Ilena Peng | ENGL 1360

in the novel “Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley details the life of Victor Frankenstein, a student from Geneva who animates a creature. Frankenstein's experiences are documented by Robert Walton, a ship captain who finds Frankenstein while exploring the Arctic. Shelley seems to shift between explicit and implicit uses of location. Certain locations are described with deep visual detail and offer insight into Frankenstein’s shifting mindsets. This is particularly emphasized at points in the story in which two locations, such as the Arctic and Montanvert, are visually similar, but Frankenstein’s reactions differ greatly. In other places in the story, an emphasis is placed on how a location’s description mirrors Frankenstein’s thoughts and emotions. Shelley shifts her focus between descriptions of Frankenstein’s location and his thoughts about his surroundings as a way to enhance the reader’s comprehension of Frankenstein’s state of mind. Use the menu or keep scrolling to read my analysis of different locations in “Frankenstein.”

shelley suggests that Geneva fits within the conventions of what a home should be because it’s where Frankenstein is comfortable; however, Geneva also deviates from a conventional home because it is a place of revelations that destroy his world. One of Frankenstein’s earlier revelations at home is shown when he watches “a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak” and the lightning’s force leaves behind only a “blasted stump” (Shelley 48). Through this event, Shelley seems to create a significant moment in which Frankenstein’s interest in the violent aspects of nature is established. This seems to be further shown in Frankenstein saying he had “never beheld anything so utterly destroyed” (48).

Shelley further suggests that Frankenstein’s home does not fit into the conventions of a home by geographically placing Frankenstein’s critical realization that the creature is dangerous near his home. Through the lines “no mortal could support the horror of that countenance” and “I could hardly believe that so great a good fortune could have befallen me“ upon finding the creature out of his apartment, Shelley reveals that Frankenstein’s fear of the creature develops in Ingolstadt at the time of its animation (61, 63). However, Frankenstein doesn’t come to the realization that the creature is dangerous until he’s in Geneva, exclaiming that “He was the murderer! [...] The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact” (75). Frankenstein’s agony in the book is caused by the creature, but more specifically, is caused by the creature’s dangerous intentions. Shelley suggests the dangerous nature of the creature is not recognized by Frankenstein until this moment, which occurs in Geneva.

shelley suggests through the characters of M. Krempe and M. Waldman that Ingolstadt’s focus on new scientific values instead of the outdated alchemy Frankenstein preferred is taken to an extreme by Frankenstein’s animation of the creature. M. Krempe refers to the alchemists’ work that Frankenstein has read as “nonsense,” and says Frankenstein must restart his studies (51). Shelley further characterizes Ingolstadt and its focus on science when M. Krempe describes the time they’re in as an “enlightened and scientific age” (52). Through M. Waldman’s conversation with Frankenstein, in which he says, “If your wish is to become really a man of science, and not merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of natural philosophy, including mathematics,” Shelley asserts that the scientific process is important at Ingolstadt (54). Through her description of Frankenstein “examining and analysing” while creating the creature and Frankenstein’s assertion that he is not “recording the vision of a madman,” Shelley suggests that Frankenstein sticks to Ingolstadt’s definition of a scientific process (56). However, she also describes the creature as an amalgamation of visually mismatching parts, suggesting that Frankenstein is still an “experimentalist” like the one M. Waldman refers to despite the scientific schooling he has had (54).

before climbing Montanvert, Frankenstein is beside the sources of the Arveiron river and observes that “the accumulated ice, which, through the silent working of immutable laws, was ever and anon rent and torn, as if it had been but a plaything in their hands” (90). Shelley uses the description of breaking ice as “the silent working of immutable laws” to suggest that Frankenstein has an understanding of the power of nature (90). Yet in Ingolstadt with his work on the creature, Frankenstein’s work on the creature demonstrates Frankenstein’s defiance of nature’s “laws” (90). Shelley seems to suggest that Frankenstein tries to become a master of nature in creating the creature, which could be likened to Frankenstein’s “plaything,” until he later realizes he created a monster (90).

frankenstein’s thoughts while descending Montanvert suggest that his perception of nature has shifted — he can no longer take solace in it, knowing that his commitment to creating a companion for the creature is unnatural. Frankenstein’s heart “swelled with something like joy” when he was looking over the landscape while ascending Montanvert (92). However, his disconnect with nature is shown on his way down, when Frankenstein says ‘Oh! stars and clouds, and winds, ye are all about to mock me” (131). Frankenstein seems to feel as if he deserves to be mocked by nature. Frankenstein also says “the eternal twinkling of the stars weighed upon me” and with the use of the word “eternal,” Shelley suggests that Frankenstein is burdened with the knowledge that he will not live forever, and that the remainder of his life will be plagued by this creature (131).

