*Arctic Circle

*Arctic Circle. Frankenstein is told at a great distance, both physically and psychologically. The epistolary novel opens with letters from Robert Walton to his sister in England. Walton is on an exploring expedition to the far north, and his letters are dated from locations farther and farther north, starting with St. Petersburg, Russia, then Archangel, then unspecified locations, as Walton passes into unexplored territory. When his ship is surrounded by fog and ice floes, his crew sees Victor Frankenstein crossing the ice with a dog sled. They rescue him; Frankenstein tells his story. Before he does so, however, Frankenstein indicates that the desire to find the North Pole is as dangerous as his inquiry into unknown scientific regions, asking Walton, “Unhappy man! Do you share my madness?” When Frankenstein’s story is complete, he dies. His monstrous creation, after finally forgiving him, flees across the polar sea and out of human knowledge.

*Geneva

*Geneva. City in western Switzerland that is home to Victor Frankenstein, who describes it lovingly, speaking of its “majestic and wondrous scenes” and the “sublime shapes of the mountains.” The countryside is described more fully than the city, but enough details are given to indicate that Shelley knew Geneva well. While Shelley was staying near Lake Geneva with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, and other friends, they had a competition for the best ghost story. Shelley said the core idea for Frankenstein came to her then, in a dream. Visiting or leaving Geneva has powerful consequences for the characters in the novel. After they met, Frankenstein’s father and mother moved to Geneva. When Victor was five, his father went to Milan, and returned with Elizabeth, the lifetime friend and nearly sister to Victor whom he marries.

When Victor returns to Geneva, everything seems to be different. His creation’s presence transforms his home, which earlier seemed to be a paradise, into a place of pain and chaos. Victor’s brother William is killed, and a life-long family servant is sentenced to death. Late in the novel, Victor returns to Geneva for the last time to marry Elizabeth. When his creation kills Elizabeth on their wedding night, the transformation of Geneva into a hell on earth is complete.

*Ingolstadt

*Ingolstadt. City in Bavaria, Germany, where Victor Frankenstein entered the University of Ingolstadt when he was seventeen and to which he returns in later years. The university had a great deal of autonomy during the seventeenth century, and was known for its support of Enlightenment rationality. Few specifics are given about Ingolstadt itself. Frankenstein studies there and escapes the stabilizing influence of his family but connects only with his professors, not with a community or place. There he learns modern chemistry from his professor Monsieur Waldman, which he blends with his earlier knowledge of alchemy to create life. Once he does, Ingolstadt becomes essentially haunted; Victor wanders its streets, afraid of his creature. Only the arrival of Henry Clerval, his old friend from Geneva, calms him.

*Mont Blanc

*Mont Blanc. Highest mountain in the Alps, to which Victor retreats when he is upset by the thought that his creation has caused the deaths of William and Justine. While gazing upon the awful beauty of Mont Blanc, he speaks aloud to the spirit of the place, which seems so pure. His creation answers, indicating that no place is free of the taint Frankenstein his created. The mountain’s glacier becomes a courtroom of natural philosophy as the creature accuses Victor of defaulting on his responsibilities as creator.

Cottage

Cottage. Home of a poor family in which the creature observes human interaction. When the creature tells the story of his life since his creation, the cottage where he observes a family, is central to it. He learns to speak by listening to the cottage’s inhabitants, and from them he learns about the possibility of love. Before this time, he is ignorant as an animal, but now, he becomes a tortured soul. Observing the small society in the cottage brings him close enough to humanity to realize what he is denied.

*London

*London. Capital of Great Britain to which Victor Frankenstein goes to investigate another scientist’s discoveries before he can meet the creature’s demand that he make him a woman to be his companion. In London, Victor establishes a lab, and begins work, but he and Clerval also travel throughout England and Scotland. Their travels are idyllic, but everywhere they go, Victor is sure the creature follows him.

*Scotland

*Scotland. Country to which Victor goes to continue his work because it is farther from civilization. There he works on a mate for the creature then reconsiders and destroys it. The creature appears at that moment, confirming Victor’s fears that he has been followed. When Victor tries to sail home, he gets lost at sea and almost dies, symbolizing the danger inherent in his unchecked scientific explorations.

*Ireland

*Ireland. Country in which Victor is arrested for the murder of his friend Clerval, whom the monster has killed, after he lands there and goes ashore to ask for directions. While he is jailed in Ireland, he falls into a guilty fever for months. His imprisonment in this remote land confirms his growing fear that there is no place to which he can go to escape responsibility for his actions.

The novel's setting spans across Europe, highlighting locations familiar to Shelley herself: Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, and even the Arctic. The narrative starts and concludes in the Arctic, where explorer Robert Walton searches for a northwest passage. During his expedition, he first encounters Victor Frankenstein and later the monster. The Arctic's stark and icy environment aptly symbolizes the scientific endeavors undertaken by both Frankenstein and Walton. This barren, white landscape is transformed by humans into either vibrant creations or dark horrors.

