Lit Analysis #2

Frankenstein

GENERAL

1. Well, this story is basically a story within a story. A sailor named Walton meets a stranger in the North Pole named Victor Frankenstein. Victor goes on to tell the story of his life. He has to marry his adopted sister in the future. He goes away to study, and learns how to create a body with corpse body parts and bring it to life. He then spins a tale of how his creation gets out of control, killing his younger brother because he was angry with the way the world treated him. His creation wanted a mate, so Victor makes him one, but decides to destroy after he's done, thinking that the two monsters will try to destroy things together. The first monster, having seen this, seeks revenge on Victor, and ended up killing his wife (sister) on their wedding night, which caused the death of his father. Victor then seeks revenge on the monster, and then chases him all over, until he meets Walton. THEN he dies. The monster came and saw this, realized he had nothing to live for, and then walked away to die. :(
2. I believe secrecy and revenge are too main themes in this story. A lot of the accidents and deaths that happened were caused by the withholding of the truth. Victor kept the truth of his younger brother's death which ended in the execution of an innocent servant. He also did not let anyone know about his monster, which caused the monster to hide from society. Victor and the monster are also seeking revenge on each other quite a lot, each doing terrible things to the things or people they cared for.
3. There was quite a lot of emotional stuff going on in this story. A lot of death and a lot of sadness coming from quite a few characters gave it a somber tone. Frankenstein's monster said emotional things like “I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt….” and  “Cursed, cursed creator!...my feeling of those of rage and revenge.”
4. Shelley uses techniques such as imagery (talking about things look e.g the moon), foreshadowing (Walton saying he needed a friend. Whoa  here comes a man on a sled!), and the constant change of points of view (Walton's, Victor's and the monster's) to make the story interesting to the reader.

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Two examples of direct characterization is when Victor is describing his creation. He is saying that he is a ruthless monster. Another example is when the author tells that he is consumes by the idea and creation of life and that is all the Victor can think of. Two examples of indirect characterization happen twice the the monster he has created. Once it happened when he asked victor if he could make him a companion and here the readers realize that he indeed has feelings. Then second time is after Victor dies the monster decides to go and kill himself because he creator has died. In this instant the readers also see that he is not just a ruthless monster but a caring one. The author uses both of these approaches I think so that the reader can see if the monster really is one of if he is like many other people.
2. The author uses diction because you can see the language change when he has Victor speak and the monster speak. For example you can tell the Victor is way more proper when he speaks and the monster is not. I think he uses this to show that Victor is more educated and the monster is not.
3. If views came that Victor was the protagonist I do believe that he is a dynamic character because his whole life after his creation was made was consumed of fear and wanting revenge. If the protagonist was considered the monster I would say he is also dynamic because throughout the story he was very confused. Then Victor decided to kill his partner I think brought the monster to be overwhelmed by grief and wanting revenge. I believe Victor is a round character because his character changes after his creation and after the death of his wife. I would consider the Monster a flat character because he stays the same pretty much throughout the story.  He is created knowing only a few things and does not really know anything else except for what he feels and what he thinks is ugly or wrong.
4. I felt that I came away actually knowing a person. The monster was the one I feel I came away knowing because you were able to see his true feelings and the end of the story when his creator died.