The Letters

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Pages 1-14

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein opens with a series of letters exchanged between Robert Walton and his sister Margaret Saville. These letters set the story up in a very particular structure: a frame story. Walton is the first character introduced to the audience in the novel, and he is also the first narrator by which the story is told. It is through him that we receive our first glimpse of the creature and the first perception of Victor Frankenstein. The frame story structure of Frankenstein allows the reader to watch the story of its namesake unfold from different viewpoints. Instead of learning of Victor Frankenstein's plight directly, the audience is told the story through Frankenstein's recollection of the events that shaped his character."'You may easily perceive, Captain Walton, that I have suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes. I had determined, at one time, that the memory of these evils should die with me, but you have won me to alter my determination,'" (Shelley, 13).

In addition to an indirect understanding of the story, the frame story structure of the novel offers room for bias to appear. This bias can occur in the retelling of the story because it is told through a personal perception and then recorded by yet another person. Therefore, the reader is the second person to hear the story from the original source which calls in to question its reliability. It also allows for certain details to be exaggerated or underplayed; however, the reader, as with most literary works, has the responsibility to interpret and understand the work according to his own ascertainment.