As Dr. Frankenstein lies on his deathbed, he recounts his story to Walton. When describing his home in Geneva by a blue lake and snow-capped mountains, his words exude warmth, light, and love. At seventeen, Frankenstein enrolls at the University of Ingolstadt in upper Bavaria, where he ultimately brings his monster to life.

... dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me...

Frankenstein shuns his creation, prompting the monster to flee. The remainder of the novel revolves around the theme of pursuit, covering various parts of Europe. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Frankenstein returns to the tranquility of his home. In an attempt to alleviate his sorrow, he visits the valley of Chamounix, where he encounters the monster once more. Shelley's descriptive prowess shines as she juxtaposes the monster against a backdrop of awe-inspiring and terrifying nature. While climbing mountains across a "troubled sea" of ice—foreshadowing the novel's conclusion—the monster leaps towards Frankenstein over ice crevices.

The narrative shifts to Germany as the monster recounts his experiences since his creation, focusing on the modest cottage of the De Laceys, whom he observes to learn human behavior and speech. After promising to create a companion for the monster, Frankenstein plans a trip to England with his friend Clerval. They travel leisurely along the Rhine before heading north from London to Edinburgh, where they part ways. Throughout their journey, the monster secretly follows them. Frankenstein retreats to a remote Orkney Island to craft the female monster. In this desolate setting, the monster appears once again, vowing revenge when Frankenstein destroys the female creature.

Frankenstein sets sail to dispose of the female body parts, but his boat is blown off course to Ireland. There, he is accused of murdering his friend Clerval and imprisoned, leading to another mental collapse. Eventually released into his father's custody, he returns to Geneva, but this time the comfort of home fails to heal him. The monster exacts his full revenge, and Frankenstein swears to pursue him until he can eliminate the fiend he created. The hunted becomes the hunter.

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 each of the novel’s main characters—and even, finally, to its author. Shelley seems to sympathize more fully with the monster than with any other character.

Shelley structures the story like a Russian nesting doll: It is really a story within a story within a story. Robert Walton opens the tale, writing letters home to his sister as he embarks on a fantastic voyage of Arctic exploration. He hungers for a friend, a like-minded companion. Then, in his fourth letter, he describes how he has found a man out wandering on the ice, weak from exposure and malnourishment, and taken him into his ship. He sees in him the potential friend for whom he has longed. The man is Victor Frankenstein, and Walton lets him speak.

Victor recounts the story of his life, starting with his privileged childhood in Geneva, Switzerland. From an early age, he was obsessed with creating life. All science was, to him, the body of knowledge that gave human beings godlike powers. The intensity with which he pursued his studies made it nearly impossible for him to maintain closeness to his family and friends. His dear friend Henry Clerval did not see the danger in his studies. Elizabeth, his sister by informal adoption and eventually his betrothed, saw that his work was driving him to poor health and estranging him from his family, but she was powerless to bring him home.

After years of nearly frenzied study, Victor was ready. Robbing body parts from graves, he constructed a monstrous form. Finally, one stormy October night, he brought it to life. Yet when he saw his creature reaching out toward him, trying to smile, Victor rushed from the building, unable to take on the creature as his own charge. By the time he returned to his rooms the next day, accompanied by Clerval, the monster was gone. Victor became feverish, and Clerval nursed him back to health over some months.

When Victor returned home to his family and to Elizabeth, he was greeted by news that brought his feelings of dread into painful focus: His younger brother William had been found murdered. Authorities had arrested Justine Moritz, a beloved and trusted young servant, on circumstantial evidence. Victor, walking mournfully on Mont Blanc one stormy night, saw the monster’s form suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning on a far peak, and he understood: The monster had killed his brother. Later, in agony, he watched as Justine was convicted and executed for the crime. Another stormy night in the mountains, the monster approached Victor closely enough for them to converse and begged him to hear his story. Victor agreed.

At this point, the monster becomes the narrator, as the reader hears how he told his own, very different life story. He told of eking out a miserable existence, of terrifying everyone who saw him, and of learning to hide, watch, and listen. He told of finding a kind of shed attached to a hut occupied by a family; from them, listening through the cracks in the wall, he learned to speak and to read. He told of reading John Milton’s Paradise Lost and other books, and of coming to understand the intense pain of his solitude. Finally, he asked Victor to create a partner for him and promised to leave him alone forever if he would.

Victor agreed to create a mate for the monster but found himself unable to follow through with it. For the rest of the novel, he tells how he and the monster engaged in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. First the monster killed Clerval. Then Victor believed that the monster was hunting him but learned on his wedding night that he was to suffer rather than die: The monster killed his beloved Elizabeth on the bridal bed. Victor then pursued him to the Arctic wasteland in which Walton has found him.

