What Purpose Do the Letters Serve in Frankenstein?

Posted on September 30, 2014 by alyssagrammer

“Shelley begins her novel with letters from a man named Robert Walton. The purpose of the letters
was, at first, unknown to me, as I have not previously read Frankenstein. There was no apparent
connection between the travels of Walton and Victor Frankenstein’s experiment. I assumed that all
would reveal itself as I read. At the end of Volume 1, I realized that the stranger that climbed aboard in
Walton’s letters is none other than Victor Frankenstein himself. Walton tells of the stranger’s
mysteriousness and that he presented himself like “a calm, settled grief” (62). In the last letter, the
stranger finally tells Walton, “You will hear of powers and occurrences, such as you have been
accustomed to believe impossible” (62). I can only speculate that the stranger is an older, subdued
Frankenstein and Frankenstein is referring to his doomed experiment. Therefore, the introductory
letters addressed from Walton serve as a framework for Frankenstein’s story.

In Chapter V, we are introduced to a new set of letters; this time, correspondence is between Elizabeth
and Frankenstein, and Frankenstein and his father. Letters are also mentioned throughout the fourth
chapter. These letters serve as a social connection during a time when Frankenstein isolates himself due
to his experimentation with immortality. I understood these letters to be representative of the dream-
like state Frankenstein seems to always be in versus the reality Elizabeth and Alphonse exist in.

Frankenstein has created his own world with the creation of his monster. He lives and breathes his
experiments, and he neglects his physical state only focusing on his monster. After fleeing the
awakening of his monster, Frankenstein returns to his empty apartment and enters into a wild, delirious
state. “I was unable to remain for a single instant in the same place.. Wildness in my eyes for which
[Clerval] could not account” (87). Frankenstein then becomes sick and continues in his “imaginary”
world until the letter from his father, telling of his younger brother’s murder, arrives. Frankenstein then
snaps out of his madness and isolation, and he returns to his family.

These letters from his family serve as a connection with the real world For Frankenstein, away from the
delirium that Frankenstein has been consumed by. I can imagine that as the novel goes on,
Frankenstein will continue to find himself in between this deranged, imaginary world, and the realistic
world that his family lives in.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2llv64OeFMI TEDed “The Importance of Letters”

Your assignment: Take on the persona of one character and write a letter from one character to the
other. Please follow the guidelines provided.