Themes in Frankenstein

Walton’s ardent curiosity mirrors Frankenstein’s own thirst for knowledge. Both characters desire to uncover mysteries never before accessible to humanity, and in doing so place themselves at great risk. Shelley’s narrative serves to show how a thirst for knowledge for knowledge’s sake can lead to dangerous discoveries and consequences.

Walton’s statement reveals his stubbornness and strong desire to pursue knowledge. As the story advances, Shelley introduces characters that have qualities similar to Walton’s; this creates doppelganger relationships between Walton and those other characters, and at the same time, raises the question of whether the pursuit of knowledge is good or bad.

Walton’s ambition—to explore the Arctic—mirrors Frankenstein’s single-minded pursuit of creating life, no matter what the consequences. The two characters are mirror images of each other at the beginnings of both of their stories, which is why Frankenstein decides that Walton is the perfect audience for his tale. The notion of a fixed fate or destiny is a key theme throughout the narrative. Frankenstein often bemoans his circumstances as if he is a victim of a predetermined fate.

Being unable to explicitly describe his sensations that are “half pleasurable and half fearful,” Walton is experiencing the sentimental sublime, an overwhelming and often inexplicable amount or level of emotion and a major element in Romanticism. Descriptions of nature are often used to represent such experiences. This element will repeatedly show up throughout Frankenstein, situating the text as a Romantic novel.

Walton is confident and faithful that he and his crew shall triumph. This question is rhetorical—he does not expect an answer from his sister. However, Shelley does provide an answer, which is implicitly suggested through his description of the weather and the threatening ice: Nature has the power to stop the “determined heart and resolved will.”

Walton’s passion to conquer nature through making discoveries is strong. Instead of addressing his crew that is traveling with him, he personifies the stars, calling them “witnesses” and “testimonies” of his achievement; it is as if those stars, elements of nature, have already been “conquered” by Walton, having to serve as his “witnesses” and to support his expedition. In this way, Walton is underestimating the power of nature. As the story progresses, the prideful desire to conquer nature will be revealed in other characters and develop into a major theme.

Walton remains determined to complete his journey. Note the very Romantic concepts of reporting his feelings to his sister and describing the beauty of nature. Even the confidence that Walton expresses here can be considered distinct to the Romantic frame of mind.

Once again Frankenstein warns Walton about the moral limits of knowledge, referring to the fruit of his own scientific pursuits as a serpent that stung him. This represents an expression of the theme of hubris, the sin of excessive pride and the desire to wield godlike power.

Frankenstein immediately recognizes the path Walton is pursuing and tries to offer a warning. He blames his state of instability and ruin on the “madness” of pursuing knowledge. Such a warning provides readers with insights into Frankenstein’s past as well as an instance of foreshadowing, for the dangerous pursuit of knowledge is one of the novel’s core themes.

While Walton is not clear about the nature of his own pursuit, he readily tells Frankenstein about his desire “for the acquirement of knowledge.” The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, as well as the limits of such a pursuit, is one of the novel’s central themes.

Freudian scholars' may describe Victor as the "id" aspect of the personality. The "id" is the part of the self that is concerned with instinct and desires control. It controls all things, and in this case, it controls life. Furthermore, these same scholars often point to the creature as the "ego" or the mind trying to make sense of the world's rejection, and to Walton as the "conscience" which tries to instruct both aspects of the personality.

This description of Victor by Walton describes the depth of feeling between the two, and is quite typical of Romantic literature.

Here is the end of Shelley’s “frame” story. The story that follows, the "meat" of Shelley’s tale, is Victor Frankenstein’s confession where he wants to rid himself of the guilt of his life experience. This might be a good point to reveal an interesting psychological perspective about Victor & the creature. Scholars provide an interesting psychological perspective on Victor and the creature: some see the two as the same being, one as Freud’s id (or the part of the self that acts on instinct and desires control) and the other as the ego (or the part of the self that uses the mind to come to terms with the world and its rejection thereof). Other scholars claim that this makes Walton the “conscience” trying to regulate the two.