As Victor finishes his tale, he warns Walton to learn from his example—and then he dies. At that moment, the monster enters, mourns the loss of his creator, and announces his own imminent suicide by self-immolation. He then vanishes into the darkness.

Shelley employs a significant literary technique: the story-within-a-story-within-a-story. Walton recounts the entire tale of Frankenstein and his creation as narrated to him by Frankenstein, including his own encounter with the monster following Frankenstein's death, all within the context of his Arctic expedition. Within Frankenstein's narrative, the monster shares his own experiences after escaping from Frankenstein: how he observed the De Laceys and learned human language, emotions, and history. Each narrative offers comparisons and contrasts to the others. For instance, Walton's Arctic exploration mirrors Frankenstein's scientific endeavor to create the monster. However, while Walton's journey fails when his crew forces him to turn back, Frankenstein succeeds in creating the monster, albeit with questionable outcomes.

Besides intertwining the stories, Shelley also contrasts the characters. Walton, for example, feels deep sympathy for Frankenstein but shares similarities with the monster. He, too, yearns for companionship, lamenting that he has "no friend ... no one to participate [in] my joy ... to sustain me in dejection." Upon Frankenstein's death, Walton loses both his hopes for friendship and his aspirations for discovery.

In a narrative featuring a vengeful and murderous monster, there are naturally scenes of violence and terror: three murders, an execution, and a cottage set ablaze, along with three additional deaths. Similar to classical Greek dramatists, Shelley somewhat mitigates the horror by keeping the violence "offstage." She never directly depicts the monster strangling his victims. Instead, she describes the discovery of the bodies and the grief felt by family members, friends, and the community. Shelley focuses on the sorrow rather than the gruesome details of the murder or the condition of the bodies. She avoids lingering on gory specifics. All of the monster's victims are innocent. If the monster had only killed his creator for abandoning him, the reader's judgment might be less severe. The impact of the violence is further softened because Frankenstein recounts each murder to Walton long after the events occurred.

Narration

Rather than starting with Victor's perspective, Shelley introduces us to Walton first. By employing a frame narrative, where the story is conveyed by someone who reads or hears it from someone else, Shelley encourages readers to trust Victor's account through an unbiased character. She also utilizes the epistolary form—a literary technique where letters narrate the story—using correspondence between Walton and his sister to frame both Victor's and the creature's stories. Before the novel's first chapter, Walton writes to his sister about the "wretched man" he encounters, creating suspense about the "demon" Victor mentions early in his tale. As Victor begins recounting his story, we gradually learn about his childhood and the pivotal moments leading up to his university studies. Then, the creature interrupts Victor, sharing his own significant experiences leading up to his plea for a companion. Given the novel's central theme of listening, Shelley ensures that readers hear all perspectives by incorporating three distinct narratives. Walton's letters both open and close the novel, underscoring the theme of nurturing.

Setting

Most of the novel unfolds in the Swiss Alps and concludes in the Arctic, although Victor and Clerval also journey to places like London, the Rhine River, and Scotland. These settings, except for the Arctic, were beloved landscapes for Romantic writers, and Shelley takes great care in depicting the sublime forms of the majestic, snow-covered mountains. Unlike typical Gothic novels, which feature gloomy, dilapidated mansions and eerie supernatural elements, Shelley's setting is quite unique. The beautiful Alps may serve as a stark contrast to the creature's grotesque appearance. Additionally, Shelley sets her story in contemporary times, diverging from Gothic traditions that usually explore the Middle Ages or other distant periods. By using her own era, Shelley makes the creature and the events of the story feel more realistic and vivid.

Romanticism

The Romantic period, spanning from 1785 to 1830, was characterized by the French Revolution and the onset of modern industrialism. Early Romantic writers largely supported the revolution and the accompanying shifts in lifestyle and sensibility. Freed from old traditions and customs, writers began to turn inward, focusing on matters of the heart and imagination rather than the external world. English poet William Wordsworth, for instance, challenged his predecessors by writing about natural scenes and rustic, everyday life. Meanwhile, poet Samuel Coleridge delved into the supernatural in his works.

Mary Shelley melded her parents' ethical concerns with the Romantic sensibilities of Percy Shelley's poetic tendencies. Her father's empathy for the disadvantaged influenced her portrayal of the impoverished De Lacey family. Her emphasis on imagination, isolation, and nature mirrored common themes and scenes found in some of Percy Shelley's poetry. However, Mary's decision to write a Gothic novel set her apart within her family and cemented her place as an author in the Romantic era.

