Unfortunately, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, though did publish several other works, is only well publicized for her novel “Frankenstein.” In this novel she does a fantastic job of intertwining many different literary devices so that together they can create the mysteriousness and curiosity that thrives in us all and that helps us relate as individuals to the novel. Some of these literary devices include epistolary, personification, and allusions to popular authors of the time.

The good majority of this novel, even from the very beginning, is being told through letters that Victor writes to his family, specifically his sister, and one of his old colleagues. This form of writing a novel, through the compilation of letters to narrate the story, is called epistolary. Because so much of the novel is written in this way it provides insight to the true nature and the way that Victor actually feels throughout this life altering experience. The letters also provide depth into the time period that the novel is set in and they allow for the scene to be better adjusted.

Another literary device that is very prevalent in this novel is the use of personification. It is quite a comparison in the novel that is created when this literary device is utilized. This is because the definition of personification is to give human and life-like characteristics to inanimate objects. Well, the creature is composed of objects that were once inanimate and dead and now he is literally a walking personification. Some examples of Shelley’s use of personification include this one, “her lips, they became livid with the hue of death.” This giving of characteristics contributes to the overall theme of death and life in the novel and helps the protagonist to distinguish between the two better.

The last literary device, which is probably most commonly used throughout the novel, would be the use of allusions to different popular authors of the time. Interestingly enough, many of the authors that Shelley refers to in her novel, she actually grew up around and is very familiar with their works. For example, “…and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me:-- ‘Like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.’’’ This was taken from Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”