Like many other romantics, Frankenstein characterizes Elizabeth as a supernatural or otherworldly divinity. Elizabeth embodies the literary trope in which a love object is elevated in order to align human feeling with sublime experiences beyond human capacity. This description demonstrates Victor’s and Elizabeth’s innocent, pre-fallen states, which will be destroyed as the novel goes on. Victor places Elizabeth on a pedestal from which she will fall.

Many scholars see the echo of the author, Mary Shelley, in this beginning narrative. Mary’s family often cared for the poor and passed that compassion on to Mary. Of course, one can’t deny the fact that both mothers also died during the birth of a female child. Also, it is not Victor, but the poor, adopted child Elizabeth who seems to become the focus here. Some call this an element of foreshadowing. For example, note that Victor talks about the depth of their relationship as if it was more than just one of brother and sister: “since till death she was to be mine only.”

This is one of the rare moments in which we witness Victor perceive knowledge as “misfortune” or a negative element in his life. He enjoys reflecting on his childhood because he longs for the innocence he once had. “Tainted” suggests that gaining knowledge pollutes one’s mind, further emphasizing how obtaining knowledge can be bad and how one cannot unlearn what they’ve learned. This raises the question of whether knowledge acquisition is good or bad in the context of the Enlightenment.

Frankenstein laments not only the loss of his mother, but also the companionship of his close friends, Clerval and Elizabeth. Notice how this longing mirrors Walton’s desires for a friend in Letter II. Because, as Frankenstein puts it, he has an “invincible repugnance to new countenances”—meaning a profound disgust for attempting to make new friends—he is able to dedicate himself to his work.

Again we see Frankenstein attempting to mitigate his responsibility for his future actions. Here he refers to coincidence using divine references, like “evil” and “angel,” to make its force seem more powerful than he. After Frankenstein’s meetings with his professors, he resolves to prove that he can upstage them. He wants Walton to believe that it is chance, not ambition, that leads to his creature. He wants to be seen as a victim of chance and bad luck rather than the creator of his own fate and responsibilities.

Frankenstein’s mother speaks this line, but it is relevant to Frankenstein himself, who will later see his chance at a happily married life with Elizabeth ripped away from him by his vengeful creature. Notice that the prospect of happiness hinges on companionship rather than isolation, a struggle faced by both Frankenstein and the creature that both ultimately lose.

Frankenstein returns to the present in order to beg Walton to embrace daily life instead of recklessly seeking fulfillment and satisfaction in discovery and science. Shelley again shows readers how the two men are similar, including their obsession with knowledge and glory. However, notice how words like “dangerous” and “allow” suggest that ambitious men, like Frankenstein, are ultimately doomed for their hubris.

We now clearly see Frankenstein’s arrogance and ambition. While in retrospect he knows that life and death are too complicated to be manipulated by science, in this moment he lacks wisdom to see the truth behind his blind ambition. Light and dark appear again, representing knowledge and ignorance as well as good and evil. Frankenstein wishes to bring light (knowledge) into the world, but he cannot control it and, as we’ll see, he doesn’t know how to properly deal with his creation or the consequences of his actions.

Frankenstein tells Walton that he will not reveal the secret to creating life. Instead, he offers a warning, which extends as a caution to all readers, that all knowledge comes at a price. This theme continues to be explored throughout Frankenstein and has been popular in other tales throughout literary history, perhaps most famously in works which explore the Faust myth, such as Goethe’s Faust.

In order to study life, Frankenstein must also have knowledge of death. We learn how he was sheltered as a young boy from supernatural tales and horrors by his family. Notice how such things are associated with darkness, which reinforces the dichotomy between light and dark, good and evil.

Victor’s ambition is constantly fueling his sense of pride. He not only wants to be notable for his studies and discoveries within humanity, but he also wishes to create a new species that would worship him. This desire is reflected in the language Shelley uses here, which bears strong resemblance to phrases from the Christian biblical tradition.

This description reflects the intertwined relationship of life and death. Specifically, it highlights the fact that in the end, death overcomes life. At the same time, this description reveals Victor’s narrow view on life and death. To him, death is a form of corruption, which is bad and ugly, whereas life is like a blooming cheek that suggests youth, good health, and beauty. It is this perspective that motivates Victor to eventually disturb the natural relationship between life and death by creating life.

