Frankenstein: Themes (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Frankenstein: Themes

Your exam question could be on any topic. However, having a good understanding of the themes Shelley explores in Frankenstein will help to ensure that you can write a confident answer, using evidence from across the text to support your argument.

Here are some of the key themes for you to think about:

• Ambition 

• Nature versus nurture 

• Power and control

• Science and creation 

• Gender 

• Isolation and companionship 

When exploring these themes, we will also look at why Shelley presents them as she does.   This list is not exhaustive and you are also encouraged to identify your own ideas within the novel. 

Ambition

The theme of ambition is central to Frankenstein. By making the creature, Victor is presented by Shelley as trying to be God-like, giving life. He also has ambitions to defy nature through his scientific endeavours. 

Knowledge and evidence: 

• Frankenstein is shown to have Promethean ambition:

  • In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and, as a result, was sentenced to internal torment: 

    • This myth was even used in the full title of the novel: “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”

  • Like Prometheus, by making the creature, Victor Frankenstein is stealing what would have been seen as the power of God to create life:

    • Frankenstein is also shown to desire God-like power when he says that by creating creatures, he will have people who “owe their being to” him (Chapter 4)

• Frankenstein is also presented as a romantic genius:

  • A romantic genius was a passionate, creative person whose talents were thought to be driven by forces beyond their control and beyond the usual limits of the human mind:

    • In Chapter 2, Victor says he had a “passion which afterwards ruled my destiny”

• This emphasis on being a romantic genius is presented as leading to Frankenstein’s downfall and ultimately his death:

  • For instance, the creature murders Clerval, Victor’s “closet friendship” (Chapter 1), which leaves Victor “heart-broken and overcome” (Walton in Continuum) 

• Even though his ambition leads to misery and destruction, Frankenstein is presented as continuing to believe that people should have ambitions that defy nature:

  • Victor attacks Walton’s crew for being “easily turned from their design” when they are stuck in ice (Walton in Continuum)  

• Walton is also shown to be very ambitious but in contrast with Victor, he hopes to “satiate [his] ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited” (Letter 1):

  • Walton’s ambition leads his ship to be “surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape” (Walton in Continuum): 

    • This could be an allusion to Dante's popular poem, Inferno, where people in the ninth circle of hell are shown to be trapped in ice

• Both Walton and Frankenstein are portrayed as pursuing knowledge for their own personal gain:

  • Walton is presented as saying that he “preferred glory” to a life of “ease and luxury” (Letter 1). This suggests that Walton pursued knowledge for his own prestige  

• Like Walton, Frankenstein too appears to be driven by a desire for prestige and glory:

  • He says, “what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame?”  

    • It could be argued that Frankenstein’s ambition is due to grief, as his desire to “banish disease” could be because of his moroseness over his mother’s death (Chapter 2) 

• The creature is shown to have an ambition for knowledge but this only leads to greater despair:

  • Evidence of this can be seen as he says, “sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!” (Chapter 13)

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• By highlighting its devastating consequences, Shelley is criticising unchecked ambition, which perhaps makes this novel a parable

• The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that people would be happier in a natural state:

  • Shelley could be highlighting this idea in Frankenstein

• Shelley could be trying to suggest that the pursuit of glory and prestige often leads to a person’s own destruction, especially if they go against God and nature

Nature versus nurture

The creature is a product of nurture, not nature. Created by Frankenstein, the fact he is violent and devilish reflects on how Frankenstein has made him. Frankenstein himself eschews nature in pursuit of scientific development and suffers the consequences. A focus on nature versus nature was typical in Gothic literature such as Frankenstein, a popular genre at the time.

Knowledge and evidence: 

• In the Romantic period, many Romantics believed that people were a “blank slate” at birth and that society moulded people’s identity and characteristics:

  • This was an idea which was put forward by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Shelley presents the creature as benevolent and good at his birth, before being corrupted by his isolation from society:

  • This is highlighted when he “abstains” from taking any of the De Lacey’s “store of food” when he learnt of their “poverty” (Chapter 12): 

    • At this point in the novel, this implies that he is empathetic and knows right from wrong

    • However, over the course of the novel, the creature starts to become more devilish due to his rejection from society, culminating in his murder of William and Elizabeth

• Victor is also presented as a product of his upbringing and his upper-class origins:

  • This is evidenced when he describes that his “family is one of the most distinguished” in Geneva

• His background seems to have given him a superiority complex:

  • He says, “I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors” that he says “supported [him] in the commencement of my career”: 

    • This shows how his feeling that he is above other people, which is suggested by the sense of contempt in the phrase “the herd of common projectors”, led to his own downfall

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• Shelley may be suggesting that evil is made and not born

• Shelley may also be exploring the notion that class differences led some people to see themselves as superior to others:

  • This was a key idea explored by Romantics, such as the poet William Wordsworth, who began to argue for an equal society

• This juxtaposition between the creature’s character at the start and end of the text could suggest that Shelley wants to highlight Rousseau’s view that people are born a “blank slate” 

Power and control

Victor Frankestein is depicted as someone with huge ambitions who wants to be powerful, and seeks to extend his control over nature through invention of the creature. The themes of power and control extend beyond this and are important to be aware of in the structure as well as the content of the novel.

