Frankenstein has a cyclic structure demonstrated through parallelism and foreshadowing. Walton’s letters to his sister showcase two men possessed with such lofty goals that even death would not diminish their greatness. Walton’s obsession with finding a new passage through the Arctic mirrors Frankenstein’s obsession with immortality. As Victor’s journey comes to an end, Walton’s has just begun.

Walton “elevates [Victor]… above any other person”, encompassing “extraordinary merit”[i] , which foreshadows Frankenstein’s desire as Creator, which had been at the heart of his studies since childhood.

Foreshadowing is a key element in the early chapters of Victor’s story, with the often repeated word animation, along with numerous references to life, death, and celestial objects: “…guardian angel of my life… Destiny… an omen”[ii], “Angel of Destruction”[iii] and “…such the words of fate, enounced to destroy me…”[iv]  Frankenstein wishes to control heaven and earth, and in his Herculean quest, he ignores nature and family, his singular ties to reality: “… the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends…”[v] . Through his recollection to Walton, Victor reveals that the inevitability of his disastrous path occurs before the monster ever awakens. This tale must end in horror, shown not only through Victor’s allusions, but because he appears on the brink of death at Walton’s first encounter.

This ultimate irony is only recognizable by those who know the tale’s end before the stranger ever speaks, an impossibility whose significance cannot be appreciated by the characters, but which reflects the novel’s cyclic nature:

“We attempted to carry him… [and] he fainted. We accordingly brought him back to the deck, and restored him to animation by rubbing him with brandy…”[vi]

In a true reversal of structure, the novel begins near the end and ends shortly after it began, with despair as the only constant, and an ever-present cycle of beginning and end, life and death.

 

[i] Frankenstein, second edition, with Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, including both the 1831 and 1818 introductions by Mary and Percy Shelley, respectively, Edited by Johanna M. Smith, p. 39

[ii] Frankenstein, p. 49

[iii] Frankenstein, p. 51

[iv] Frankenstein, p. 53

[v] Frankenstein, p. 59

[vi] Frankenstein, pp. 35 and 36