Here, the churchyard, often considered a beautiful and religious place, is stripped of such associations and depicted as food for worms. This metaphor emphasizes not only the death and decay of human life, but also Nature’s power; the human body, once deprived of life, is fed on by worms, which are part of Nature’s work of art.

In an intriguing thematic reversal, Frankenstein is rendered “lifeless” as a result of having given life to his creature. After the creature is animated, Frankenstein experiences a loss, a fall from wholeness and a resulting need for redemption. This fall resembles the Edenic fall from grace depicted in the Book of Genesis. In his studies and efforts to construct the creature, Frankenstein was driven by an idealized vision. The reality of his efforts proves to be far darker and more complex than he had imagined. This arc from purity into complication, from idealism into reality, from light into darkness, is the archetype of the fall.

Frankenstein mistakenly believes that he can escape the horror of his creation through sleep. For Frankenstein, going to bed is akin to going into denial. This reaction is similar to an episode in Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel Crime and Punishment. After committing a murder he had justified to himself, Raskolnikov, the novel’s protagonist, attempts to escape his feelings of guilt through sleep. For both Raskolnikov and Frankenstein, sleep offers no solace. Guilt proves to be a recurrent theme throughout the rest of Frankenstein.

While Victor may not see himself as a God, obvious comparisons such as this one suggest that Shelley intended to portray him as one. This statement is also another reference to the novel’s subtitle, “The Modern Prometheus,” since Prometheus was the creator of humankind in Greek mythology.

The phrase “the night before” emphasizes the temporal nature of human life. William was active and healthy, and now he is dead. Shelley’s use of this phrase shows this sharp contrast between life and death and reminds us that everything can change in an instant.

This description and others in this chapter reinforce the Romantic element of nature’s sublime and the effects it has on the human soul. In Victor’s case, there is irony; Victor has offended Nature, yet he can only find true consolation in his interaction with her.

These words foreshadow the coming tragedies throughout the rest of the novel. Though Justine and William are the first innocents dead at the hands of both Frankenstein and his creature, they will not be the last. Notice also how Frankenstein subtly shifts blame from himself to his creature—his “unhallowed art”—who he brought to life through dark processes. The word choice of “unhallowed,” meaning “unholy” or “profane,” shows that Frankenstein thinks of his creature in hellish terms.

Close to the end of her life, Justine finds herself alone, without allies, and isolated from society and family, which is the case for many of the novel’s characters before their deaths. All she has left is her faith in God, so the threat of damnation is what leads her to confess. She’d rather confess to a crime she didn’t commit than face divine judgment for that crime.

Frankenstein draws a comparison between himself and the natural world around him. While much has happened to change and cause him grief, the mountains, valleys, and the natural world remain unchanged from his childhood. On the one hand, Shelley uses this moment to demonstrate the lasting power and strength of the natural world, which makes human concerns insignificant in comparison. However, this line also reveals Frankenstein’s hubris: he has changed, he is a wreck, and so he is frustrated that the natural world has not changed as well.

Elizabeth considers herself responsible for William’s death, and she carries that guilt with her. That moment marked a loss of innocence for Elizabeth. Now that Justine has been executed, and that Elizabeth knows in her heart that Justine was not guilty, Elizabeth continues to be corrupted, no longer remaining the happy and innocent person she once was. This sentence marks this transition in her worldview.

Frankenstein’s desire for revenge manifests during his despair at the loss of William and Justine. His response to what he considers the creature’s betrayal of him mirrors the creature’s response to Frankenstein’s initial betrayal: both creator and creation seek to isolate themselves in order to carry out their revenge.

Frankenstein’s guilt has affected him so strongly that he tries isolating himself from others, seeking solace in solitude. Given the importance of light and lack of light in the novel, his isolation being described as “dark, deathlike” solitude is important. Frankenstein actively removed himself from society to deal with his guilt, but without his family or others, he struggles alone without any form of support, creating self-perpetuating cycles of guilt and grief.

These lines represent the second half of Percy Shelley’s poem “Mutability,” which was first published in 1816, the year Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. The content of the poem does not appear to have a direct correlation with the developments of the story at this point. That being said, it is moving to hear the creature deliver a beautifully constructed and wise reflection on the nature of human existence. The central idea of the poem is that the only constant in life is inconstancy. This idea that the temperament of the soul is always changing and fleeting is pertinent to Frankenstein, whose restless reflections have carried him through extreme emotional highs and lows.

