Frankenstein Themes edexcel 3-19th-Century-Novel

Frankenstein: Themes

Your exam question could be on any topic. However, having a good understanding of the themes Shelley explores in Frankenstein will help to ensure that you can write a confident answer, using evidence from across the text to support your argument.

Here are some of the key themes for you to think about:

• Ambition 

• Nature versus nurture 

• Power and control

• Science and creation 

• Gender 

• Isolation and companionship 

When exploring these themes, we will also look at why Shelley presents them as she does. This list is not exhaustive and you are also encouraged to identify your own ideas within the novel. 

Ambition

The theme of ambition is central to Frankenstein. By making the creature, Victor is presented by Shelley as trying to be God-like, giving life. He also has ambitions to defy nature through his scientific endeavours. 

Knowledge and evidence 

• Frankenstein is shown to have Promethean ambition:

  • In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and, as a result, was sentenced to internal torment: 

    • This myth was even used in the full title of the novel: “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”

  • Like Prometheus, by making the creature, Victor Frankenstein is stealing what would have been seen as the power of God to create life:

    • Frankenstein is also shown to desire God-like power when he says that by creating creatures, he will have people who “owe their being to” him (Chapter 4)

• Frankenstein is also presented as a romantic genius:

  • A romantic genius was a passionate, creative person whose talents were thought to be driven by forces beyond their control and beyond the usual limits of the human mind:

    • In Chapter 2, Victor says he had a “passion which afterwards ruled my destiny”

• This emphasis on being a romantic genius is presented as leading to Frankenstein’s downfall and ultimately his death:

  • For instance, the creature murders Clerval, Victor’s closet friendship, which leaves Victor “heart-broken and overcome” (Walton in Continuum) 

• Even though his ambition leads to misery and destruction, Frankenstein is presented as continuing to believe that people should have ambitions that defy nature:

  • Victor attacks Walton’s crew for being “easily turned from their design” when they are stuck in ice (Walton in Continuum)

• Walton is also shown to be very ambitious but in contrast with Victor, he hopes to “satiate [his] ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited” (Letter 1):

  • Walton’s ambition leads his ship to be “surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape” (Walton in Continuum): 

    • This could be an allusion to Dante’s popular poem, Inferno, where people in the ninth circle of hell are shown to be trapped in ice

• Both Walton and Frankenstein are portrayed as pursuing knowledge for their own personal gain:

  • Walton is presented as saying that he “preferred glory” to a life of “ease and luxury” (Letter 1). This suggests that Walton pursued knowledge for his own prestige

• Like Walton, Frankenstein too appears to be driven by a desire for prestige and glory:

  • He says, “what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame?”

    • It could be argued that Frankenstein’s ambition is due to grief, as his desire to “banish disease” could be because of his moroseness over his mother’s death (Chapter 2) 

• The creature is shown to have an ambition for knowledge but this only leads to greater despair:

  • Evidence of this can be seen as he says, “sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!” (Chapter 13)

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• By highlighting its devastating consequences, Shelley is criticising unchecked ambition, which perhaps makes this novel a parable

• The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that people would be happier in a natural state:

  • Shelley could be highlighting this idea in Frankenstein

• Shelley could be trying to suggest that the pursuit of glory and prestige often leads to a person’s own destruction, especially if they go against God and nature

Nature versus nurture

The creature is a product of nurture, not nature. Frankenstein defies the natural order in his obsessive pursuit of scientific knowledge, attempting to create life artificially, a decision that leads to tragic consequences. A focus on nature versus nurture was typical in Gothic literature such as Frankenstein, a popular genre at the time.

Knowledge and evidence

• In the Romantic period, many Romantics believed that people were a “blank slate” at birth and that society moulded people’s identity and characteristics:

  • This was an idea which was put forward by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Shelley presents the creature as benevolent and good at his birth, before being corrupted by his isolation from society:

  • This is highlighted when he “abstains” from taking any of the De Lacey’s “store of food” when he learnt of their “poverty” (Chapter 12): 

    • At this point in the novel, this implies that he is empathetic and knows right from wrong

    • However, over the course of the novel, the creature starts to become more devilish due to his rejection from society, culminating in his murder of William and Elizabeth

• Victor is also presented as a product of his upbringing and his upper-class origins:

  • This is evidenced when he describes that his “family is one of the most distinguished” in Geneva

• His background seems to have given him a superiority complex:

  • He says, “I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors” that he says “supported [him] in the commencement of my career”: 

    • This shows how his feeling that he is above other people, which is suggested by the sense of contempt in the phrase “the herd of common projectors”, led to his own downfall

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• Shelley may be suggesting that evil is made and not born

• Shelley may also be exploring the notion that class differences led some people to see themselves as superior to others:

  • This was a key idea explored by Romantics, such as the poet William Wordsworth, who began to argue for an equal society

• This juxtaposition between the creature’s character at the start and end of the text could suggest that Shelley wants to highlight Rousseau’s view that people are born a “blank slate” 

Power and control

Victor Frankenstein is depicted as someone with huge ambitions who wants to be powerful, and seeks to extend his control over nature through invention of the creature. The themes of power and control extend beyond this and are important to be aware of in the structure as well as the content of the novel.

 Knowledge and evidence

• Victor is also shown to have had complete control of the narrative:

  • He is shown to have “corrected and augmented” the story (Walton in Continuum): 

    • This suggests that he is an unreliable narrator: a narrator who is presented as being untrustworthy

• The reader hears the story from the points of view of Walton, Frankenstein and, less so, the creature:

  • In the Romantic period, there was an emphasis on the marginalised in society

• Over the course of the novel, the power relationship between the creature and Victor changes, as the creature’s threat is shown to cause Victor intense paranoia:

  • In Chapter 22, Victor describes how he “saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me” when the creature is not even there 

What is Shelley’s intention? 

• By showing that Victor controls how the creature is presented, Shelley may have been trying to suggest that powerful people often get their side of the story across by showing that Victor controls how the creature is presented

• Shelley may be trying to show the reader the consequences of creating something unnatural:

  • This is perhaps in line with the Romantic view that nature was pure

• Shelley may be looking to punish Victor for his scientific ambitions, to show the destructive potential of focusing on the pursuit of knowledge and unchecked ambition

• Shelley could be trying to highlight how the voices of the marginalised are often reduced

Science and nature