Frankenstein Book Report

Most books have good and happy endings, but not this one. The feeling of terror is created throughout the story, and in the end, it was terror plus sadness. The story is also special in its order of events as its opening and ending parts echo.

The story started with the main character Frankenstein being saved by the captain of a boat. The captain of the boat is himself lost and desperate in finding a route back and the route of his life. Once safe on the boat, Frankenstein starts to tell the captain his life-story. The whole story is written in a flash-back form. The story is first narrated by the captain, then Frankenstein becomes the narrator when he starts to tell his story to the captain. Near the end of the story, the captain becomes the narrator again and tells of how he finally finds his own routes; and the monster- the antagonist of the story Frankenstein created, killed himself out of regret and guilt. The monster hates Frankenstein for creating him and has killed his creator’s whole family. The monster escapes and Frankenstein pursues. At the end of the story, when Frankenstein is about to die, the monster has a good chance of killing his creator, yet he cries and stays beside his creator’s sick bed and commits suicide after Frankenstein’s death.

The use of a circular structure by the author is noteworthy. Frankenstein becomes the narrator to a good part of the story while in the end, the captain takes charge as the narrator again. This change in narration created a feeling of ‘rounding-up the story’, thus allowing the readers to expect and look forward to the coming of the end of the story. It is also a nice way to reconnect and remind the readers to the beginning of the story, creating resonance back and forth.