 Knowledge and evidence:

• Victor is also shown to have had complete control of the narrative:

  • He is shown to have “corrected and augmented” the story (Walton in Continuum): 

    • This suggests that he is an unreliable narrator: a narrator who is presented as being untrustworthy

• The reader hears the story from the points of view of Walton, Frankenstein and, less so, the creature:

  • In the Romantic period, there was an emphasis on the marginalised in society  

• Over the course of the novel, the power relationship between the creature and Victor changes, as the creature’s threat is shown to cause Victor intense paranoia:

  • In Chapter 22, Victor describes how he “saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me” when the creature is not even there 

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• By showing that Victor controls how the creature is presented, Shelley may have been trying to suggest that powerful people often get their side of the story across by showing that Victor controls how the creature is presented

• Shelley may be trying to show the reader the consequences of creating something unnatural:

  • This is perhaps in line with the Romantic view that nature was pure

• Shelley may be looking to punish Victor for his scientific ambitions, to show the destructive potential of focusing on the pursuit of knowledge and unchecked ambition

• Shelley could be trying to highlight how the voices of the marginalised are often reduced

Science and nature

Science and nature were both important topics during the time that Frankenstein was written. The Enlightenment  focused on the importance of knowledge and reason. Romanticism was concerned instead with emotion, individualism, creativity and nature.

Knowledge and evidence: 

• Victor tries to create a new life form through alchemy: the process of changing a material from one thing to another:

  • By the time Frankenstein was written, people had already questioned the credibility of alchemy over a more reasoned approach to science through a movement known as the Enlightenment

  • Victor is presented as a character who dabbles in alchemy and is obsessed with reason and knowledge above all else:

    • "It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn" (Chapter 2)

• The physical appearance of the creature may be symbolic of the horrors of trying to defy nature through science:

  • The creature is presented as unnatural and unpleasant looking: “his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes” (Chapter 5)

• In his pursuit of science, Victor is also presented as fixated on growing his knowledge and achieving his ambitions. Ultimately, this is his downfall:

  • “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (Chapter 24)

• Although he rejects it through his actions, nature does seem to offer some relief to Frankenstein:

  • In Chapter 10, feeling responsible for the death of Justine, Frankenstein goes to the Alps and says that his grief is “subdued and tranquillised”: 

    • The Romantics often emphasised the way in which nature could help to lead to transcendence, helping to reduce the pain of the world

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• Shelley may be trying to highlight the view that scientific developments, such as Galvanism and alchemy, constituted a threat to society

• While the Enlightenment movement was characterised by the prioritisation of reason and logic, Shelley seems to be critiquing the possible consequences of focusing on the pursuit of knowledge and reason above all else, including emotion and nature:

  • This idea is central to Romanticism

• Shelley also presents nature as a profound force of restoration and a way to escape the pains of society

Gender

Although there are female characters, the narrative of Frankenstein is dominated and framed by men: Robert Walton, Victor and the creature. The fact that the female characters are not at the forefront of the text reflects the place of women in society at the time the novel was written.

Knowledge and evidence: 

• Walton’s narrative is mainly formed of letters to his sister, Margaret, in which he focuses on himself, his achievements and his hopes:

  • Margaret receives the letters and is therefore more of a narrative device than a character in her own right

• He is also depicted as a character who epitomises the pursuit of knowledge and reason:

  • Walton writes about his explorations and tells how he “devoted my nights to the study of mathematics” (Chapter 3)

• Shelley presents women in the novel as capable and intelligent; however, they are not listened to:

  • At the trial of Justine in Chapter 8, Elizabeth is shown to give a “simple and powerful appeal” in her defence:  

    • However, she is not listened to and instead “the public indignation was turned with renewed violence”

• Over the course of the novel, Victor also uses language that alludes to pregnancy:

  • This can be seen in Victor’s repeated use of the word “labours” when creating the creature

• Women are often portrayed as objects in Frankenstein:

  • In Chapter 1, Elizabeth is presented as a “pretty present”: 

    •  This suggests she has been rendered simply an object of Victor’s desire

  • At Justine’s trial, Victor says Justine was “exquisitely beautiful” (Chapter 8):

    • This implies that he is unable to see the tragedy of this moment and instead only sees her as an object of male gratification

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• Shelley seems to suggest that any attempt to remove women from society will lead to destruction

• She also presents women as intelligent, capable people who should be listened to in society:

  • As such, Frankenstein cleverly counters what was then a widely held view that women were inferior to men

• In the Romantic period, Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote the A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which argued that women were as rational as men and had important roles in society:

  • This contributed significantly to the conversation about women’s rights

• The unfair fate of Justine can be argued to highlight the mistreatment of women in society

Isolation and companionship

Frankenstein, Walton and the creature all experience isolation and loneliness and are shown as being alienated in some way. 

Knowledge and evidence: 

• Victor Frankenstein recollects having had just one friend at school:

  • "I was indifferent, therefore, to my school-fellows in general; but I united myself in the bonds of the closest friendship to one among them” (Chapter 2)

• Frankenstein’s ambition is presented as leading him further into isolation and illness:

  • Victor is shown to be in a “solitary cell” due to his creation and then is isolated from others after his creation kills Elizabeth and Henry Clerval

• Victor’s sense of pain is juxtaposed with his family life:

  • He describes how “the saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home” (Chapter 2):

    • This suggests that companionship and family is more of a route towards happiness, as the light and divine imagery creates a sense of intense rapture

• The creature is alienated from society with no family:

  • “But where were my friends and relations?” (Chapter 13)

• He is shown to be rejected by society, as his creator and the De Laceys abandon him: 

  • "I am an unfortunate and deserted creature” (Chapter 24)

• Walton is presented as lonely:

  •  He “bitterly feels the want of a friend” (Letter 1) 

What is Shelley’s intention?

• Through her presentation of isolation, Shelley seems to suggest that despite differences, all humans suffer the same emotions and possess the same sense of humanity 

• Given the focus on individualism during the time Frankenstein was written, Shelley may also be exploring the risks of focusing too much on the individual, and the potential impact of this on society