Frame story: A frame story is a literary technique in which an introductory or main narrative provides the foundation for another story to emerge. It is sometimes referred to as a story within a story. In Frankenstein, the frame story begins with Captain Walton, an English sailor headed for the North Pole. He encounters a stranger floating on the ice who eventually introduces himself as Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein then tells Walton the story of his life. The majority of the novel takes place within Frankenstein’s story, but Walton’s frame gives the story a plausible place to start.
Epistolary: An epistolary is a literary work that is written as a series of documents, such as letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, etc. The epistolary form of this novel comes from the frame story: Captain Walton writes letters to his sister Margaret during his journey to the North Pole. The epistolary form can add realism to a story because it mimics real-life interactions. In this novel, the epistolary form is essential because it adds credence to a supernatural story that would be easy to dismiss as unrealistic.
Unreliable Narrator: Frankenstein unfolds through a series of narrators. It begins with Walton’s letters to his sister and then relates Frankenstein’s story as Walton hears it. Chapters XI-XVI are Frankenstein’s recreation of the creature’s narrating his own story. These layers of narration should remind readers that each story is the character’s account of what happened. It is therefore colored by perspective and therefore unreliable.
Shelley combines the epistolary form with another technique called the frame story. This involves the telling of stories within a story. In Frankenstein, Robert Walton is the most external narrator. Robert Walton meets Victor Frankenstein, who begins to tell him the story of his life and his invention of the creature. This establishes a story within a story. Deeper still, within Frankenstein’s story, the creature also narrates his own version of events. As such, the narrative actually includes three levels of storytelling or ‘frames.’
Emily, Owl Eyes StaffShelley begins the novel with a series of letters; this technique is called epistolary writing. Eventually, Shelley combines this technique with another called a frame tale, or story within a story, in order to invite readers into the stories of the main characters from a variety of perspectives. This leads to questions of how reliable the characters are as narrators.
Jane, Owl Eyes Staff"I am going to unexplored regions, to “the land of mist and snow;” but I shall kill no albatross; . " See in text (Letter II)
This is a direct reference to Samuel Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a lengthy poem considered to be one of the first of the romantics. The main character of that poem, also a sea captain exploring the Arctic (“the land of mist and snow”), encounters misfortune, including a ruined ship and starved crew, after killing an albatross. Similarly to Frankenstein, the mariner’s story is a frame story, where the mariner recounts his story to a narrator. In referencing it, Walton shows that he is well read, despite his worries of self-education—and that he seeks to reassure his sister that a similar fate will not befall him.