Frankenstein (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Mary Shelley
- First Published: 1818
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Horror
- Time of Work: The late 1700’s
- Setting: Principally Geneva, Switzerland; also the Arctic Ocean, the Hebrides, and elsewhere in Western Europe and Britain
- Principal Characters: Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, The monster, Elizabeth
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Gothic fiction, Horror literature
- Subjects: Justice, Folkloric or magical people, Murder or homicide, Europe or Europeans, Science or scientists, Emotions, Violence, Fear, Eighteenth century, Punishment, Revenge, Identity, Loneliness, Conformity, Life and death, Eccentrics or eccentricities, Horror, Monsters, Mad scientists, Polar regions
- Locales: London, England, Ireland, Scotland, Bavaria, Geneva, Switzerland, Alps, Arctic
Form and Content
Frankenstein is, in many ways, a tale of mixed identities. Thus it seems somehow fitting that tradition has always linked the name of Frankenstein with a monstrous being rather than with the mad scientist who created him. Yet in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel, the original version of this popular story, Frankenstein is that scientist, and only on a symbolic level does the reader confuse him with his horrible creation. This is not the only pair of linked identities in the novel. The monster, as he is called here, serves as a kind of alter ego to...
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