How to Read Frankenstein: Themes, Structure and Questions to Ask

What is Frankenstein, and why is it still read?

Mary Shelley began Frankenstein in the summer of 1816 near Geneva, after Lord Byron proposed that each person in a small group, including Percy Shelley and John Polidori, write a ghost story. She was eighteen. The novel was published anonymously in London in 1818, in three volumes, subtitled The Modern Prometheus. In 1831 she published a revised edition with a new introduction describing that summer and the waking dream that gave her the idea.

In Greek myth Prometheus stole fire from the gods for humankind and was punished for it; in some versions he also shaped people from clay. The subtitle casts Victor as the overreaching maker. The book is often called one of the first science fiction novels, and it belongs equally to the Gothic tradition of dread, guilt and pursuit. Its questions about scientific ambition, and about what creators owe their creations, are why it is assigned far beyond literature classes.

Settle one fact first: Frankenstein is Victor's surname. The being he makes is never named; Victor calls it a fiend, a daemon or a wretch, and critics usually say the Creature. The lumbering, nearly speechless monster of later stage and film versions is not in the book. Shelley's Creature reads Milton and argues with real eloquence.

How Frankenstein is structured: three narrators, one inside another

The novel is built like a set of nesting boxes. Each narrator speaks to a listener he wants to persuade, and each inner story is reported by the person outside it, so you always hear the Creature through Victor and Victor through Walton. Chapter numbers below follow the 1831 text, which has four opening letters and 24 chapters; 1818 editions number chapters within each of three volumes.

The frames matter because the story repeats across them. Walton, like Victor, is chasing a discovery no one has made. The Creature, like Victor, ends up alone and hunting the one who ruined him. When Walton's crew threatens mutiny and he agrees to turn south, the outer story makes the choice Victor never could.

The main themes in Frankenstein

Each theme below is tied to scenes you can find again, which is what an essay or exam answer needs.

Key characters in Frankenstein

The cast is small, and almost every character either mirrors Victor or suffers for his secret.

• Victor Frankenstein: a gifted young Genevan who creates life, abandons it, and spends the rest of the novel paying for it.
• The Creature: articulate, self-taught and desperate for company; he turns to murder after repeated rejection.
• Robert Walton: the Arctic explorer whose letters frame the novel; his ambition matches Victor's until he turns back.
• Elizabeth Lavenza: raised with Victor and later his bride, killed by the Creature on their wedding night.
• Henry Clerval: Victor's warm friend, who nurses him through illness and is murdered by the Creature.
• Alphonse and William Frankenstein: Victor's father, who dies of grief, and his young brother, the Creature's first victim.
• Justine Moritz: a servant in the household, wrongly executed for William's murder.
• The De Lacey family: an exiled father, his children Felix and Agatha, and Safie, Felix's beloved, from whom the Creature learns language and kindness.

How to read Frankenstein: a week-long plan

The novel is short enough to read in a week, and its frames suggest natural stopping points. Keep a page with two columns, Victor and Creature, and add every parallel you notice. When a passage carries an argument, such as the Creature's speech in the Alps, slow down and give it a close reading.

1. 1Check whether your edition prints the 1818 or the 1831 text. The chapter numbers below follow 1831; if yours prints 1818, its chapters are numbered within three volumes, so follow the events named in each step instead.
2. 2Read Walton's four letters slowly and write down what he wants; you will need it at the end.
3. 3Read chapters 1–5, from Victor's childhood to the night of creation, and mark each time he blames fate, chance or his education.
4. 4Read chapters 6–10, covering William's murder, Justine's trial and the meeting in the Alps, and ask how much Victor could have prevented.
5. 5Read the Creature's story, chapters 11–16, in one sitting, listing what he learns and from whom.
6. 6Read chapters 17–24 as a chain of broken promises: the bargain, the destroyed companion, and the deaths of Clerval and Elizabeth.
7. 7Finish with Walton's closing pages and the Creature's last speech, then decide whose side the ending takes.

Frankenstein discussion questions

Each question can anchor a seminar or an essay. Many work best as a comparison, Victor against the Creature or Victor against Walton, which suits a compare and contrast essay.

• Who is the real monster of the novel, and does your answer change between the first and last chapters?
• Why does Victor flee the moment his creation opens its eyes?
• How reliable is Victor as a narrator, given that he tells his story to warn someone?
• What does the Creature take from Paradise Lost, and why does he compare himself to both Adam and Satan?
• Is the Creature born good, as he claims, or does the novel leave room for doubt?
• Why does Victor stay silent at Justine's trial, and what does that silence cost?
• Was Victor right to destroy the female companion?
• What do Elizabeth, Justine and Safie show about women's place in the novel?
• Why does Shelley frame the story with Walton, and what does his decision to turn back mean?
• How do mountains, glaciers and Arctic ice mirror the characters' states of mind?

Which edition of Frankenstein to read: 1818 or 1831

Frankenstein exists in two main versions, and good editions say which one they print in a note on the text. The 1818 text is the first published version and opens with a short preface by Percy Shelley. The 1831 text is Mary Shelley's revision and adds her introduction about the summer of 1816. Both tell the same story, but the revisions change some details and emphasis.

The difference most often cited is Elizabeth: in 1818 she is Victor's cousin, while in 1831 she is an orphan adopted from a poor Italian family. Many critics also read the 1831 revisions as presenting Victor as more a victim of destiny and less simply responsible for his choices. If your class names a version, use it; if not, choose an edition that prints one text and lists the other's major changes. If you read a translation, check which text it was made from.