Frankenstein

The plot of the stpry is very simple: Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, manages to create a human being by joining parts selected from corpeses. Despite careful preparation, the result of the experiment is ugly and revolting. The monster becomes a murder and in the end he destroys his creator.

The story is not told chronologically and is introduced to us through a series of letters written by Walton, a young explorer on a voyage of expedition to the north pole, to his sister Margaret Walton Saville. The events of the story happen all over Europe, but the most important setting is the North Pole, where Walton and his shipmates are stuck by the ice and where Frankenstein is found following his creation.

Victor Frankenstein,the doomed protagonist and narrator of the main portion of the story. Studying in Ingolstadt, Victor discovers the secret of life and creates an intelligent but grotesque monster, from whom he recoils in horror. Victor keeps his creation of the monster a secret, feeling increasingly guilty and ashamed as he realizes how helpless he is to prevent the monster from ruining his life and the lives of others.

The Monster,The eight-foot-tall, hideously ugly creation of Victor Frankenstein. Intelligent and sensitive, the Monster attempts to integrate himself into human social patterns, but all who see him shun him. His feeling of abandonment compels him to seek revenge against his creator.

Robert Walton,the Arctic seafarer whose letters open and close Frankenstein. Walton picks the bedraggled Victor Frankenstein up off the ice, helps nurse him back to health, and hears Victor’s story. He records the incredible tale in a series of letters addressed to his sister, Margaret Saville, in England.

The novel is tolf by different narrators

the first one, Walton

the second one, Victor Frankenstein

the third one, The Monster

The form of the novel is epistolary

Thus the whole story, we found three different men points of view, beacuse the writer wanted to disguise her own voice as a woman by hiding behind three male narrators.

The three most important characters of the novel are all linked to the theme of the double: Walton is a double of Frankenstein, since he manifest the same ambition, also Frankenstein and his creature are complementary. They both suffer from sense of alienation and isolation, both begin with a desire to be good but become obsessed with hate and revenge.

It's one of the first novel written by a woman to achive such great success;

It influenced many subsequent novels that dealt with science and supernatural;

It's a crucial part of english literature;

The initial inspiration burst into Shelley's consciousness as a nightmare, as a result of the intellectual stimulation of George Byron.

Secondly, she was really intrested in the reading of horror and ghost stories.

Her mother death only 2 days after her birth, so Frankenstein could be seen as the symbol of Shelley's hope to make relive her mother.

After the death of her mother, Shelley's father married Jane Clairmont, but she didn't love her step-daughter, so that she started to make a competition between her daughter and the step dauhter (Mary)

After the death of her mother, Shelley's father married Jane Clairmont, but she didn't love her step-daughter, so that she started to make a competition between her daughter and the step dauhter (Mary)

is one of the most important metaphors of the whole work:Prometheus, in greek mythology, was a giant who stole the fire from gods in order to give it to men. In so doing, he challenged the divine authority: so he was a clear example of an overreacher, just like Dt Frankenstein who tried to create life starting from dead bodies.

The question of forbidden knowledge

The overreacher

The double

The penetration of nature's secrets

The usurpation of the female role

Social prejudices