Transcript Frankenstein  (frame tale, frame narrative, etc.) is a narrative technique whereby a main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose.

Frankenstein

(frame tale, frame narrative, etc.)
is a narrative technique whereby a
main story is composed, at least in
part, for the purpose of organizing a
set of shorter stories, each of which
is a story within a story -- or for
surrounding a single story within a
story

This literary device acts as a
convenient conceit for the
organization of a set of smaller
narratives which are either of the
devising of the author, or taken from
a previous stock of popular tales
slightly altered by the author for the
purpose of the longer narrative.

Sometimes a story within the
main narrative can be used to
sum up or encapsulate some
aspect of the framing story.
Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein
is a good example of a book with
multiple framed narratives.
 In
the book, Robert Walton
writes letters to his sister
describing the story told to
him by Victor Frankenstein;
Frankenstein's story contains
the monster's story.

Frame stories are often organized as a
gathering of people in one place for the
exchange of stories. Each character tells
his or her tale, and the frame tale
progresses in that manner. Historically
famous frame stories include Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales, about a group of
pilgrims who tell stories on their
journey to Canterbury;

When there is a single story, the frame
story is used for other purposes -- chiefly
to position the reader's attitude toward
the tale. One common purpose is to draw
attention to the narrator's unreliability.
By explicitly making the narrator a
character within the frame story, the
writer distances himself from the
narrator; he may also characterize the
narrator to cast doubt on his truthfulness
A
specialized form of the
frame is a dream vision,
where the narrator claims to
have gone to sleep, dreamed
the events of the story, and
then woke to tell the tale.


Another use is a form of
procatalepsis (a rhetorial device in
which the writer raises an objection
and then immediately answers it),
where the writer puts the readers'
possible reactions to the story in the
characters listening to it