankind. Walton’s letters were usually separated by several months and many travels; however, strangeness befell on Walton during his journey when he stumbled upon Victor Frankenstein, who was a scientist that made a creature that he hated. Walton immediately wrote to his sister about his experience with Frankenstein and how he was fascinated

My whole life changed the time I was surprised with a kitten. Ever since that day I knew that I had responsibility of nurturing a living creature that would change my life drastically. It all began one glooming misty morning sometime in the mid of May. I was getting ready to head off to school at around seven to eight am. I was all dressed and ready to head out when I had gone to put on my suede taupe buckle boots; which i had just gotten, to reveal that the left foot pair was missing.

Jel arindal Ms Donahue 4/28/2017 Freshman english honors During the first two letters of mary shelley 's frankenstein mary shelley makes important character inferences. Includes setting , provides information about possible conflicts. Durring the Letters robert walton is gathering a crew and working hard to travel to a different place. In the letters it states that “ i voluntarily endured cold, famine thirst and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics,” what this quote shows is that he is willing to go through all this harmful stuff so he could go and live his dream.

The story of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, is a story within a story of Victor Frankenstein warning Robert Walton about the dangers of exploring the unknown by telling him about his own misfortune with creating a monster. Near the middle of Frankenstein’s story, he speaks of his sister/wife’s angst when their servant, Justine, is executed because she confessed to the murder of William, Frankenstein’s brother. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses imagery, rhetorical questioning, and varied syntax to help the reader understand how deeply affected Elizabeth was by Justine’s death. In order to connect with the reader and show how Elizabeth is feeling, Shelley uses imagery. When Elizabeth is explaining her despair to Victor, she compares her

Shelley describes the morning after Frankenstein creates the monster and runs away- "Morning, dismal and wet, at length dawned, and discovered to my sleepless and aching eyes the church of Ingolstadt…”. This dreary scene adequately depicts Victor’s miserable, downcast feeling toward the ugly monster he has just created. Shelley also uses the imagery element to bring into view Frankenstein’s painful emotions over the result of his creation. Immediately following the verdict of Justine’s death, a deep feeling of remorse washes over Frankenstein. "The blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart, which nothing could remove.

This novel consists of various speakers who are writing letters or orally telling stories to another character. Our first speaker is R. Walton, a man writing to his sister. Why do you think Shelley chose to start with this character? How does this character help the audience fully understand Victor Frankenstein?

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly opens the story with letters being written from Robert Walton, who is writing to his sister Margaret Saville. Robert Walton can be assumed to be in the British navy away traveling at sea, around the world and writing to his sister to let her know that he is alive and to tell her his experiences roaming the waters. While he is traveling Robert and his comrades come across a mysterious man that is wandering the sea on a piece of ice. It can be inferred that this mysterious man is Victor Frankenstein, our main narrator, seeking shelter on the ship. Victor and Robert develop a bond and Victor confesses to Robert that “You have hope, and the world before you, and have no cause for despair, But I- I have lost everything and cannot begin life anew.”

The novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley depicts certain ideas that can not be described or written within novels. For example, the telling of the story between three different narrators can teach the reader about putting together “pieces of a puzzle” in order to understand the plot of the story. The three narrators in Frankenstein are Victor, Walton, and the Creature, all with very distinct personalities and character traits. Of these storytellers, Victor could possibly be debated as the most extraordinary. The qualities that make Victor pictured as this unique character, that the fact that he is a dynamic character, and that he is an unreliable narrator.

Moments, when characters have a sudden change in attitude, can be found often throughout Frankenstein, but it is prominent during Walton’s last letter to his sister as he tells of meeting the monster. The monster mentions his past concerning Victor Frankenstein and that his feelings were “forever ardent and craving; still [it] desired love and fellowship, and [it] was spurned…” (Shelley 211). While the monster recognizes his desire for love, he then contradicts that desire by stating that “[Frankenstein’s] abhorrence cannot equal that with which [it regarded itself]” (Shelley 212). The monster’s growing internal conflict through the novel between his desire to be accepted and his knowledge of being different is what causes him to be a dynamic character.

Frankenstein wants the glorification and pride in being the first person to create life. Frankenstein sees himself in Walton, and Walton says, “ ...do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose?...,but I prefer glory to every excitement that wealth place on my path”(10). Walton is a younger extension of Frankenstein and gives perspective to the ideas of the younger version of Frankenstein as he creates the creature. However, Frankenstein’s ambitions cost him dearly. The deaths of those around him make him suffer, but also the creation of the creature makes the creature suffer.

So, after all those encounters with the story, reading the novel is surprising. The reason therefore, being that the reader, while reading, already has all those other images, of what the book needs to contain or to be more precise, what needs to happen, so that he, right at the beginning of the book might be thrown off by the Opening. It opens not with the story of Victor Frankenstein, or his creation, but with a series of letters from an Arctic explorer. Suddenly, the monster, is not, like widely believed named Frankenstein, in fact, he does not even have a name at all. Yet another difference to the widespread picture of the monster is that he is, a rather articulate creature.

This foreshadows that once Walton hears Frankenstein’s story, he will change his mind about his expedition. Also, during the thunderstorm that happened in Victor’s childhood, Victor sees a tree get struck by lightning. He becomes interested in the idea of electricity, and he starts to study its

ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

The fictional horror novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is driven by the accentuation of humanity’s flaws. Even at the very mention of her work an archetypal monster fills one’s imagination, coupled with visions of a crazed scientist to boot. Opening her novel with Robert Walton, the conduit of the story, he also serves as a character to parallel the protagonist’s in many ways. As the ‘protagonist’ of the story, Victor Frankenstein, takes on the mantle of the deluded scientist, his nameless creation becomes the embodiment of a truly abandoned child – one left to fend for itself against the harsh reality posed by society. On the other hand, Walton also serves as a foil to Victor – he is not compulsive enough to risk what would be almost