The creature reaches for biblical references to understand his relationship to Frankenstein as well as his place in the world. He recognizes that he is not related to Frankenstein in the way that Adam was related to the Christian God. Whereas Adam had to sin in order to be driven into suffering, the creature was cast into suffering from the moment of his introduction to the world. The creature equates such a fate to that of “the fallen angel,” Lucifer, whom he believes was cast out of grace “for no misdeed.” While the creature is mistaken in that, by most accounts, fallen angels were seen as guilty of pride, he is right to question why he was cast out of grace so quickly. The fall from grace is an archetypal pattern that occurs for most of the characters in the novel.

Frankenstein laments the mixed blessing of human consciousness. Our superior sensibilities, as Frankenstein puts it, offer us a richer and more complex experience of the world. There are, of course, problems our consciousness presents—the knowledge of death, the capacity for guilt, and the search for meaning—which cause us to suffer and which make humans less “necessary beings” than animals. The burden of this spark of consciousness becomes an important theme as the novel progresses.

It is interesting that the creature chooses to compare his homey hut to Satan’s Pandemonium. This might suggest that the creature thinks of himself as a type of wicked creature, such as a devil. The creature sees his first days as similar to burning on a lake of fire—a punishment fit for the devil who rebelled against God. However, at this point in the story the creature has not done anything befitting of this extreme punishment. Rather, his creator abandoned him to a world that believes his is terrifying and hideous. This allusion to Milton demonstrates the creature’s self-hatred and Frankenstein’s cruelty to his creation.

Notice that the creature does not harm the first person with whom he comes in contact. The old man’s fear of the creature’s appearance drives him out of his house, not the creature himself. This event touches on the theme of beauty in this novel. The creature’s lack of beauty causes society to treat him like a monster; from this treatment, he becomes a monster.

Despite the creature’s admiration and compassion for the De Lacey family, he remains separate and isolated due to his monstrous appearance. By demonstrating that the creature is capable of kindness, Shelley complicates the romantic notion that beauty is good and ugliness is evil.

Education is a key theme throughout the narrative. Victor is usually described as a man of learning. Here, however, the creature is shown to engage in learning language by observing the De Lacey family. This moment foreshadows later learning when the creature begins to read and comprehend more complex ideas.

As the creature observes the De Lacey family, he grows and discovers the nature of humanity. This moment shows the creature’s burgeoning understanding of class. The creature’s compassion for the suffering of the De Laceys demonstrates that he is capable of kindness and empathy. We are unable to view the creature as wholly evil, as Frankenstein does, but instead realize that he shares many of the same wants as humans—chiefly the twin desires for companionship and love. In speaking of the De Laceys’ poverty, readers also can draw comparisons to Frankenstein’s privileged upbringing. Unlike his creature, Frankenstein seems wilfully ignorant of poverty and class difference.

From this statement we see that the creature initially believes that beauty and companionship are the only requirements for happiness. Under this metric, he believes he must be the most unhappy creature of them all since he possesses neither. However, upon further examination of the De Lacey family, the creature learns of other afflictions that may hinder human happiness.

The creature expresses the idea that kindness and human empathy give rise to being. Without human connection, the creature struggles to establish a sense of self, and feels that he is on the level of dust. The fundamental need for connection is one of the novel’s central themes.

In this subtle passage, the creature comes to acknowledge another aspect of the fall from grace: the knowledge of mortality. Though he does not make his realization explicit, when the creature witnesses the decay of the leaves he comes to understand the inescapable passage of time and the necessity of death.

The creature imagines that his suffering and loneliness might be alleviated by a romantic partner. At the conclusion of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve cope with their fallen state through companionship. In his fallen state, the creature has no such companion.

The manner in which the creature’s education—his “increase of knowledge”—deepens his anxieties reflects the archetypal fall from grace. In the biblical story of Eden, Adam and Eve eat the fruit of knowledge, triggering their fall from grace and subsequent expulsion from the garden. Knowledge—of one’s nature and mortality, of one’s capacity for both good and evil—is the source of every fall.

