Letters On August 13th Literary Analysis

Mary Shelley’s massively influential novel, Frankenstein, uses many shrewd literary devices. Robert Walton’s letter to his sister on August 13th is but one example of Shelley’s keen writing style. Although Shelley tells the majority of the novel through Victor Frankenstein’s memories, she begins the novel with letters from Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret Saville. These letters serve as an introduction to the main story, but they contain information just as important as that in the main story. In particular, the letter written on August 13th demonstrates her masterful use of tone and point of view. This letter also shows Shelley’s considerable ability to paint a character’s personality in a few lines of prose through descriptive language.
Walton’s letter, despite being no more than two pages long, provides an excellent summary of Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton’s personalities. Walton’s letter demonstrates Mary Shelley’s keen use of point of view and language to tell a story in Frankenstein. Shelley masterfully uses point of view to tell her story. She always uses the limited first person perspective. This allows the reader to feel as if he or she is alongside the characters as the story progresses. She often uses letters to and from various characters to allow the reader a better view into characters’ minds, as evidenced by Walton’s letters in the beginning of the novel. This also makes Frankenstein a partial epistolary novel. Shelley’s use of point of view is particularly masterful, as she makes the first person point of view reminiscent of the third person point of view. Without context, one could easily see Walton’s observations of his guest from the third person limited point of view. One example is Walton’s remarks about his guest’s demeanor, when he says, “Yet, although unhappy, he is not so utterly occupied by his own misery but that he interests himself deeply in the projects of others” (23). Without any background information, anyone could easily interpret this statement as the third person limited point of view. Shelley’s use of point of view is a key contributor to the excellence of her novel. Shelley’s use of language astutely explains Robert Walton’s character. Walton appears to be at least somewhat empathetic; he asks his sister about Frankenstein, saying, “How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery, without feeling the most poignant of grief” (23)? Walton seems to be optimistic, as he tells Frankenstein “all my arguments in favor of my eternal success” (23). He appears motivated to the point of obsession, saying, “I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise” (23). Walton also seems to be quite selfish, as he says, “One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought” (23). Walton ultimately appears to be lonely, as he tells his sister, “I spoke of my desire of finding a friend—of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my unhappy lot” (24). Shelley keenly describes Walton’s character through her use of language. Language is a key component to Shelley’s reveal of Victor Frankenstein’s character.
The most obvious part of Frankenstein’s personality is his misery. In his August 13th letter, Robert Walton calls Frankenstein a “broken spirit” who appears “destroyed by misery” (23-24). Frankenstein’s expression is often “expressive of a calm settled grief” (24). Frankenstein himself tells Walton, “But I—I have lost everything, and cannot begin life anew” (24). Shelley relentlessly reminds readers of Frankenstein’s utter hopelessness and despair. However, she also shows Frankenstein’s lighter side. He loves the wonders of the world deeply; Walton says that “no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature” (24). Indeed, Shelley makes it seem like Frankenstein’s love of the world around him transcends everything else in his life. She says about him, “Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures” (24-25). Shelley also stresses Frankenstein’s singularly keen mind. Walton tells his sister, Sometimes I have endeavoured to discover what quality it is which he possesses that elevates him so immeasurably above any other person I know. I believe it to be an intuitive discernment; a quick but never-failing power of judgement; a penetration into the causes of things, unequalled for clearness and precision
(25).
Above all, the most telling phrase that Shelley uses to describe Frankenstein is a “divine wanderer” (25). Shelley dooms Frankenstein to never settle and always search for something more, but a strange poetic beauty exists in Frankenstein’s eternal struggle. Shelley’s language shrewdly describes Frankenstein’s character. Mary Shelley masterfully uses point of view and language to write Frankenstein. Her use of the first person point of view allows her readers to better understand and sympathize with the characters. She uses descriptive language to show the personalities of Walton and Frankenstein. In only two pages, her readers gain an understanding about most of Walton and Frankenstein’s characters. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley deftly uses language and point of view to tell its story and explain its characters.