How does Shelley use the structural technique of the frame story in Frankenstein?

She uses letters to introduce the main narrative.

She allows one character to be omniscient.

She tells the story using flashback

She creates tension between narrators.

The frame story serves to highlight the contrast between Frankenstein, the mad scientist, and normal, decent society, as represented by Robert Walton. Though Walton has much in common with Frankenstein, as we shall see, there's no way in a million years he would ever entertain the kind of deranged fantasies in which Victor has indulged. In that sense, Walton acts as a foil to Victor, and the use of a frame story is an especially effective means of bringing out the personal characteristics that set him apart from the crazed scientist.

The employment of a frame story also serves to make Victor's actions and their disastrous consequences seem more real, less fantastical than they otherwise would be were they to be related in a more conventional narrative structure.

The main connection between Victor and Walton is that they are both quite lonely souls, isolated from society by their singular personalities and their single-minded pursuit of scientific truth. That is why they instantly connect ...