English 12 / Unit 4: Romantic Poets
4.5 Frankenstein: Context and Structure
Notes
Mary Shelley published Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, when she was twenty. She began it in 1816 near Lake Geneva during a ghost-story contest with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.
- Subtitle: Prometheus, in Greek myth, stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. Victor also takes a forbidden power.
- Genres: Gothic (dark settings, fear, the unnatural) and early science fiction.
- Frame structure: Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister from an Arctic ship; he tells Victor Frankenstein's story; Victor's story contains the Creature's own narrative. A story inside a story inside a story.
- Key line: "It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils." After bringing the creature to life, Victor flees in horror.
Practice
Why is Frankenstein subtitled "The Modern Prometheus"?
Prometheus stole fire and was punished; Victor creates life and faces consequences.
Which narrator opens the novel?
Walton's letters frame the novel.
The novel nests Walton's letters, Victor's account and the Creature's own story. What is one effect of this structure?
Multiple narrators let readers compare viewpoints.
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