shelley's description of Oxford suggests that the city’s intellectual environment is reflective of Frankenstein before the creature. She seems to characterize Frankenstein’s scholarly eagerness in his comments about the city’s history, with his mind “filled with the remembrance of the events that had been transacted” and how the city “had remained faithful to [Charles I], after the whole nation had forsaken his cause to join the standard of parliament of liberty. Shelley also seems to suggest that Frankenstein reveres the concept of a city dedicated to their leader, which could also connect to his later dedication to pursuing and killing the creature. She further emphasizes Frankenstein’s interest in self-sacrifice when he contemplates “the divine ideas of liberty and self-sacrifice, of which these sights were the monuments and the remembrancers” (141). In the same sentence, it is shown that despite his remaining interest in the history and the city of Oxford, he cannot maintain that interest — it is only “for a moment” that his “soul was elevated from its debating and miserable fears” (141).

Following Frankenstein’s extensive thoughts of Oxford’s “magnificent” streets and “exquisite” meadows, he reflects on his childhood and says that “discontent never visited my mind; and if I was ever overcome by ennui, the sight of what is beautiful in nature, or the study of what is excellent and sublime in the productions of man, could always interest my heart” (140). Frankenstein then implies that is no longer the case because he is “a blasted tree [...] a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself” (140). Shelley seems to suggest that Frankenstein is now uninterested by intellectual topics and nature, therefore causing him to feel a disconnect from humanity. She further shows Frankenstein’s disconnect from humanity through his inability to maintain the scholarly eagerness he seemed to reveal through his initial description of Oxford. Frankenstein tries to look around and says he “dared to shake off [his] chains, and look around [him] with a free and lofty spirit; but [...] sank again, trembling and hopeless, into [his] miserable self” (141). Shelley’s description of Frankenstein’s experience in Oxford shows that Frankenstein cannot connect with the city in the way he desires and in the way he previously would have.

shelley suggests through her description of the island that Frankenstein’s workplace in the Orkneys is supposed to serve both as a punishment and an opportunity for redemption, and that he fails to redeem himself by stopping his work and leaving the island. Her descriptions of how Frankenstein’s dwelling “exhibited all the squalidness of the most miserable penury” along with its location on an island, which is inherently isolated by definition, could suggest that Frankenstein is supposed to be subjected to isolation as a punishment, perhaps to aid him in relating to the creature’s sense of isolation (143). Shelley further reinforces the notion that Frankenstein’s time on this island serves as a punishment through his evident distaste of the work he’s doing, as seen when he says he worked “in cold blood, my heart often sickened at the work of my hands” (143).

Shelley also suggests that Frankenstein fails to realize that the isolation he experiences on this island without interactions with others is the same sense of isolation that the creature experiences. He destroys the creature’s only chance at companionship based off of a series of rhetorical questions he asks himself. After stopping his work, Frankenstein sleeps and wakes up, feeling again “as if [he] belonged to a race of human beings like [himself]” (147). Although it cannot be proven whether his decision to stop his work is correct, his decision indicates that he does not understand the creature’s plight. Frankenstein is relieved at feeling a sense of belonging with other humans again, but does not recognize that the creature will never feel that sense of belonging with another individual. Shelley also reveals Frankenstein’s lack of empathy regarding the creature’s isolation when she describes him experiencing “sensations of terror” on the sea when he finds that the high waves mean that any attempts to change course will fill his boat with water (149). Frankenstein experiences a “flood of warm joy” upon seeing land and recognizing the “certainty of life” (150). Frankenstein’s recognition of civilization is what brings him comfort because he knows civilization means he will live, yet he fails to recognize that the creature lives in a condition where civilization is something to be feared.

the scenes preceding Elizabeth and Clerval’s death are similar in that Frankenstein is on a boat; however, Shelley seems to contrast the two to show a progression in Frankenstein’s ideas of destiny. Before Clerval’s death in Ireland, Frankenstein leaves the island after having encountered the creature, who threatened that he would be present on Frankenstein’s wedding night. On the boat leaving the island, Shelley suggests that Frankenstein is at least somewhat calm despite his interaction with the creature, as seen in descriptions like the breeze that “refreshed [him,] and filled [him] with such agreeable sensations, that [he] resolved to prolong [his] stay on the water” (149). Shelley does also suggest, however, that he is not entirely calm because he is “plunged” into “despairing and frightful” thoughts when thinking of Elizabeth, Clerval and his dad becoming potential victims of the creature (149). Frankenstein also seems to land optimistically before Clerval’s death, with his “heart bounding with joy at [his] unexpected escape” (63). On the boat going to Lake Como, Frankenstein seems to more consistently fluctuate between the two moods and he lands thinking that his “cares and fears revive, which soon were to clasp me, and cling to me for ever” (166).