In his reading of Paradise Lost, the creature considers which fallen figure he most nearly resembles. He does not associate with Adam, for Adam was made beautiful and was given a home. The creature then feels a closer association to Lucifer, who is, like him, gripped by envy and bitterness. In many ways, however, Victor Frankenstein is more akin to Lucifer than his creature. While Frankenstein has committed the satanic sin of pride by imitating the divine act of creation, his creature has done no such act. While Victor and the creature would both consider themselves to be wholly different from each other, the question of how each resembles Lucifer provides one way for considering how they are also alike.

The creature is distinctly human in his capacity to question his own existence. The larger questions of meaning he poses are indelible riddles which underlie the human experience. According to many readings of the Book of Genesis, humanity’s self-consciousness—our tendency to ask broad questions of meaning—are a central feature of our fallen state.

Again, the element of Romantic literature focusing on deep emotional responses.

While the creature was previously focused on obtaining love and acceptance from humanity, now all he cares for is revenge. His love has turned to hatred because of his isolation and rejection.

Notice how the world of humanity causes the creature fear and dread while the world of nature allows him to feel gentle pleasure. Humanity’s harshness is once again reinforced as nature is portrayed as a restorative force.

Notice that the creature feels anger about being deserted and rejected. This reinforces the theme of isolation as a cause of the creature’s monstrous nature.

Notice that this is the moment in which the creature has his first thoughts of violence and murder. Remember that it was provoked by the family’s reaction to his physical form and his feelings of isolation and rejection. Isolation and rejection cause his cruel vengeance.

Such an interesting dichotomy here, and an interesting Romantic idea.  The creature claims that its "food is not that of man," claiming that meat (in other words "the lamb and the kid") isn't its nourishment.  However, the creature's food is precisely "acorns and berries."  What strikes this eNotes educator is that the first humans were always considered hunters and gatherers.  They hunted game and they gathered nuts and berries.  Wouldn't all of these foods be "that of man"?  Further, aren't all these foods directly from nature?  It seems that nature sustains all:  quite a concept of Romantic literature.

What better way to top off a Romantic monologue than by quoting one of the  most famous Romantic poets of all time:  Wordsworth.  So, here is Victor quoting from the Tintern Abbey poem.

Clerval serves as a foil to Frankenstein, actively participating in society with the enthusiasm of a younger Frankenstein. However, we can see that guilt and obsession have taken over Frankenstein, and he now seeks isolation and barriers between himself and society, only engaging with others when necessary. This isolation deprives him of a support system, which only compounds his troubles.

The theme of mutability, notably introduced in Chapter X, recurs in this reflection by Frankenstein. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein is gripped by “mutable… feelings”: heights of intellectual fervor, explosions of rage, sleepless guilt-ridden nights. In some ways, emotional mutability is a cornerstone of the romantic movement, whose artists and writers sought truth in interior moods and reflections, rather than in rational calculation.

In this scene, Frankenstein takes a more ethically conscientious approach to the creation of new life than he did during the making of his first creature. Here, he takes into account how unpredictable his first creature has turned out, and then imagines the even more disastrous possible outcomes of making a new creature. Once again, Frankenstein is toying with fate and chance.

When Victor sees the body of his friend, he cries out in grief over not only Henry’s death but also Victor’s role in that death. This exclamation implicates him in a murder that he did not actually commit. However, because he brought the creature to life and denied him a mate, Frankenstein is liable for the horrible actions that the creature commits. This moment touches on the theme of family: Frankenstein is culpable for his creation’s actions in much the same way that the creature makes Frankenstein’s family culpable for Frankenstein’s actions.

As Frankenstein nears the end of his personal account, he issues a rare address to his direct audience, Walton. Frankenstein’s sentiment reaches back across the boundary between innocence and experience. Having fallen from grace, Frankenstein recognizes that the youthful Walton cannot truly understand his story.

The creature’s statement here indicates that its plans for revenge are complete. Frankenstein has decided to continue living in order to pursue the creature. This makes Frankenstein as isolated and tormented as the creature itself, which was its plan for revenge all along.