It was a delusion

[Chris]

That is a very interesting view point. I've never heard that particular analysis but if it were true I think it'd make the book much better.

[Steph]

The fact that Walton saw the monster too makes it harder to argue the point... and there is physcal evidence but you could argue that Franky wrote it when he was having a fit or something. And we are reading this from Frankenstein's perspective; he's really the one telling the story, so we're not sure of it's accuracy. Anyway I like this story very much, and am exploring this topic in my thesis paper. I certainly wouldn't mind any help :)

[Pam]

Mary Shelley was great at doing research before writing a word. Her family was rife with mental illness and indeed even the King of England was insane at this time.<br><br>Dr. Frankenstein's monster lived in his own head. It never truly existed in corporeal form. The good Dr. performed all the murders during psychotic breaks.<br><br>The only other person who see's the monster was the also nutty Capt. Walton and that can be found in the DSM IV under "Folie a Deux" (a shared delusion)