This theme of not being able to cope with a tremendous problem is common throughout the book. From when his mom dies of sickness and when Justine is killed for the murder of his brother, Victor Frankenstein faces a lot of terrible situations that most people only have to deal with once or twice in their lives. But Victor seems to face something bad again and again. And yet, he continues to stay alive, always on the brink of insanity.
What I found very interesting about the way this book is written is how relatable the narrator, Victor, seems to become. Since he has a problem that he can't talk about with anyone else in fear that he'll be called crazy, he relies on his writing to talk about what he's going through. And this is something almost everyone has done in their lives. When we have no one to talk about our problems, we sometimes write it out in a journal or in a word document. So when we read about the tortures Victor went through, we feel even more connected with him, because we can relate to the type of circumstance he's in. I imagine Mary Shelley didn't do this subconsciously, because she also used the "written letter" plot device which instantly lets the reader know how the characters think/write. And, using what we talked about it class, it's like the gothic version of the "handheld camera". It's sort of cheap but effective in putting the audience right in the character's mind.