Shelley also seems to characterize the relationship between Frankenstein and Elizabeth on this boat ride to Lake Como. She suggests a sense of intimacy — the shifts in Frankenstein’s mood are also reflected in Elizabeth’s mood, as seen in Frankenstein’s observation that “her temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie” (166). Shelley could also be creating a comparison between their fluctuating moods and their surroundings; the clouds are moving to “sometimes obscure and sometimes rise above the dome of Mont Blanc” (166). Furthermore, Elizabeth was adopted by Frankenstein’s parents when they spent a week on the shores of Lake Como. Through the fact that the site of Elizabeth’s joining and parting with Frankenstein occurred in the same location, Shelley could be suggesting that their intimate relationship has not fundamentally changed; however, Frankenstein has failed the relationship by not protecting her.

shelley’s description of a silent cemetery as Frankenstein is leaving Geneva serves as a jarring contrast with Frankenstein’s lack of internal peace. At the cemetery where William, Elizabeth and Frankenstein’s father are buried, “every thing was silent, except the leaves of the trees, which were gently agitated by the wind” (172). Frankenstein’s mind is not nearly as silent as the cemetery, as shown when “the deep grief which this scene had at first excited quickly gave way to rage and despair,” which is also expressed in the “agitated” leaves (173). The silence in the cemetery is broken by “a loud and fiendish laugh,” which “rung on [his] ears long and heavily; the mountains re-echoed it” (173). In breaking the silence with the creature’s laughter, Shelley could be drawing a visual connection to the way the creature transformed the earlier version of Frankenstein, who said that “discontent never visited my mind,” into the current Frankenstein, who is both agitated and troubled (140). Shelley also hints at the extent of Frankenstein’s agitation when Frankenstein says he “felt as if all hell surrounded [him] with mockery and laughter” — Frankenstein’s mental perception of noise all around him caused only by a single laugh from the creature is a sharp contrast with the silence that preceded it.

shelley draws a parallel with the visual landscape of the Arctic and Montanvert, but suggests a progression in Frankenstein’s sense of isolation through his perception of the landscape. She shows that Frankenstein actively seeks isolation when he decides he will ascend to the top of Montanvert without a guide since “the presence of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the scene” (91). Shelley seems to draw a visual parallel between the “icy and glittering peaks” of Montanvert and the “sloping ice-mountain” in the Arctic (92, 177). However, Shelley suggests through her description of Frankenstein’s heart “which was before sorrowful, now swelled with joy,” that Frankenstein regards isolation in Montanvert positively (92). She seems to show a shift in Frankenstein’s regard of isolation in the Arctic when Frankenstein says “immense and rugged mountains of ice often barred up [his] passage” (176). Shelley reveals that Frankenstein used to perceive the vastness of Montanvert’s icy mountain with positivity, but now views the icy mountains of the Arctic as barriers to his goal of finding the creature, and perhaps indirectly as a barrier to a more peaceful existence.

Through Frankenstein’s perception that his surroundings in Montanvert “gathered around him, and bade [him] be at peace,” Shelley also suggests that Frankenstein at this point in the novel feels more at peace when isolated (91). This again contrasts with Frankenstein in the Arctic, where she shows Frankenstein’s longing for a warmer climate, and indirectly his home, when he exclaims “Oh how unlike it was to the blue seas of the south!” (175). As opposed to a “sea of ice” in Montanvert, Frankenstein recognizes the ice in the Arctic as “only to be distinguished from land by its superior wildness and ruggedness” (175). Through this shift in Frankenstein’s perception of his icy surroundings, Shelley suggests that Frankenstein has finally recognized the sorrowful nature of isolation. This shift in Frankenstein’s perception could also be because he previously only experienced temporary alone time, but has now finally experienced true isolation, having lost his family and friends.