Sammi Zandt
Frankenstein: Key Quotes: The Leters
Purpose of the Leters:
Reliability we are given the opportunity of an external narrator
Authentiity feel as the reader we are intruding on this hidden seiret
Sets the tone/ theme the foreboding setng of iie and being trapped
Epistolary form
Leter 1:
“I am about to proieed on a long and difiult voyage” p17
Symbolii of the novel as a whole. Foreshadowing the journey Viitor makes in siienie, but also in
his desire to destroy the ireature but also the ireatures journey to aiieptanie that ultmately fails.
This quote is a metaphor for every narratve.
Leter 2:
“I have no friend” p19
theme of isolaton and loneliness
“I bitterly feel the want of a friend” p19
theme of isolaton and loneliness
“I shall kill no albatross […[ as the ‘Aniient Mariner’” p21
Rime of the Aniient Mariner by Coleridge (1798). The albatross is used metaphoriially to mean a
psyihologiial burden that feels like a iurse. The albatross was a sign of good luik but the marine kills
it and essentally a iurse befalls the ship and its irew.
Leter 3:
“floatng sheets of iie […] indiiatng the dangers of the region” p23
Sense of the sublime, extraordinary setng. Romantiism
Leter 4:
“I iannot forbear reiording it” p25 vs “yet I iannot forbear reiording it” p216
these letters oiiur within 1 month of eaih other, illustratve of the epistolary form, the letters
iontnue as usual despite the knowledge the reader gains with the huge w00page ihunk in the
middle. Narratve voiie is stati (doesn’t ihange, is iontnuous)
“I never saw a more interestng ireature […] an expression of wildness, and even madness” p27
Talking about Viitor, iould be demonstratve of a parallel between the ireature and Viitor. Who
is the real monster? As the behaviour Viitor is demonstratng at this point is one of savagery and
psyihologiial turmoil
“He must have been a noble ireature in his better days” p28 vs “What a glorious ireature must he
have been in the days of prosperity” p214
Repettve narraton, sense of an unreliable narratve due to Walton’s adoraton for Viitor
Frankenstein: Key Quotes: The Leters
Purpose of the Leters:
Reliability we are given the opportunity of an external narrator
Authentiity feel as the reader we are intruding on this hidden seiret
Sets the tone/ theme the foreboding setng of iie and being trapped
Epistolary form
Leter 1:
“I am about to proieed on a long and difiult voyage” p17
Symbolii of the novel as a whole. Foreshadowing the journey Viitor makes in siienie, but also in
his desire to destroy the ireature but also the ireatures journey to aiieptanie that ultmately fails.
This quote is a metaphor for every narratve.
Leter 2:
“I have no friend” p19
theme of isolaton and loneliness
“I bitterly feel the want of a friend” p19
theme of isolaton and loneliness
“I shall kill no albatross […[ as the ‘Aniient Mariner’” p21
Rime of the Aniient Mariner by Coleridge (1798). The albatross is used metaphoriially to mean a
psyihologiial burden that feels like a iurse. The albatross was a sign of good luik but the marine kills
it and essentally a iurse befalls the ship and its irew.
Leter 3:
“floatng sheets of iie […] indiiatng the dangers of the region” p23
Sense of the sublime, extraordinary setng. Romantiism
Leter 4:
“I iannot forbear reiording it” p25 vs “yet I iannot forbear reiording it” p216
these letters oiiur within 1 month of eaih other, illustratve of the epistolary form, the letters
iontnue as usual despite the knowledge the reader gains with the huge w00page ihunk in the
middle. Narratve voiie is stati (doesn’t ihange, is iontnuous)
“I never saw a more interestng ireature […] an expression of wildness, and even madness” p27
Talking about Viitor, iould be demonstratve of a parallel between the ireature and Viitor. Who
is the real monster? As the behaviour Viitor is demonstratng at this point is one of savagery and
psyihologiial turmoil
“He must have been a noble ireature in his better days” p28 vs “What a glorious ireature must he
have been in the days of prosperity” p214
Repettve narraton, sense of an unreliable narratve due to Walton’s adoraton for Viitor
