I think it was quite genius how Mary Shelley related Frankenstein’s story through a conversational narrative. He is not simply relaying the events of his life simply to put them down on paper, he is disclosing them to a specific person. This enables Shelley to relate specific information pertinent or simply adding to the story, such as Victor’s history, without seeming as is she is going off on bunny trails.
Does the story aim directly at an emotional effect, or is emotion merely its natural by-product?
“I have found it! What terrified me, will terrify others!” Mary Shelley states in her introduction to Frankenstein, after relating how she decided to write the horror that she did. I think “terror” is certainly an emotion, and a great one that Shelley uses. While the creepiness of Frankenstein’s creation certainly play a part in the terrorizing of the reader, I think that the implications are intended to be much more terrifying.
I would say that emotion is definitely a natural by-product of Frankenstein. The mixture of innocence, brutality, joy, grief, guilt, and love demonstrated in the characters naturally evokes an emotional response. But I do personally think this was, in part, Shelley’s aim.
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