Frankenstein · Concepts

Concepts

Ideas that structure Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley — linked to characters, chapters, and questions.

Creation and abandonment
The novel’s moral center is not the spark of life but Victor’s refusal to care for the being he made.
Dangerous knowledge
Victor’s discovery is ruinous because he pursues it in secret, without friendship, limit, or a plan for what success would oblige him to do.
Isolation
Victor’s guilt and the creature’s rejection are two isolations that lock together until revenge is the only shared language.
Appearance and monstrosity
The creature is eloquent, and still every human community judges him by his body before he can finish a sentence.