Three Major Themes In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein conveys three main themes throughout the story: the cost of ambition, the major role family plays, and humanity and isolation. Victor’s tale of unfortunate events and consequences displays how ruthless ambition can lead to your downfall and destruction. Victor learned the hard way when he lost everything he held dear to him and eventually his own life. Once Walton heard Victor’s story of death, chaos, revenge, suffering, and loneliness, Walton decides to end his journey of finding magnetism in the North Pole, realizing he has sacrificed his sister, Margaret, for his quest for success. Walton is then saved before it is too late. The creature’s telling of events that happened to him shows that he was shunned

by humanity and most of all his Creator, his father, his “God” abandoned him. Thus leading the creature to become angry and isolated and eventually setting out to hurt his creator. These three characters all narrate and tell their story within the novel. Having three narrators shows each character's point of view and gives their perspective of the events that unfolded.

Walton’s letters to his sister, Margaret, begin the novel, and they are essential in setting up the structure and stance of the book. Walton and his journey to the North Pole to find magnetism creates the setting for the novel where he meets Victor and they bond over their common desires and how much they can relate. This prompts Victor to tell his tale of how he ended up where he is now. Walton’s letters also serve as a parallel to the story of Victor’s creation. In his second letter, Walton expresses a sense of loneliness as well as a strong desire for a companion. He writes to Margaret, “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend” (Shelley 13). That desire is fed when Victor is introduced. For the monster, that need was never fulfilled. Both Man and creature longed for a companion and suffered through loneliness. It helps to create a similarity between man and monster which is carried throughout the novel.