LITERARY STUDIES

The novel Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus is a gothic Romantic novel. This genre covers narratives about strange and supernatural creatures, including pessimist stories of ghosts, beasts, ghoulish brides, and monsters. These narratives share the elements of fear, horror, and darkness, in addition to the reflection of the evil side of the human being and depictions of disgusting and grotesque figures and details.

As a gothic novel, Frankenstein, Or Modern Prometheus reflects the fears and warnings of the nineteenth century romantics to the advocates of rationality about the danger of glorifying science. Science was thought to be very powerful and to be able to replace God. The author acts upon her drives as a romantic writer and as an agent whose mission is to warn society, stages a conflict of man against God wherein the scientific experiment ends in a failure and agony as a punishment to the man who run the experiment. His punishment included total anxiety until his death (as a response from God for his defiance).

The novel was classified as a science-fiction novel because it includes a scientific experiment and traumatic results. Yet, the term science fiction (scientifiction) was only coined in 1920 while the novel was written in 1818. The novelist's tendency was romantic and may have common themes that merge with the modern age science fiction themes, like the defiance of God, the definition and power of science during the nineteenth century, and the fear of the future of humanity.

Themes and Atmosphere

The novel explores themes of scientific discovery, creation, and the consequences of playing god. The protagonist faces different conflicts in this novel. The first is an ethical conflict towards Man and towards God. He attempts to play God by creating life and consequently his creation murders his relatives causing him to despair and anxiety. He feels a moral responsibility towards what may happen to other innocents as long as his creature was free in the wilderness. Other themes related to the Promethan hero figure of Victor are depicted in his anxiety, darkness, agony, fear, horror, and disgust.

Plot

The novel is narrated in a series of letters told in the voice of Victor Frankenstein to Robert Walton. The narration begins in the ocean as Walton recounts the difficulties of traveling in the Arctic to his sister in a letter. The exposition in Robert's letter is crowned by his encounter with Victor. The conflict in Victor's story is marked by his curiosity towards the secret of life and death during his childhood. As a medical student he goes to Ingolstadt, and becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life to give more complexity to the conflict. His pursuit is met by his professors' warnings which he ignores and decides to read more about the secrets of animating an inanimate body, and run the experiment.

The events continue into a rising action when the creature wakes up and Victor realizes that it is a monster. He rejects the beast and shows anger and hostility to the creature who only demands company. Victor begins to work on a second experiment to fulfill the creature's request but it restrained by moral implications. He aborts the experiment which triggers the monster's anger. This latter decides to take his revenge. The events continue to escalate as the monster starts murdering Victor's loved ones. The plot reaches its climax when Victor decides to pursue the beast to kill it. The two confront each other in a heated conversation in the Arctic, wherein the beast points Victor's self-centeredness and the extent to which it had hurt the creature and other people that surrounded him. Victor then succumbs to his illnesses in the harsh conditions of the Arctic and dies marking thus the end of the plot.  

Characterization

—   Victor Frankenstein: He is the protagonist in the novel. He is an ambitious scientist who goes through different stages of maturity as a character. In the beginning he is depicted as a child who wants to be spoiled and who thinks that his mother and Elizabeth were his belongings. As a child his character reflects a certain sense of obsession which developed into the scientist who made the beast a few years later. As a medical student, he has a strong desire for knowledge and discovery.

       Victor attempts to find the secret of life and through experimentation, which leads him to his creation, marking the beginning of the third stage in his character. In the third stage, Victor realizes that the failure of his experiment will have tremendous consequences on his surroundings. His rejection of the beast creates violence and throws him into deep agony. He is the Promethean character (as a reference to the title of the novel) because he lives and dies of agony for the well-being of humanity. He is compared to the Greek god Prometheus who lives in pain because he loves human beings. Just like Prometheus, Victor is thrown into agony when he realizes how dangerous his creature can be. These character alterations make him a round character.

—   The Creature (Frankenstein's Monster): There is debate as to whether the monster is antagonist or not. The creature is a initially kind-hearted and seeks companionship, which he requests directly from Victor. yet after Victor aborts the second experiment, the monster starts hurting his surroundings intentionally and becomes a source of stress and agony to the protagonist. At this level, the monster is an antagonist.

—   Elizabeth Lavenza: She is Victor's adopted sister and later his wife. She is one of the main characters. She represents beauty and care in the novel. She is murdered by the creature as part of his revenge.

—  Henry Clerval: Main character, he is Victor's closest friend and is also murdered by the beast.

—  Robert Walton: Main character, he is an arctic explorer who provides help to Victor then narrates his story in a letter he writes to his sister.

—  Justine Moritz: A young girl that is adopted by Victor's parents. She is falsely accused of the killing of Victor's brother.

—  William Frankenstein: He is Victor's younger brother. He was murdered by the beast and his death sets off a chain of tragic events in the novel.

—  De Lacey Family: The monster observes them for a while to learn human habits and language. He learns kindness from them but they are scared of him when he reveals himself to them.

Settings: The settings of the text are selected purposefully to reflect event and emphasize its effect. The moment the creature wakes up is depicted as a rainy "dreary night of November".  The description of the night includes darkness, coldness, and loneliness, which create a terrifying atmosphere for the plot.