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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Read more: What Is a Theme in Literature?
The Consequences of Unchecked Ambition
That unchecked ambition can lead to terrible and destructive results is a strong message of Frankenstein. To convey this, the novel offers up two characters, Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein, who are both highly ambitious, but who ultimately take different paths in pursuit of their goals. When Walton is introduced at the start of the novel as he is writing to his sister, we can immediately see that he has both optimism and ambition in abundance as he set out on his expedition to explore the frozen North. Shortly after this, we and Walton meet Frankenstein, and before long Walton senses that he has met a sort of soulmate since, if anything, Frankenstein’s ambition exceeds even his own. But as Frankenstein proceeds to tell us and Walton his horrifying tale of ambition run amok, we see that Frankenstein’s ambition is on a whole different (and terrifying) level from Walton’s.
Victor Frankenstein’s boundless ambition motivates him to create the monster, and he is neither unaware nor shy about it. In Chapter 4, he proudly compares his ambition to that of others whose ambitions led to painful consequences on massive scales: “If no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Cæsar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.” Victor’s bold comparison of his own aspirations to the destruction of entire civilizations underscores just how huge and dangerous his ambition is. Only at the end of the novel (in “Walton, in Continuation”), after his ambition has led to the deaths of those dearest to him, does Frankenstein voice any regret about his uncontrolled ambition in a deathbed warning to Walton:
“Farewell, Walton! Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.”
And even here, he expresses regret only fleetingly (“Yet…”), as Frankenstein’s true self comes through again in his final words.
As the novel concludes, we can contrast the behavior of Frankenstein with that of Walton, who chooses to abandon his expedition, his ambition, and his dreams out of duty to his crew. Frankenstein’s real transgression is that he places his ambition above his responsibilities to other people.
Read explanations of quotes about the theme of The Consequences of Ambition.
The Effects of Isolation
Frankenstein suggests that social alienation and resulting isolation are the primary causes of evil, as well as its punishment. In Chapter 16, the monster explicitly says that his alienation and isolation from mankind have caused him to become a murderer: “My protectors had departed and had broken the only link that held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom.” His murders, however, only increase his alienation and isolation.
For Victor Frankenstein, too, isolation and alienation (albeit self-imposed in his case) cause him to make bad decisions and are also the punishment for those bad decisions. As Frankenstein creates the monster in Chapter 4, he is working alone, in a “solitary chamber, or rather cell.” Being “solitary” has caused his ambition to grow dangerously, but this isolation is already its own punishment: his laboratory feels like a “cell.” Once he has created the monster, Victor becomes even more alienated from the people around him because he can’t tell anyone about his creation.
Over the course of the novel, the monster and Victor both compare themselves to the character of Satan in John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost: alienation from God is both Satan’s crime and his punishment. The novel presents the idea that isolation and alienation from other people is caused, at root, by alienation from oneself. In Chapter 4, Alphonse Frankenstein points out the link between self-hatred and alienation in a letter to his son: “I know that while you are pleased with yourself, you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear regularly from you,” in essence saying that as long as a person feels they have self-worth, they will maintain contact with others. The monster feels that he is alienated from human society because he looks monstrous. But in Chapter 12, he first recognizes that he is ugly not through someone else’s judgement but through his own: “when I viewed myself in a transparent pool[…]I was filled with the bitterest sensations.”
At the end of the novel in “Walton, in Continuation,” with Victor dead, the monster is alone in the world. His alienation is complete, and so is his self-hatred as he says to Walton, “You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself.” The ultimate consequence of alienation is self-destruction. Frankenstein drives himself to death chasing the monster, while the monster declares his intention to kill himself.
Read explanations of quotes about the theme of The Effects of Isolation.
Parental Responsibility
Frankenstein presents family relationships as central to human life and strongly emphasizes parents’ responsibility to make sure their offspring are raised lovingly and well. In the novel, the dynamics presented within two families that receive the most focus in the novel—the Frankenstein family and the De Lacey family—are idealized to the point of near perfection. Meanwhile, most of the book’s horror and suffering is caused by characters losing their connection to their families or, in the case of the monster, not having a family or any parental figures in the first place (since Victor is essentially a terrible “father” to the creature that he and he alone brought into the world).
Victor never owns up to being a terrible parent, nor does he even properly acknowledge that he might be one. However, in Chapter 4 he does blame his isolation from his family (not his conceit or his unbounded ambition) for his disastrous decision to create the monster: “If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections… then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.” Interestingly, the monster, too (although far more plausibly), blames his suffering on the fact that he has no family: “I was dependent on none and related to none.” When the monster is trying to persuade Victor to create a companion for him, he argues that his lack of family relationships is what has caused him to become a murderer.
Victor’s deflection of blame and his unwillingness to own up to his parental responsibilities are even more damning when you consider the attitude he displays before creating the monster. In Chapter 4, as he contemplates the glory that he feels will be due to him as the progenitor of a new species, Victor imagines that “No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve” (the monster’s). But when Victor responds to the “birth” of his creation by immediately fleeing and then denying any responsibility for him, instead of being showered with gratitude, he and the being that he created will spend the rest of the novel trying to destroy each other.
Read explanations of quotes about the theme of Parental Responsibility.
The Nature of Goodness
In Frankenstein, the idea of goodness is primarily examined in the context of whether individual characters—mostly just Victor Frankenstein and the monster, but especially the latter—are innately good. We do see a few other characters being good, or at least (like Elizabeth) being innocent and not bad. Victor’s parents are held up to be good in the context of being caring parents, for instance, and it could be argued that Felix is a good person for saving Safie’s father’s life, even though he breaks the law to do so, for which he and his family are severely punished. A more developed example of a “good” character is Walton. We first see him as amiable but also possessed of the same intensity of ambition as Victor, a red flag warning us that—like Victor—he may put his ambitions ahead of the safety and well-being of others. In the end, however, Walton (literally and figuratively) turns around by putting the safety of those around him first, calling off his expedition, and heading for a safe port.
