Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus
Narrative:
Protagonist= the main character (so not the narrator!)
Narrator is created by author to:
Organise the order in which the story is told
Select what information is given
Narrator also:
Comments and judges
Participates in their own narrative (first-person)
Is a detached observer (third-person)
4 types of narrators:
1st-person: the ‘I’-narrator = a character not necessarily protagonist
2nd-person: uses ‘you’ to address the reader → you become a character in
the novel
3rd-person: the omniscient narrator: stands outside the novel, but observes
and provides objectivity
Collective narrator: the ‘we’ narrator; multiple characters
Walton is the ‘frame narrator’
Not the only narrator, but his narrative contains all the other stories
Walton gives us information in the form of letters to his sister. The letters then
introduce and expand on Victor Frankenstein’s story, which Victor narrates himself.
Within this narrative, the ‘monster’ and other characters speak.
Using letters like this is called the ‘epistolary narrative’
Walton
The ‘Monster’, letters and
other minor characters
Victor Frankenstein
, Setting
Archangel= An angel who helps you to get to heaven (to become a better person)
Ascension= hemelvaart
In his first letter to his sister, Walton writes about his journey to Archangel from St.
Petersburg (he is going north: metaphor is the ascension(going up to heaven)). St.
Peter was the gatekeeper of heaven, so this is one of the many religious metaphors
Victor was a sinner, so to go to heaven he had to confess in the church in a
wooden box with the priest in a box next to him.
Walton’s role is an archangel → metaphor: Frankenstein is God and the creature is
Lucifer (hell)
There are multiple settings:
on a ship surrounded by a lot of ice; Walton is the captain of this ship
The Monster was created in Ingolstadt, Germany
The novel was written in Geneva, Switzerland
https://laconicprose.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/frankenstein-the-symbolism-of-st-
petersburg-and-archangel/
Sublime
Sublimity= the quality of greatness (one-of-a-kind)
Sublimity is hard to define, but the most common form of greatness is inimitability
Nature is one-of-a-kind and cannot be imitated by people
Emphasis on one’s connection to nature
Example: “The Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)
Uneasiness
Comfort
Alpine beauty
Narrative:
Protagonist= the main character (so not the narrator!)
Narrator is created by author to:
Organise the order in which the story is told
Select what information is given
Narrator also:
Comments and judges
Participates in their own narrative (first-person)
Is a detached observer (third-person)
4 types of narrators:
1st-person: the ‘I’-narrator = a character not necessarily protagonist
2nd-person: uses ‘you’ to address the reader → you become a character in
the novel
3rd-person: the omniscient narrator: stands outside the novel, but observes
and provides objectivity
Collective narrator: the ‘we’ narrator; multiple characters
Walton is the ‘frame narrator’
Not the only narrator, but his narrative contains all the other stories
Walton gives us information in the form of letters to his sister. The letters then
introduce and expand on Victor Frankenstein’s story, which Victor narrates himself.
Within this narrative, the ‘monster’ and other characters speak.
Using letters like this is called the ‘epistolary narrative’
Walton
The ‘Monster’, letters and
other minor characters
Victor Frankenstein
, Setting
Archangel= An angel who helps you to get to heaven (to become a better person)
Ascension= hemelvaart
In his first letter to his sister, Walton writes about his journey to Archangel from St.
Petersburg (he is going north: metaphor is the ascension(going up to heaven)). St.
Peter was the gatekeeper of heaven, so this is one of the many religious metaphors
Victor was a sinner, so to go to heaven he had to confess in the church in a
wooden box with the priest in a box next to him.
Walton’s role is an archangel → metaphor: Frankenstein is God and the creature is
Lucifer (hell)
There are multiple settings:
on a ship surrounded by a lot of ice; Walton is the captain of this ship
The Monster was created in Ingolstadt, Germany
The novel was written in Geneva, Switzerland
https://laconicprose.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/frankenstein-the-symbolism-of-st-
petersburg-and-archangel/
Sublime
Sublimity= the quality of greatness (one-of-a-kind)
Sublimity is hard to define, but the most common form of greatness is inimitability
Nature is one-of-a-kind and cannot be imitated by people
Emphasis on one’s connection to nature
Example: “The Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)
Uneasiness
Comfort
Alpine beauty
