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Setting refers to the time and place of the action in a narrative work. Read more: What Is Setting in Literature?
Europe
Much of the story of Frankenstein unfolds in Switzerland, the country in central Europe where Mary Shelley was staying when she began writing the novel. However, the novel ranges widely within Europe and across the globe. Victor Frankenstein visits Germany, France, England and Scotland. Walton travels through Russia. Elizabeth is Italian and the De Laceys are a French family living in Germany. Safie and her father are Turkish. Clerval plans to move to India, and the monster proposes relocating to South America. The novel’s framing story, narrated by Walton, is set in the Arctic Ocean (see below), where Walton is trying to find a new route around the world. By encompassing the whole globe in this way, Frankenstein presents itself as a universal story. The global reach of the setting also suggests one way in which Frankenstein can be read allegorically. Shelley’s era saw a rapid expansion of European power across the globe, driven by the same advances in science that enabled Victor to create the monster.
Read important quotes about the European settings in Frankenstein.
The Alps and the Arctic Ocean
While a wide range of European locales serve as the base setting for Frankenstein, the icy natural world environments of both the Swiss Alps and the North Pole region north of Europe, Russia, and North America have a special status as settings within the novel. Alpine and Arctic settings support the novel’s argument that the natural world should be respected for its dangers as well as its beauty. Starting with Walton’s first letter to this sister at the start of the novel, the Arctic North is held up as a place of wonder and discovery. (“What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?”) But before long, with his ship trapped in the ice and his crew unhappy, the harsh realities of the region are made apparent to Walton.
Similarly, the Swiss Alps are initially a place of wonderful beauty as well. As Frankenstein describes, “I suddenly left my home, and, bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself” However, as Frankenstein climbs, the “eternity” of the Alps becomes inhospitable and foreboding, a “sea of ice” and “bare perpendicular rock.” This physical journey from his comfortable home to the barren mountains reflects Frankenstein’s intellectual journey. He leaves the safety of home to seek out wonderful new knowledge, but he goes further than human beings should go, and he ends up somewhere dangerous when he creates the monster. The barren landscapes of the high Alps and the Arctic help to make one of the novel’s central arguments: not everything in nature is safe for humans to discover or experience.
Read quotes about The Alps and Arctic Ocean settings in Frankenstein.
