Structure

Q: Structure: Three Levels of Narration

As well as the form, the structure of _‘Frankenstein’_ is very interesting. Shelley bookends the main two narratives (Victor and the Monster) within that of Walton, as told through his letters to his sister.

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Structure: Three Levels of Narration

As well as the form, the structure of ‘Frankenstein’ is very interesting. Shelley bookends the main two narratives (Victor and the Monster) within that of Walton, as told through his letters to his sister.

Three narratives

The novel begins and ends with letters from Walton to his sister, and these letters encapsulate the two other narratives – those of Victor and the Monster.
This gives the novel three different levels of narration, which act upon the reader in different ways.

Usefulness of multiple narratives

The introduction of the Monster’s narrative in Volume II creates a change in the reader's sympathies and understandings of the previous events.
- Firstly it changes the reader’s view of the Monster who no longer seems to be as “monstrous” as Victor has presented him.

Victor

Secondly it changes the reader's views of Victor, who perhaps has not presented his narrative in a wholly truthful and unbiased way.
- The sympathies which Shelley encourages the reader to have for the Monster lead them to reflect on Victor’s actions, and question how morally right he was.

Flashbacks

Due to the nature of this framed narrative, the events in ‘Frankenstein’ are not presented chronologically.
Shelley makes use of flashbacks:
- In Walton’s letters he recounts meeting Victor and seeing the Monster.

Flashbacks: Victor

After presenting Victor in Walton’s narrative, his own narrative takes us back to his childhood and time at university, when he creates the Monster.

Flashbacks: the Monster

When she introduces the Monster’s narrative, Shelley again takes the reader back, and allows them to see the same period of time from the contrasting perspective of the Monster.

Key Quotations: Structure

By making the narratives personal, Shelley also makes them subjective and therefore liable to unreliability, misremembering and deliberate deception.

Unreliability

The fact that the Monster explicitly mentions his difficulty in remembering the beginning of his life calls attention to the unreliability of personal narratives.
The reader is aware that different sides of the story are told through different perspectives, and that none of these are unbiased or without flaws.

The Monster's recollections

“It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses.”
(Volume Two: Chapter 3)