Audience In Frankenstein Essay Research Paper The — страница 2

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outside of her daily life (Walton s sea voyage), rather than imparting news from the world within. She is simply the receiver of information, without transgressing the bounds of her own life. Her brother serves as a source of knowledge beyond the limits of her own personal consciousness, while she is tucked away safely at home, far from the isolated and desolate lands of ice and snow that her brother experiences. She can read about it from the comfort of her own environment. Also, we never learn what her reaction to the whole tale actually is, so Walton also serves as a window into what that may be. Walton implies in his last letters that she will have visitings of despair and yet be tortured by hope (202). In the same paragraph, however, he also states that she may be happy with

her husband and children; not necessarily happy about hearing such a horrifying tale, but happy nonetheless. So then, the reader never knows how Walton s audience of Margaret feels about everything she has just learned via his letters. We do know, however, how we feel about the whole story, so it can be deduced that since Margaret is the closest representation of the reader, perhaps her reaction would be similar to that of the reader s. Robert Walton Robert Walton functions as the audience to Victor Frankenstein s narration of devastation and destruction once he has boarded Walton s vessel and been revived. Walton has expressed his want for a mate or companion in his letters to his sister and meeting Victor Frankenstein seems to be the answer to his longing. At this point,

Frankenstein becomes a character in Walton s story, but will soon become a source of knowledge beyond Walton s reach. Walton s sentiments of longing are reflective of many eighteenth-century heroines, illustrating his assumed role as the passive and figuratively female receiver of the male Frankenstein s tale. Similarly to his sister s role as the recipient of knowledge beyond her own consciousness through his letters, he is able to live vicariously through Frankenstein s story. Walton, in this case, experiences what it would be like to make a scientific breakthrough of the magnitude of Frankenstein s creation of a life, without actually carrying it out. Walton has gone on this voyage in search of great things and while he seems to be lacking in his discoveries, his new-found

companion has completed what Walton may consider to be the ultimate of scientific advancements. Walton, however, as audience to Frankenstein s tale, is shielded from the horror that has resulted from this dissent into material, or scientific, knowledge. He, similarly to his sister, is safely confined from the consequences stemming from Frankenstein s creation, while still in awe of what has actually transpired. Given Walton s position as the shielded receiver of knowledge, then, he is able to deduce the moral of Frankenstein s story. Frankenstein warns him that his pursuit of scientific knowledge and understanding may not be for the better, as it has ruined his own life. Walton, then, remains in this passive role, as the receiver of Frankenstein s tale of terror, while still

remaining within the safety of the bounds of his own life. Victor Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein assumes the role of the audience when his creature speaks to him, as well as when he witnesses his own creature s destruction throughout the book. He is the audience to his own creature s autobiographical narrative, of which he plays the parts of creator and listener. Frankenstein is immediately forced into the role of the passive receiver of what the creature has to say, especially since the creature is of such greater physical strength than he is himself. The creature assumes a physically dominant role, similar to that of traditional male-female relationship in which the male is traditionally physically stronger than the female counterpart, indicating the gendering of the

teller-audience roles in this case. Frankenstein s powerlessness against his monster is also a part of the deaths that have occurred among those close to him at the hands of his own creation. Even though he does not know for sure that the destruction of lives was due to the life he created, he has an instinct of guilt and fear from the beginning. He was seemingly unable to prevent the deaths of those whom he loved and thus played a passive role in saving their lives, being able to do nothing but observe in terror. So then, the power that he has relinquished in creating the creature, he is able to exert in telling his story to Walton, in hopes of preventing another catastrophe due to the desire for scientific achievement. The creature s words to Frankenstein emphasize what