The Physiognomic Dilemma of Sympathy in Frankenstein and its Problematization through Embedded Narrative

Within the cultural context of eighteenth-century moral sentiment philosophy and physiognomic discourse, sympathy was commonly understood as a sensory mechanism dependent on visibility and perceived similarity, thereby excluding those marked by physical anomaly from the sphere of ethical response. By constructing a non-human being whose human resemblance fails to secure recognition, Frankenstein exposes the exclusionary logic of physiognomic sympathy. Through an embedded narrative structure characterized by narrative delay and multiple acts of representation, the novel foregrounds sympathy’s formation, obstruction, and failure as a structural condition of narration itself. Rather than resolving the ethical impasse it stages, the novel problematizes it, prompting readers to recognize how sympathy is mediated, distorted, and selectively distributed within prevailing regimes of perception and discourse. In doing so, Frankenstein transforms sympathy from an immediate emotional reaction into a reflective capacity for ethical judgment.