Jan 3, 2010
Frankenstein | Frankenstein
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...
[The entire page is 2276 words long]
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