Frankenstein Ambiguous Narrator

Within the first page of Frankenstein, Shelley instructs the reader in how to read her novel by having a rather ambiguous narrator until the end of the first letter. The ambiguous narrator aids in presenting a tone of curiosity that is prevalent throughout the rest of the novel, as well as Shelley sets up the use of weather as a tool to change the tone of the novel as well as the emotions of her characters. Shelley first uses an ambiguous narrator to give clues as to how to read Frankenstein. The only clue as to who the narrator might be on the first page is after the author of the letter tells the recipient, Mrs. Saville, about the landscape of where he is venturing, when he says “There—for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in preceding navigators” (7). By only addressing the narrator as the brother of Mrs. Saville, Shelley leaves who is telling the story at the beginning of the novel up to the reader’s imagination as it is unclear if the narrator is indeed Victor Frankenstein, or some other man. By doing this, Shelley sets up a tone of curiosity within the first page of Frankenstein, which continues throughout the novel as seen with Victor’s

The narrator explains that he, “...shall satiate [his] ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man” (7). The narrator’s curiosity in discovery exemplifies the curious tone set for in the first page of the novel by explaining his want to explore and go places man has never gone before. This type of curiosity serves as one instruction on how to read the novel in that curiosity plays an important role in developing the plot of the story, such as with Frankenstein’s monster developing a curiosity for the cottagers he discovers further into the novel, and subsequently a curiosity for