Frankenstein: Writer's Methods & Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Frankenstein: Writer’s Methods and Techniques

To get higher marks in your exam, you will need to discuss the text as a whole, picking out key examples to provide evidence to support your points. Authors spend a long time deciding about how they want to structure their narratives and what narrative devices they will use in order to impact their readers. Think: how has Shelley structured Frankenstein and what did she want to achieve? What are the narrative devices she used and how do they help?

This page will explore Shelley’s use of: 

• Structure and narrative voice 

• Foreshadowing  

• Symbolism and motifs

• Setting  

Structure and narrative voice

There are three different narrators in Frankenstein. Walton’s voice is the framing narrative. Victor and the creature’s voices are embedded narratives . The sequence of the narrative voice goes like this: 

1. Walton

2. Victor

3. The creature

4. Victor

5. Walton

Shelley uses a polyphonic narrative voice and a Russian doll narrative for several reasons:

• The use of this structure creates a high degree of narrative distance:

  • This suggests that the voices of Victor and the creature are less reliable, as they are mediated through others: 

    • The creature’s voice is controlled by both Victor and Walton, which reduces the sense that his voice has been captured correctly

    • Shelley may do this in order to demonstrate how the powerful are able to control the voices of the marginalised

    • Coupled with the fact that Victor “augmented and corrected” the text, the reader understands that Victor is an unreliable narrator 

    • Victor is presented as a retrospective narrator, which further reduces the sense that he has a credible voice  

• The use of multiple narrative voice (which is also called a polyphonic narrative voice) helps the reader to see that there are several different perspectives on events from the characters:

  • Victor is presented as perceiving himself as the victim of the text, as he tries to generate sympathy for himself when Justine dies, arguably trying to make himself the tragic hero: 

  • In contrast, the creature is able to depict himself as the victim of the text to some degree, as he notes that his rejection by society led him to his devilish deeds:

    • This could be a way for Shelley to create the impression that while the powerful are often able to express their views and perspectives more, the victim is often part of the marginalised who are destroyed by society

    • The use of the creature’s perspective after the death of Justine challenges the reader’s previous impressions, helping to illustrate that there are several perspectives  

    • The use of Walton as a framing narrator helps to create a sense that the narrative is real

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a key narrative feature that is used to create intrigue and suspense by creating the impression that a future negative event may happen. This technique is used several times throughout Frankenstein.  

• Shelley foreshadows the fate of Victor in Chapter 5, when he recalls the dream he had after making the creature: 

  • He tells how he “saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death”: 

    • Romantics tended to stress the idea that dreams were linked to the spiritual world

    • Taken in light of this view, this dream foreshadows that Elizabeth will be killed because of Victor’s creation of the creature  

• Victor also foreshadows how his ambition will lead to his destruction in Chapter 2:

  • “I would account to myself for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled my destiny I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.”: 

    • The use of the phrase “swept away all my hopes and joys” foreshadows the destructive nature of his ambition, creating a tone of intrigue and fear

Symbolism and motifs

• Light is a common motif in Frankenstein: 

  • Light is commonly used to depict Victor’s views on his ambitions:

    • He desires to bring a "torrent of light into our dark world" through his scientific developments

  • Light could be argued to symbolise scientific knowledge:

    • Like light, developments can bring enlightenment, but they can also bring blindness and destruction

  • Shelley also uses light imagery to symbolise the importance of relationships:

    • Victor likens Elizabeth to light when he says, “The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home” 

    • This suggests that Elizabeth could bring enlightenment and happiness to Victor’s life

• Fire is also a key motif in Frankenstein and is used to suggest that new knowledge needs to be treated with respect:

  • When the creature discovers fire, he says, “fire gave light as well as heat and that the discovery of this element was useful to me in my food”: 

    • This highlights how knowledge can lead to development 

    • However, this knowledge can be destructive, as is suggested when the creature burns the cottage

• The locket is another key motif in Frankenstein: 

  • The locket is shown to pass from Caroline to Justine, creating a link between their deaths:

    • This reinforces the theory that Victor’s grief led to the creation of the creature, and thus to the death of Justine 

  • The creature takes the locket and says, “it was a portrait of a most lovely woman. In spite of my malignity, it softened and attracted me”: 

    • The locket could symbolise how Victor’s creation has led to the destruction of Justine

• Labour is an important motif in Frankenstein, as can be seen when Victor crafts the female and male creatures, constantly referring to his work as “labour”:

  • “Labour” is a double entendre: it signifies work but also indicates birth:

    • Shelley uses this motif in order to demonstrate that Victor is trying to undermine the female role in bringing forward a new life

    • This allows Shelley to voice the idea that women should be respected in society for roles that they undertake

• The creature’s body in Frankenstein symbolises the horrifying nature of Victor’s scientific developments:

  • Victor is depicted as presenting the teeth of the creature as “of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes”:

    • The disgusting nature of the creature’s appearance symbolises the devastating effects of ambition and Galvanism

• The motif of the creature being a “devil” symbolises his rejection from society: 

  • The creature is called a “devil”, a “daemon” and a “fiend”:

    • This demonstrates that he is othered by society

    • However, due to allusions to Paradise Lost and its sympathetic view of the devil, this motif also potentially helps to highlight how he is a victim of society 

• The De Laceys symbolise hope and benevolence in the novel: 

  • The representation of the De Laceys being the creature’s “protectors” suggests hope: 

    • The De Laceys are portrayed as kind when Mr De Lacey offers the creature help  

    • Their subsequent rejection of the creature indicates that society is unable to see through prejudices  

• The creature’s use of books and his diction perhaps symbolise that he is a Romantic hero:

  • The creature tends to use archaic and complex language, in contrast to Frankenstein, when they meet: 

    • The creature is composed when he argues that he should have a female companion

    • In contrast, Victor simply shouts at the creature as he says, “Begone! I will not hear you.” 

    • The contrast, here, may help to highlight the creature’s intelligence

  • The creature is also presented as an avid reader of books, such as Paradise Lost and the Sorrows of Young Werther:

    • These are highly Romantic works of literature which would have signified his intelligence to the reader 

Setting

• Walton’s ship is presented as being “immersed in ice” in Walton in continuum:

  • This setting is used to symbolise the malevolence of Walton's ambition:

    • This alludes to Dante's Inferno, where people in the ninth circle of hell suffer this fate

    • The cold and dangerous setting also suggests that Walton’s pursuit of scientific knowledge is amoral and against nature 

• Shelley makes use of several gothic settings to create a sense of fear and intrigue: 

  • She depicts Victor’s workshop, where he makes the creature, as “a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase”: 

    • There is a sense of distance here, which symbolises the distance between Victor’s actions and moral norms  

    • The contrast between the joyful settings in Chapters 1, 2 and 4 suggests also that Victor’s ambition has led him to amorality and away from happiness  

• Shelley also uses pathetic fallacy to illustrate the malevolence of Victor’s creation:  

  • In Chapter 5, Victor is presented as noting that “rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out”:  

    • This is suggestive of liminality, a key gothic trope, which is generated by the phrase the “candle was nearly burnt out”.

    • This creates a sense of negative change that foreshadows disaster, as the burning out of a candle can symbolise a loss of light and the creation of darkness 

    • This foreshadows the destructive nature of the creature