Thematic and Structural Analysis of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The plot of Frankenstein

The plot:

-is simple, Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist try to create a man combining parts selected from other corpses,

-the result of experiment is ugly and revolting,

-the monster become a murderer and in the end he kills his creator;
The origin of the model:

Probably “Frankenstein” is born from:

-Mary’s anxieties about her role of mother;

-the death that surrounded her life;

-also from other ghost stories;

Historical and scientific influences

Influences:

-historical background (the age of revolution with the theme of social justice and with the personification, in the monster of the age of revolution)

-science, she reads a lot of scientific books and she was very interested in chemistry, evolutionism and electricity, and she knew the latest scientific theories, (the monster is the result of science that is a key of the story;)

-Rousseau (the monster is the typical man of the state of nature, not influenced by civilization)

-the taste of gothic (although this novel doesn’t respect the tradition: there isn’t a castle and there aren’t supernatural events)

-romantic poems like Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. That is a story of a physical and psychological travel but it is also the tale of a crime against nature (two fundamental points of the novel)

Narrative structure of the novel

Narrative structure:

-the story is not told chronologically

-this novel is told by different narrators that inform different characters giving different points of view, according to this chronological scheme: Walton to his sister, Frankenstein to Walton, Monster to Frankenstein.

-the form of the novel is epistolary, Mary Shelly wanted to disguise her voice behind male narrators.

Main themes of the novel

Themes:

-the research of forbidden knowledge;

-the overreacher (in Walton and Frankenstein);

-the double (Frankenstein and the monster seem to be two parts of the same being, in anticipation of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson),

-social injustice;

-the usurpation of female and god’s roles (the creation of a man become possible without the participation of women and god);

-scientific actions (of Frankenstein);

The theme of the double

The double:

the three most important characters are all linked to the theme of double

-Walton is a double of Frankenstein (because they have the same ambition of overcoming human limits);

-Frankenstein is the double of his creature (because they both suffer from a sense of alienation and isolation, both have the desire to be good but become observed with hate, the creature is the negative self of the scientist)

What does the monster represent?

What the monster represents:

-the monster symbolizes the fear of technology and the repercussions of man “playing God”, it represents the product of the industrialization that can gives bad results;

-It may be a symbol of the outcast from society: the weak the poor the dispossessed and a comment on the way that society treats them.

-It may be a symbol of human nature;

-It may be a symbol of the parent child relationship;