Literary Elements: Dramatic Irony - Complications
Dramatic Irony
There are multiple examples of dramatic irony throughout the novel.
One instance is when Justine is found guilty of William's murder, but the readers (and Victor) know that she isn't guilty of it. Another example is when the monster threatens VIctor by saying "I will be with you on your wedding night". Victor believes he is going to kill him, however the reader should realize that the monster truly means that he will kill Elizabeth. When Victor washes up on Mr. Kirwin's island, he does not realize that the people are being hostile to him, while the reader does. |
Tragic Irony
Tragic irony is another form of dramatic irony, which is used to push the story along in a tragedy.
Due to Frankenstein being the one telling Walton the story, we know that any time he thinks he will die due to the monster, he won't. Such as the point with Victor thinking the monster will kill him when he really kills Elizabeth, that pushes the events forward and causes Victor to seek revenge. He does end up dying, but not in the way that he thinks he will, as he believes he will be killed by the monster when he really dies of natural causes. |
Plot
Frankenstein is told by a ship captain who picked up a stray person, who turns out to be Frankenstein, and he tells him how he ended up there. Frankenstein is obsessed with life and figuring out how to create it, so he made a creature out of body parts. After making it, it scares him and he runs away. He believes he is free of the monster until he gets a letter that his brother is dead, and on his way home he sees the monster, who he believes killed him. Justine Moritz is them executed for the murder, and Victor feels guilty for the two deaths. He takes a vacation in the mountains and encounters the monster, who admits that he killed William and is lonely, and asks for a mate. He heads to England with Henry, and then goes to a desolate island to try to create the new monster. He then gets scared of the possibilities and destroys it, with the monster swearing revenge. Victor washes up on an island and is arrested for a murder, and the victim turns out to be Henry Clerval, and Victor falls ill and is kept in prison until he recovers, when he is acquitted. He returns to Geneva to marry Elizabeth, but suspects that he will be murdered so he sends Elizabeth away so he can kill the monster, but he hears a scream and it turns out the monster murdered Elizabeth. His dad then dies of grief. He then chases the monster on the ice, and the story is caught up to the beginning. Victor shortly dies of illness and Walton finds the monster weeping over his body, and he then goes off to die by himself.
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Crisis
A crisis is the point in a story where the conflict reaches its highest point and has to be resolved.
In Frankenstein, this is probably when the monster kills Elizabeth. All the other deaths had been leading up to that point, and it finally throws Victor over the edge. He devotes the rest of his life to finding and killing his monster, so it is all downhill from there. There are only two ways that conflict can be resolved, and it is either with Frankenstein's death or the monster's death. The crisis is eventually resolved, with Victor dying and the monster later dying. |
Complications
There are many complications in Frankenstein that help push the action of it along. Mostly all of them are deaths of assorted characters, but a few are not. The first complication is when the monster scares Frankenstein and he runs away from it. Arguably without Frankenstein getting scared, the story would not have happened. The next complications are William and Justine's deaths, which increase Victor's hatred towards his creation. Another one is when he meets the monster in the mountains and it asks for a companion, which makes Victor have a dilemma that he has to figure out. Other complications are Henry's death, Elizabeth's death, his dad's death, and being rescued by the boat.
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