How would you talk about this if it was the view out of your window? How would you talk about this if it was hanging in a museum?

Characters are not real people, either.

What are some of the words or phrases that make it clear that what is being discussed is not reality?

What is the next logical way to extend the analysis of the character as a fictional construct, besides discussing reader reaction?

The following example is a nice, solid paragraph EXCEPT when it comes to analyzing character as a fictional construct. Annotate how they could mention the same ideas but make small changes to phrasing to make clear that this is something created by an author for the consumption of a reader.

This person does have the character-as-fictional problem but before they can deal with that, they need to deal with the amount of plot discussion. This person is prioritizing listing events and including multiple quotes rather than digging in and pulling apart the crux of the prompt. Begin by changing their claim. Then recommend parts they should expand and cut out.

Empathy with Victor as a character cannot be impossible. As the protagonist of the novel, Frankenstein, some empathy must be instilled in his character or Mary Shelly can have no hope of sustaining any reader to the end. She makes empathy challenging with him at points but this serves primarily to make him a complex main character rather than a heroic one. An oft-cited moment that many readers find intolerable is when, as first person narrator, Victor pushes our ability to align with him to the very brink by describing Elizabeth as a “…promised gift [that he] with childish seriousness…looked on as [his—his] to protect, love and cherish” (21). The word “gift” dehumanizes Elizabeth and seems to indicate an arrogance that is unforgivable. But Shelly tempers it with the narrator’s own self-deprecating term of “childish” which indicates an awareness of wrong-doing. Further softening the blow, the desire to care for her comes immediately afterward, creating for the reader an image of Victor as a character that is well-intentioned. This juxtaposition of selfish entitlement, regret and love make for a character that feels multi-layered and therefore, interesting. Shelley could have written a simple ghost story with a conquering hero but we wouldn’t likely be reading it a century later.