The Search For Self-Identity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Readers may surmise that Victor’s tale would be the key to making Walton see Victor in a new and more reasonable light, but they would be wrong. In Walton’s final letters, dated only one more week after Victor began telling his story, he continues to describe Victor in peculiar ways. He calls Victor’s eyes “fine and lovely” (178) and says that “his eloquence is forcible and touching” (179). Although “forcible” could connote something negative, it seems more likely that Walton means it positively as in “powerful” or “convincing” (OED). On the same page he tells Margaret that his mind and “every feeling of [his] soul” were “drunk up” by Victor’s “elevated and gentle” manner and storytelling. Much like his contradictory discussion of his experience
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Writing to and from Frankenstein’s body, Walton declares his work the paradigmatic autobiography: a vehicle for anticipating and replication male self-bonding. …show more content…
For instance, Autonomous University of Madrid professor Manuel Aguirre, sees him as representing the “threshold guardian” archetype found in folklore. He describes this kind of figure as someone who is “an ambivalent figure who watches over the established boundaries but who, through the gifts of higher wisdom or divine enthusiasm, may grant access to a new zone of experience” (7-8). Similarly to Aguirre, Augustan College professor Jonathan Crimmins sees Walton as a mediator and a more reasonable middle ground between the extremes that the monster and Frankenstein represent. He writes, “[Shelley treats] both Frankenstein and his creature as the fallen angels of conflicting value systems and [sets] the two against each other as antagonists. Except for Robert Walton … [they] have no mediator” (562-563). Both of these scholars draw upon the idea that Walton is the lens through which readers experience Frankenstein’s story. It is perhaps his role as chronicler that makes the grave aspects of the story more palatable because we can remember that at the end of the story, Walton’s frame narrative will resume; this tells us that all the horrific happenings of Frankenstein’s life are in the past. This is a perfectly valid analysis; however, it does not seem to acknowledge the negative implications that Walton’s mental state may have on his role as mediator or
Writing to and from Frankenstein’s body, Walton declares his work the paradigmatic autobiography: a vehicle for anticipating and replication male self-bonding. …show more content…
For instance, Autonomous University of Madrid professor Manuel Aguirre, sees him as representing the “threshold guardian” archetype found in folklore. He describes this kind of figure as someone who is “an ambivalent figure who watches over the established boundaries but who, through the gifts of higher wisdom or divine enthusiasm, may grant access to a new zone of experience” (7-8). Similarly to Aguirre, Augustan College professor Jonathan Crimmins sees Walton as a mediator and a more reasonable middle ground between the extremes that the monster and Frankenstein represent. He writes, “[Shelley treats] both Frankenstein and his creature as the fallen angels of conflicting value systems and [sets] the two against each other as antagonists. Except for Robert Walton … [they] have no mediator” (562-563). Both of these scholars draw upon the idea that Walton is the lens through which readers experience Frankenstein’s story. It is perhaps his role as chronicler that makes the grave aspects of the story more palatable because we can remember that at the end of the story, Walton’s frame narrative will resume; this tells us that all the horrific happenings of Frankenstein’s life are in the past. This is a perfectly valid analysis; however, it does not seem to acknowledge the negative implications that Walton’s mental state may have on his role as mediator or