FRANKENSTEIN - Part 1
by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein is a story that is set in a framed narrative. Captain Walton is telling the story of his travels to the North Pole which includes telling the story that Victor Frankenstein told him. It also includes a point of view from the monster, but that is beyond Part 1. As I looked into Framed Narratives, especially for this story, I found images that helped to clarify this process. One image is shown below which I found to be very useful in understanding the complex workings of the story lines:
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| Framed Narrative |
Now, in discussing the story, Part 1 in particular, the first part I found to be really interesting was when Victor Frankenstein was doing his research into how bodies undergo the decomposition process. This had to be a very time consuming process of just sitting in crypts watching and observing bodies decay and get eaten by worms. I am getting my minor in Thanatology (Study of Death) and I found this point to be both interesting and freaky. I just cannot imagine the smell that Victor would have been exposed to since I assume there was no embalming process during that time period. Pretty gross research and I believe that he became crazed during this period. With that state of mind, it would be hard to say that his narrative is reliable in any way.
The second picture above was the closest one I could find that was similar to what I pictured in my mind. I think that the movie monsters all give him too much attractiveness. If he was made of clay and dead body parts, he had to be a very gruesome creature.
Towards the end of the story when Victor and Elizabeth are visiting Justine in jail, Victor brings up the subject of worms again. He said, "But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation" (Shelley, pp.59). I found it interesting that he compared his body to that of the rotting corpses he observed in his research. I think those images were forever in his mind and had obviously become part of him.
On an end note, about the beginning of the story and to answer the question posed by Dr. K, I believe that Captain Walton is travelling to the North Pole simply to learn more about travelling the seas. He wants adventure on his own and he trained up by working with other boat captains. He seems to want to learn beyond his meager education that he received when he was younger.
Works Cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.
Narrative Framed Image, https://www.slideshare.net/kehoskin/frankenstein-narration
Sharron- That is very cool that you have a minor in the study of death. That must make this story pretty interesting to you! I do agree with you that in movies that are retelling the story of Frankenstein they make the monster look a lot better than he actually would. Frankenstein had never made another creature like this before so there is no way it would look that good. It is more likely to just look like a bunch of body parts stitched together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Walton travels to the North Pole to learn more but I also think he wants to go somewhere that not many people have traveled to. Walton and Frankenstein have this in common in that Frankenstein also wants to do something noone has done- by creating life and playing God.
Sharron, I very much enjoyed reading your post. I found it interesting that you are minoring in Thanatology, so you may have gotten a far different interpretation of Victor's choice to construct his creature from dead bodies. I’m sure the practice of embalming starting in the 19th century, but more around the time of the Civil War, so the bodies Victor encountered would have still smelled horrible. I like the picture you attached as a reference because it does give a better representation of what the creature looked like verses the cartoony image I’ve seen. I also will agree that Victor’s embedded images of died bodies; must play some role of how he sees the world around him and himself. I would think he would be traumatized even as a scientist; creating something so gruesome, that even he couldn’t stand to look at it. I know that’s how I would feel; because I’m still traumatize by the fetal pig we had to dissect in biology.
ReplyDeleteAlso, like you Sharron, I went back to Dr. Kikendall’s question of Walton’s reason for traveling to the North pole. I found that during his correspondence with his sister he says “I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man.” This quote lead me to believe that Walton, was on a quest for something new and much like Victor, he wanted it to be something that had yet been experienced (creation of life/inhabit uninhabited lands) by any other man before. Great post!
I liked that quote and your description of it. Makes his intent more clear for me.
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