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Frankenstein: The Protagonist of Frankenstein 398 Views
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Description:
The protagonist of Frankenstein is obviously Frankenstein...or is it Walton? ...Or maybe it’s the creature… We’d say nothing’s ever easy, but what could be easier than clicking on the video to find out?
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:04
Why had the world condemned me?
- 00:09
Because I was the first man to create another living being.
- 00:17
The first unnatural man.
- 00:20
Frankenstein a la Shmoop
Full Transcript
- 00:23
Who is the protagonist in Frankenstein?
- 00:27
This is a question that you'll get asked all the time.
- 00:29
Who's the protagonist? Who's the antagonist?
- 00:31
And the answer's always just that it depends
- 00:33
on what you think.
- 00:34
So, you know, yes there are wrong answers.
- 00:37
But with Frankenstein, we have basically three possible answers
- 00:40
for who the protagonist is of the book.
- 00:42
We have Walton, the one who's telling the story.
- 00:45
In reality, it is his story.
- 00:47
It starts with him and ends with him.
- 00:49
And Walton is the only one in the entire book
- 00:53
who turns back when he realizes
- 00:57
that his pursuit of knowledge is getting out of hand.
- 00:59
He's on his way to make big discoveries,
- 01:02
and then he realizes it's not gonna end well
- 01:04
and he turns back.
- 01:05
He's the only one in the story to make that realization.
- 01:08
We could call Victor Frankenstein the protagonist.
- 01:11
He is the one who created life,
- 01:14
so we can kind of say he's the one who created the story.
- 01:16
This is the story about how his actions are going to turn out.
- 01:21
And he does go out on a semi-admirable note.
- 01:24
We could say that the Monster is the protagonist.
- 01:26
He, in the end, is really the one we're rooting for.
- 01:31
And, you know, that's kind of a big part of the protagonist.
- 01:33
Is the person, even if they're terrible and evil
- 01:36
and Satanic in this case --
- 01:38
If we can get behind them and root for them
- 01:41
as the hero,
- 01:43
then they can be called the protagonist.
- 01:45
We can also, in order to determine the protagonist,
- 01:47
try and figure out who the antagonist is.
- 01:49
Is the antagonist science? Is it fate?
- 01:52
Is it Victor Frankenstein?
- 01:54
So depending on who we think the antagonist is,
- 01:57
the protagonist changes.
- 01:58
Why it matters is because
- 02:01
if we think of the monster as the protagonist...
- 02:04
He kills like eight-ish people by the end of the book.
- 02:08
There's a really large body count in this book.
- 02:11
We don't really notice it when we're reading,
- 02:13
because it's written in fancy 19th century prose,
- 02:16
but it's a pretty violent book.
- 02:17
And if our protagonist is someone who kills
- 02:20
Victor's entire family,
- 02:22
what are we supposed to think about that?
- 02:24
So it kind of does create some,
- 02:26
you know, ethical issues, depending on who we think of as the protagonist.
- 02:29
- Yeah. Almost an antihero. - Yes, definitely an antihero.
- 02:33
Who is the protagonist in Frankenstein?
- 02:36
Who or what is the antagonist in Frankenstein?
- 02:40
Why does it matter?
- 02:44
Why had the world condemned me?
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