Narrative Structure
English Lit: Edexcel A Level Frankenstein, topic 1.1.1
Mise-en-Abyme
The story is written in a mise-en-abyme (story within a story) structure, with three main narrators.
Types of narrator
- The story starts with Walton, who is the framing narrator, or extra-diegetic, as he is on the outside of the main story.
- Victor Frankenstein is the intra-diegetic narrator, meaning he tells the main story that the reader is engaged with.
Types of narrator cont.
- The creature is a meta-diegetic narrator, with his story sitting inside Victor’s, at the heart of the novel.
- It could be argued that by placing the creature at the centre of the novel, Shelley could be referring to the ‘monster’ that is inside all humans and she definitely creates a sense of sympathy for its plight after its rejection by the eponymous doctor.
Publication
- With these three main narrators, it is clear that each is unreliable. Perhaps this is what Shelley wanted the reader to consider?
- As a female writer, she published her 1818 first edition anonymously, with her husband Percy Shelley writing the introduction.
‘Authorised’ perspectives
- Having three male voices narrate (if we classify the creature as male) could be a satirical attack on ‘authorised’ perspectives, as all narrators give a different and biased perspective of the story, with each character displaying particular personal flaws.
Republication
- It was only in 1831 that Shelley wrote her own introduction to a revised version of the text, acknowledging that she wrote the novel and making slight changes to the justifications of Victor's actions.
- This was 9 years after her husband died in a boating accident.
Epistolary Form
The novel opens with Walton writing letters to his sister, using the epistolary form.
Epistolary form
- The novel opens with Walton writing letters to his sister, using the epistolary form (letter writing) to frame Victor’s tale and outline his own journey to the North Pole, or as he puts it: "unexplored regions, to the land of mist and snow."
Foil character
- Walton acts as a foil character to Victor, as he never achieves the levels of discovery that Frankenstein does, being warned off by the story of misadventure and monomaniacal pursuit of knowledge.
Verisimilitude
- The fact Shelley opens her novel with Walton’s letters adds a sense of verisimilitude (realism) to the novel.
Doppelganger
- It also sets Walton up as a doppelganger (double) to Victor, allowing the reader to view their similarities and character flaws.
Test yourself on Narrative Structure
Who is the intra-diegetic narrator?
Which of these are true of Frankenstein?
What does extra-diegetic mean when used of a novel?
What does verisimilitude mean?
In what way is Walton a foil to Victor?