The Mind of The Creator: A Character Analysis of Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus (1818).

Författare

Nora Grunditz

Summary, in English

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) has been scrutinised in a large variety of fields and from a wide variety of perspectives. Yet, each new published article proves there is more to be uncovered of the novel and its characters. Still, there exists a discrepancy in the attention afforded to its narrators, as the character of Victor Frankenstein is overshadowed by that of the Creature. This phenomenon was studied by Anna Clark, who found that the Creature’s sympathetic storytelling was behind its promotion to protagonist, in the eyes of the reader. However, Victor Frankenstein is once again overshadowed by his creation in Clark’s article. In this thesis, I will present three readings of Victor Frankenstein’s character. Firstly, Aristotle’s Poetics provides a structuralist approach with which to bring the surprisingly strong tragic elements of Victor’s story to light, and his awareness of this fact. Secondly, the contemporary field of cognitive literary analysis will show how the reader’s mind reading and metarepresentational abilities affect their perception of Victor’s character, and how the story creates the mental state of Victor Frankenstein. Then, by virtue of a look into the novel’s historical context in the Vitality Debate I will show the influences and allegories present in the story and character of Victor Frankenstein. Finally, I will compare the approaches and argue for the application of simultaneous approaches when analysing text.

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