Gothicism

Horace Walpole introduced the first Gothic novel in 1764 with The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story. Gothic novels typically involved mysteries where sinister and sometimes supernatural events occurred, often rooted in some malevolent human action. The language was often overly dramatic and inflated. This genre paved the way for the Romantic movement’s fascination with the macabre and superstitious elements of life, providing the freedom to delve into the darkest recesses of the human psyche. Many critics agree that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein mirrored her deepest psychological fears and insecurities, such as her inability to save her children, her troubled marriage to a man indifferent to their daughters' deaths, and her feelings of inadequacy as a writer. The Gothic novel often subtly and indirectly expresses our repressed anxieties. Typically, the settings are far removed from reality or realistic depictions of everyday life. Shelley's setting, however, is an exception to most Gothic novels. The creature wandering the stunning Alps, rather than a dark, eerie mansion in the middle of nowhere, either heightens the reader's fear or renders the creature more human.

Doppelganger

Numerous literary critics have highlighted the Doppelganger effect—the concept that a living person has a ghostly counterpart haunting them—between Victor and his creation. By portraying Victor and the creature as doubles, Shelley is able to explore two facets of a character, often the "good" and "bad" sides. Victor's wish to ignore his creation mirrors his desire to deny the darkest parts of himself. The renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud describes this "dark" side as the Id, while Carl Jung, another prominent psychologist, calls it the Jungian shadow. Jung asserts that everyone possesses traits they dislike about themselves, yet these undesirable qualities linger like a shadow following its leader. The creature embodies Victor's "evil" shadow, just as Victor embodies the creature's. This perspective clarifies why many readers mistakenly believe the creature is named Frankenstein, confusing the two characters. As Eleanor Ty notes in the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, both characters "alternately pursue and flee from one another . . . [L]ike fragments of a mind in conflict with itself." When viewed together as a single entity, Victor and his creature represent the complete range of human experience—joy, compassion, empathy, hatred, love for humanity, thirst for knowledge, respect for justice, fear of the unknown, dread of abandonment, and fear of mortality. No other character in the novel embodies this breadth of human complexity.

Shelley employs a significant literary technique known as the story-within-a-story-within-a-story. Walton narrates the entire tale of Frankenstein and his monster as conveyed to him by Frankenstein, including his own encounter with the monster following Frankenstein's demise during his Arctic expedition. Within Frankenstein's narrative lies the monster's own story of his actions after escaping from Frankenstein: how he observed the De Laceys and learned human language, emotion, and history. Each story offers comparisons and contrasts to the others. For instance, Walton's Arctic exploration parallels Frankenstein's creation of the monster in terms of scientific discovery. However, Walton's journey fails when his crew forces him to retreat, while Frankenstein does succeed in creating the monster, though the outcome is dubious.

Besides having the stories interact with each other, Shelley uses the characters to reflect one another. Walton, for example, feels deep sympathy for Frankenstein but also shares similarities with the monster. He yearns for companionship, lamenting he has "no friend . . . no one to participate [in] my joy . . . to sustain me in dejection." With Frankenstein's death, Walton loses both his aspirations for friendship and his dream of discovery.

Another literary technique Shelley employs to add depth to her narrative is literary allusion. Frankenstein is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus," referencing the Greek god Prometheus who advocated for humanity and brought fire to them. However, Prometheus's benevolence had repercussions: humans became estranged from heaven. Frankenstein is a modern Prometheus in that, by challenging human limitations to bring enlightenment, he creates a human-like being but becomes alienated from his creation upon realizing it can never integrate into humanity.

Another noteworthy literary allusion in Frankenstein is to Paradise Lost. The book opens with three lines from Paradise Lost, and it is one of the three books the monster reads, shaping his understanding of the universe. He perceives himself as both Adam and Satan—alone like Adam before Eve, yet resentful like Satan witnessing the joy of God. Through these and other literary allusions, Shelley transforms her story into more than just a horror tale of a mad scientist and his creation; it becomes a profound narrative of frustration, alienation, and responsibility, echoing ancient Greek and Christian philosophies.

One literary technique Shelley employs to add depth to her narrative is literary allusion. Frankenstein carries the subtitle "The Modern Prometheus," referencing the Greek god Prometheus who advocated for humanity and gifted them fire. However, Prometheus' benevolence had consequences: it resulted in humanity's estrangement from the divine. Frankenstein mirrors Prometheus as he defies human limitations to bring enlightenment, creating a humanlike being but distancing himself once he realizes the creature can never integrate into society.

An additional significant literary allusion in Frankenstein is to John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667). The novel begins with three lines from Paradise Lost, and it is one of the three books the creature reads, shaping his understanding of the universe. The creature identifies with both Adam and Satan — isolated like Adam before Eve, yet embittered like Satan observing God's joy. Through these and other literary allusions, Shelley transforms her tale into more than just a horror story about a deranged doctor and his creation: it becomes a narrative of profound frustration, alienation, and responsibility, echoing themes from ancient Greek and Christian philosophies.