My essay will surround Frankenstein’s story as a way to leave a legacy, especially showing him as an unreliable narrator. In the introduction, I will open with how Frankenstein hides facts and weaves a story around them, as well as contradictions between the monster’s appearance and Frankenstein’s descriptions of it. I will declare him an unreliable narrator and define what that means. Then, with swift observations of him acting unreliable, I will switch from how he is unreliable to questioning why he acts that way, saying others have only done the former but I intend to discuss the latter. To finish this off will be my thesis, that his purpose is to tell the story itself, thus leaving behind his mark on the world in the way he wants as opposed to, in his eyes, his previous failure.
In the body paragraphs I will discuss three major subtopics: the perceived “failure” of reanimating life, the true meaning of Victor’s subtext, and how meeting Walton allows him the perfect opportunity for this story to be told. In the first subtopic, Victor’s lack of success in his life’s goal is seen to affect him negatively: he is visibly ill and mentally focused only on the creature/wretch. Also in this section is a discussion on why this failure is so tremendous (his mother, god complex), utilizing Eleanor Salotto’s paper. This all makes him want to leave his legacy in some way and finds it when he tells his story to Walton. The next subtopic, focusing on Victor’s subtext, will start by revisiting the aspects of Victor’s story that makes him unreliable. With affirmation that these are false or surreptitious details, I will explain their meaning. For example, Victor did not want to marry Elizabeth but did anyway, but his eloquent language and storytelling make it seem selfless instead of selfish. By presenting himself in such a way, Frankenstein believes he is leaving his best possible image in his story, despite the truth in the subtext. Lastly I will discuss why he could not have had this legacy before meeting Walton. I will analyze the foils of Walton and Victor, leading to Victor’s own description of seeing himself in Walton. The particular absurdity attributed by others to Victor’s story had not allowed him to confide in a person to trust in his character. But with Walton acting as his nurse and showing similar characteristics, Victor understands Walton as the perfect individual to understand his story and take it to heart.
As a rebuttal to potential arguments, I would suggest that Frankenstein’s storytelling is separate from gender arguments. While using Paul Sherwin’s article, I would argue that Frankenstein’s story is not told because of existing gender roles because Walton, the recipient of the story, also holds the same feminine characteristics found in Frankenstein, allowing him to be the most suitable confidant for Victor. Instead, a non-gendered argument provides a more suitable reason that Victor keeps certain details hidden: he wants the best version of himself the way he thinks of himself to be kept in Walton’s mind forever.
In conclusion, I will quickly summarize the arguments I have made. I will link these back to the overall question and show how it is important to analyze the character of Frankenstein on his underlying intentions and not just his hidden attitudes in order to have a more complete understanding of the book.