Victor serves as an almost perfect example of a person who is not good in the context of the novel, often by acting in stark contrast to characters whose goodness and good acts have been explicitly seen. Unlike his loving father and mother, he’s one of literature’s all-time worst parent figures (as is discussed in the theme Parental Responsibility above) as he cruelly abandons his creation. Most importantly though, whereas Walton succeeds in being able to set aside his personal ambitions for the better good, Victor time and time again fails to do so. Moreover, his pride, ambition, and conscious choice to deny accepting responsibility for his actions at multiple points in the novel directly lead to those dearest to him getting killed. The only possible defense for Victor is that his intentions are (or at least started out) good. But good intentions alone are not a path to goodness.
For most readers, it’s much easier to deem Victor bad than it is to decide if the monster is good or not. The unimaginably difficult situation he is placed in and his development as a character are far more complicated than is the case with Victor. The monster begins his existence as curious, benevolent, and eager to form relationships. We are shown how he cares deeply for the De Lacey family and contributes to their happiness by bringing them wood and doing other small tasks to make their lives easier. However, as he repeatedly experiences rejection, isolation, and cruelty from humankind, his capacity for goodness is transformed into a capacity for violence and revenge resulting in the murder of innocent young victims.
The monster’s extenuating circumstances along with what seems to be a genuine expression of regret at the end of the novel allow for the possibility of a more sympathetic reading of his violent acts. But in the end, whether the monster is innately good (a topic on which SparkNotes offers a brief essay) is up for debate.
Read explanations of quotes about the theme of The Nature of Goodness.
The Dangers of Forbidden Knowledge
Ambitious pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor Frankenstein attempts to surge beyond accepted human limits and access the secret of life. Likewise, Robert Walton attempts to surpass previous human explorations by endeavoring to reach the North Pole. But their ambitious pursuits of knowledge prove perilous to the two men. In a fulfillment of Shelley’s full title for the novel (Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus), Victor is punished for gaining possession of the secrets of life by experiencing the destruction of everyone dear to him. And while the exploration of the natural world seems like it might be less offensive to the powers of the universe than Victor’s pursuits, the dangers he faces—finding himself and his crew perilously trapped between sheets of ice—are no less severe.
Ultimately, how the two men react to the dangers they face because of their pursuit of forbidden knowledge parallels their experiences regarding the theme of The Consequences of Ambition (discussed above). In the end, Victor seems to learn nothing from his punishments, while Walton eventually abandons his treacherous mission—possibly having learned from Victor’s death just how destructive the thirst for knowledge can be.
Monstrosity as a Defining Concept
Since Frankenstein centers on the title character creating what is deemed a monster, the question of what that designation means is an important consideration in the novel. Eight feet tall and hideously ugly due to Victor literally stitching him together, the character known as “the monster” is immediately rejected not just by society overall, but by every character who encounters him (except for Walton), including his creator. However, they (except for Victor) are reacting only to the monster’s grotesque appearance since none of them know about the unnatural manner of his creation, which involved the secretive animation of a mix of stolen body parts and strange chemicals. But even if the monster weren’t repugnant to look at, it wouldn’t seem incorrect to describe him as monstrous due to the brutal killings of multiple young and innocent characters he carries out as he seeks revenge on Victor.
While he is the most literal monstrous element in the novel, the monster is not the only one. The designation could be applied to the quasi-scientific and quasi-supernatural knowledge used by Victor to create him. Furthermore, it has been argued that Victor is himself a kind of monster, as his ambition, secrecy, and selfishness alienate him from human society. Ordinary in appearance, he may be the true “monster” of the novel inside, as he is eventually consumed by an obsessive hatred of his creation. Finally, some critics have even described the novel itself as monstrous, since it is a stitched-together combination of different voices, texts, and tenses.
The Destructive Nature of Secrecy
Victor Frankenstein has many character flaws that help propel the narrative of the novel that are identified withn the themes discussed above. These include his unchecked ambition, lack of taking responsibility for his actions and for his creation, and his untethered pursuit of inherently dangerous knowledge. Another of Victor’s faults—one that acts to exacerbate his other shortcomings—is that he is also excessively secretive. As readers we become privy to a full accounting of his actions and secrets when he decides to reveal all to Walton. But it is significant that he only owns up to his deeds when he realizes he is dying, as it seems unlikely that he would be doing so if he were not at the end of his life.
Why Victor is so secretive is not entirely clear or straightforward, but we see this trait taking hold early in his story when he leaves home for Ingolstadt to study. There, he conceives of science as a mystery to be probed; its secrets, once discovered, must be jealously guarded. He considers M. Krempe, the natural philosopher he meets at Ingolstadt, a model scientist: “an uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of his science.” Later, Victor’s obsession with secrecy prevents him from stopping Justine’s execution when he decides he cannot clear her name by divulging the existence of the monster he has created out of fear of being labeled insane, or so he claims. This explanation could just be Victor covering up feelings of guilt. After Justine’s death, this trend continues as he neglects to warn either Henry or Elizabeth about the monster’s existence, a puzzling choice that leads to their deaths as well. Victor’s entire obsession with creating life is shrouded in mystery and secrecy, and his obsession with destroying the monster remains equally secret until Walton hears his tale.
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