Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", the reader is provided three different narrative voices: Victor Frankenstein, the creature he has created, and Captain Robert Walton, intrepid explorer.
The author points out that, by peeling away the concentric layers of narration, the reader discovers that the words attributed to the Frankenstein's creature, specifically from Chapter XI to Chapter XVII, may simply be Victor's subjective interpretation of the creature's mindset and that the entire story may simply a fabrication authored by Robert Walton. The paper suggests that the the unreliable narrator issue reflects a larger theme touched upon in the novel, the tension between author and artifice.

From the Paper:

"The opening letters, attributed to Captain Robert Walton, provides the setting and occasion for Victor Frankenstein's narrative. At the end of Chapter IX, Victor agrees to hear his creature's tale, out of a sense of duty as creator. These are the two points in the book where the reliability of the narratives comes into question. Although Walton helps frame the larger narrative, his letters, which initiate and conclude the novel, poses the question whether Walton, not unlike the book's author, is concocting a "ghost story" for the sake of amusement, or whether this account is an accurate representation of actual events."

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