Multiple Voices of Frankenstein

Plentiful Narrators Many authors use multiple voices to highlight the effect of narrative point of view in their novels. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is ultimately a frame story: a secondary story or stories embedded in the main story (dictionary.com). Frankenstein is just one example in which there are three narrators. The three narrators, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s monster, all have similarities and differences in their goals. The themes of isolation, ambition, power, acquisition of knowledge, and exploration are prevalent in each of the three narratives. Robert Walton, a seafarer, is very ambitious in traveling to the North Pole. He wants to be the first one to get there, no matter what happens to him or his crew. Walton finds Frankenstein in the ocean and rescues him. Frankenstein then goes on to tell Walton his tale. Walton is the first narrator because he writes everything that he can about what Frankenstein says; he writes all the information in letters to his sister, Margaret. Frankenstein then becomes the second narrator as he narrates about his self-isolation during college. The reader understands that as much as Frankenstein wants to acquire more and more knowledge, he is putting himself in danger; not only himself, but the people who he loves the most. As the third narrator, Frankenstein’s creation explains that he was benevolent and kind-hearted. However, rejection, loneliness, and a gunshot wound lead him to denounce love and determine to respond with hatred and violence. To help the readers understand the full context of why the different characters are the way they are, Shelley uses three narrators. Although each point of view is very different, this technique shows readers what each narrator went through and how he felt about it. All their stories are similar because of the recurring theme of exploration. However, all the stories are different because of the way each narrator goes about exploring their own idea of