Compare and Contrast the Narrators in Gulliver's Travels and Frankenstein, the Narrative Methods, and the Effects of These Different Ways of Telling a Story in Gulliver's Travels and Frankenstein.
Compare and contrast the narrators in Gulliver’s Travels and Frankenstein, the narrative methods, and the effects of these different ways of telling a story in Gulliver’s Travels and Frankenstein.
Ravee Chen
S2 English H
Dr.Freisen
8 April 2010
Word count: 1491
Why do authors use different types of narrators? Jonathan Swift and Mary Shelly have both chosen a first-person narrator in their novels Gulliver’s Travels and Frankenstein. In Gulliver’s Travels the narrator is Gulliver and the book is a personal account of four voyages to unexplored lands around the globe. In the first voyage he winds up in Littleput where everyone is tiny. During his second trip he is taken to a land of giants called Brobdingnag and on his next journey to Laputa, a floating island of academics. His final journey takes him to a strange land where horses called Houyhnhnms rule humans called Yahoos. Frankenstein is a collection of John Walton’s letters. John Walton is the fictional captain of a ship bound for the North Pole who picks up a passenger, Frankenstein, who tells them a strange tale. He tells Walton an account of his scientific creation of a creature that ends up killing all his loved ones. Frankenstein dies and John Walton meets the creature who tells him of his plans to burn himself. While both authors choose to use first-person narration, Swift employs a single narrator while Shelly uses a combination of three. Multiple narrators are needed by Mary Shelly to make her story stronger but Jonathan Swift only uses one narrator because he is writing a travel log. The narrators in both novels along with their effects on the stories can be compared to each other since they are similar but the narrative method used by each author creates unique effects on the reader.
The narrators in Frankenstein and Gulliver’s Travels have many similarities. John Walton is the narrator for Frankenstein but sections of the story are told by Victor and
Ravee Chen
S2 English H
Dr.Freisen
8 April 2010
Word count: 1491
Why do authors use different types of narrators? Jonathan Swift and Mary Shelly have both chosen a first-person narrator in their novels Gulliver’s Travels and Frankenstein. In Gulliver’s Travels the narrator is Gulliver and the book is a personal account of four voyages to unexplored lands around the globe. In the first voyage he winds up in Littleput where everyone is tiny. During his second trip he is taken to a land of giants called Brobdingnag and on his next journey to Laputa, a floating island of academics. His final journey takes him to a strange land where horses called Houyhnhnms rule humans called Yahoos. Frankenstein is a collection of John Walton’s letters. John Walton is the fictional captain of a ship bound for the North Pole who picks up a passenger, Frankenstein, who tells them a strange tale. He tells Walton an account of his scientific creation of a creature that ends up killing all his loved ones. Frankenstein dies and John Walton meets the creature who tells him of his plans to burn himself. While both authors choose to use first-person narration, Swift employs a single narrator while Shelly uses a combination of three. Multiple narrators are needed by Mary Shelly to make her story stronger but Jonathan Swift only uses one narrator because he is writing a travel log. The narrators in both novels along with their effects on the stories can be compared to each other since they are similar but the narrative method used by each author creates unique effects on the reader.
The narrators in Frankenstein and Gulliver’s Travels have many similarities. John Walton is the narrator for Frankenstein but sections of the story are told by Victor and
Cited: Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover, 2003. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1998.