Peripeteia

MODERN CRITICS

Feminist Criticism
Anne K. Mellor suggests that, from a feminist viewpoint, it is a story "about what happens when a man tries to have a baby without a woman ... [Frankenstein] is profoundly concerned with natural as opposed to unnatural modes of production and reproduction". Victor Frankenstein's failure as a "parent" in the novel has been read as an expression of the anxieties which accompany pregnancy, giving birth, and particularly maternity.

Fred Botting suggests that the novel has become worthy of study because it has been subject to so many different readings: ‘Frankenstein is a product of criticism, not a work of literature.’ ‘Frankenstein testifies to the changes that have already occurred in literary and critical theory and practice, marking a shift of focus’. This is another way in which Shelley has produced a monstrous progeny.

David Punter and Glennis Byron, from 'The Gothic'
The Monster: "Monsters, as the displaced embodiment of tendencies that are repressed within a specific culture not only establish the boundaries of the human, but may also challenge them." They are "hybrid forms that exceed and disrupt" within a culture, and "demand a rethinking of the boundaries and concepts of normality."

"Gothic texts repeatedly draw attention to the monster's constructed nature, to the mechanisms of monster production, and reveal precisely how the other is constructed and positioned as both alien and inferior. In turn, this denaturalises the human, showing the supposedly superior human to be, like the monster's otherness, simply the product of an ongoing struggle in the discursive construction and reconstruction of power."

With regards to intertextuality: "The novel as an aggregate for narrative pieces and literary influences is closely connected to the creature, constructed from fragments of corpses".

Jerrold E. Hogle
The Gothic comes from an ‘uneasy conflation of genres, styles, and conflicted cultural concerns’. This links with both the text itself, as it is made up of multiple narratives that have been pushed together, and the creature himself, who is made up of an ‘uneasy conflation’ of body parts from the ‘charnel house’ and the ‘slaughter house’.

‘Beneath his quest to manufacture life, after all, Victor Frankenstein confronts a desire to reunite with his dead mother’. This psychoanalytical approach could be linked to Freud’s Oedipus complex - the attraction towards the parent of the opposite sex - but Victor seems to take this even further by wanting to become a mother himself, fulfilling the female role in creation.

Michael Gamer on the Gothic and ‘Frankenstein’
Writers found in the Gothic a ‘language for philosophical and psychological inquiry’, ‘redirecting the focus of their texts away from romance narratives and toward the representation of extreme states of consciousness’.

This idea is supported by Fred Botting, who found Victor’s strange dream as ‘the inverted image of Frankenstein’s narcissistic project, its animation overturning the creative ideals in a process of complete and monstrous reversal’, as well as Paul Carter, who argued that the creature is in some way a projection of Victor’s psychological state and subconscious, that ‘Frankenstein knows the monster’s intentions because deep down they are his own’.

Gamer also described how ‘Frankenstein’ ‘deploys a narrative structure that buries its story under multiple layers of hearsay testimony’ which makes the ‘reading experience, in turn, [lead] us to examine our own process of interpretation, since as readers we confronted by psychological challenges similar to those faced by Shelley’s characters’.

Nicholas Marsh for Palgrave MacMillan: Narrative frame
Walton’s Narrative:
Marsh suggests that in the epistolary opening of this novel Walton is “constructing an argument” which Walton is doing in order to “justify himself” in his voyage.
Marsh also states that Walton’s paragraphs are “organized into separate statements”, he claims that these paragraphs “develop the narrator’s character in stages of reflection and narrative”.
He also states that Walton is a very self-absorbed character, shown as he “predicts his sister’s feelings” “but does not ask after her”. As well as this “all his interest is in his own concerns” using lots of the personal pronoun “I” where he is the “main actor”.
In terms of his choice of lexis Marsh states that “Walton’s diction is also rich in absolutes, superlatives, and intensifying adjectives”, this means that “every element of his reflections is heightened”.

Frankenstein’s Narrative:
Marsh states that “the story is already disorganized and rambling” “even before Victor makes the astonishing mistake of rushing past his own birth”. This, according to Marsh “raises questions” such as “why does this narrator seem so reluctant to tell about himself?” This shows that “this narrator is clearly not what he purports to be - that is, calm and clear.”
Similarly to “Walton’s diction”, Marsh shows that “there is notable repetition” and “liberal use of intensifying adjectives”.
Marsh shows that “Victor’s narrative contains more imagery than Walton’s”.
He suggests that, seen from the opening of this novel, it will be a novel about “social class”, “father-child relationship” and “exploration of masculine and feminine stereotypes”. He states that “stereotyping women is a constant element of this extract” (the first time Victor Frankenstein is introduced as a narrator).

The Creature’s Narrative:
Marsh suggests that the Creature’s “task in this extract is to induce Frankenstein to listen to his story”. It contains lots of repetition of his argument and this argument falls into four parts. “First, a statement”, “second, an appeal for pity”, “third, a threat” and “finally, an offer”. Marsh shows that each of these four parts to the Creature’s argument “[is] expressed in all three of [the creature’s] paragraphs”. These three paragraphs “vary only in emphasis and tone”.
In relation to the Creature’s sentences, Marsh suggests that there is “a greater variety than in either Walton’s or Victor’s narratives”. Also, the Creature makes use of “numerous rhetorical questions” much like Walton. However unlike either Walton or Victor the Creature makes use of “perfect examples of balanced sentences” while he “intensively emphasizes logic”.
As well as this Marsh suggests a “wider tone at [the creature’s] command” in relation to his diction and that this “[illustrates] the range and flexibility of his language”