Storytelling in Frankenstein

When we are children, we are sometimes told stories that have been retold throughout our family’s generations. Because we can retell stories, hundreds of them are centuries old but are still known today.  These stories we hear can sometimes spark our imagination. In Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley lets the reader know that she was inspired to write this novel after hearing and reading about ghost stories during one of her summer vacations.  She expresses her feelings towards these stories by saying “These tales excited [me] in a playful desire” (Shelley 12). During her vacation, the season was cold and rainy so, for entertainment her and her friends would gather around a fire and tell these stories. Her intrigue for them led her to write this Frankenstein.

The letters Mary Shelley incorporated into her novel were written by the character Robert Walton. He wrote those letters to his sister in order to keep her informed of his voyage to the North Pole. He tells her of his encounter of a stranger in the middle of the iced sea and how he took him onto his boat. Later in the letters, Walton says that the stranger was going to tell him his story. I found it interesting that Mary Shelley would incorporate storytelling so much into her novel. After reading the letters, I realized a connection between Mary Shelley’s experience with storytelling and the way the letters were framed. Walton’s sister read the letters written of her brother’s stories just like Shelley read and listened to other people’s ghost stories. In addition, we know Walton will later become the writer and listener of the stranger’s stories when he states “He then told me that he would commence his narrative the next day” (Shelley 26). When he writes about the stories, not only does he become the listener, but his sister does to. I believe Shelley intended to portray the oral tradition of storytelling through Walton and the stranger in a unique way.