Discusses the "Chinese box" narrative structure of *Frankenstein*, reviews critics' views on self-expression and desire displacement, points out that previous scholars believed multiple narratives dissolve unified meaning, and proposes a new insight that layered stories deepen common themes through spatial complementarity.

1　The "Chinese Box" Narrative Structure

Analyzes the "Chinese box" narrative structure of *Frankenstein*, noting that the novel creates a spatial juxtaposition effect through four layers of embedded narratives—Walton's letters, Frankenstein's account, the creature's autobiography, and Safie's story—breaking through the limitations of linear narration. This structure is not merely a superposition of stories but interrelates and supplements around the motif of "the Other," jointly constructing the text's rich connotations. The chapter further examines the narrative structure within the colonial context, pointing out that the four narrative layers respectively correspond to the Other's exploration, birth, assimilation, and revenge, metaphorically representing the entire set of colonial practices and their potential crises in European colonial expansion, which otherizes colonial peoples and implements cultural assimilation. Meanwhile, it reviews criticisms by scholars such as Spivak and Lu regarding the novel's imperialist discourse and Orientalist motifs, emphasizing the deep interactive relationship between narrative form and colonial themes.

2　The Exploration of the Other

Explores the navigator Walton's Arctic expedition motivation and its symbolic significance. Walton's determination to open a new route to the East embodies the colonial expansion ambitions of the 19th-century British Empire. Although the expedition fails due to ice barriers, this narrative layer forms multiple spatial juxtapositions with Frankenstein's creation of the creature, Safie's story, and the creature's tale. Walton's exploration of "the Other" constitutes a complete colonial allegory, carrying Mary Shelley's critique of British colonial practices and her profound concerns about their consequences.

3　The Birth of the Other

Discusses the multiple dimensions of Frankenstein's creature as a metaphor for the colonial "Other." First, from a spatial politics perspective, the places where the creature is created and exiled—the hidden laboratory, low hovel, desolate wilderness, and Arctic marginal zones—all signify his Other identity as an alien to European civilization. Second, drawing on Said's Orientalism theory, the creature's creation process analogizes how Europeans construct colonial Others: Frankenstein as "Creator" creates life by piecing together corpses, just as Orientalists reconstruct "dead" Eastern languages to fabricate an imagined East; both render the created as uglified, distorted passive objects. Third, the creature's yellow skin and gigantic physique concentrate Europeans' stereotypical imaginings of Asian and African colonial natives, while his moral transformation from "noble savage" to "fierce and brutal," though conforming to Europeans' dualistic stereotyping of natives, is revealed by the novel as actually caused by civilized society's exclusion and loneliness-induced despair. Ultimately, the ironic outcome that the creature learns to harm others precisely through learning Western civilization profoundly critiques the hypocrisy of colonial discourse, pointing out that so-called "civilization" is actually moral corruption, revealing the tragic fate of colonial peoples being defined, degraded, and oppressed.

4　The Assimilation of the Other

Analyzes the process of Arab maiden Safie's assimilation by European culture in the novel's third narrative layer, revealing how imperialism implements "epistemic violence" through Enlightenment rational discourse. Though Safie is an Eastern Other, she receives Western education, believes in Christianity and Enlightenment values, and ultimately abandons her native culture for Europe. Citing Spivak and Said's theories, the author points out that this assimilation precisely embodies the colonial project of European cultural hegemony transforming colonial subjects into "rational subjects." However, Mary Shelley's attitude toward Safie remains ambiguous—possibly conscious irony, or possibly unwitting entrapment in Orientalist discourse—manifesting the profound influence of what Jameson calls the "political unconscious" on creative production.

5　The Revenge of the Other

The creature's revenge against Frankenstein, enacted through killing his relatives and friends due to social exclusion, demonstrates the tragedy brought by Other identity. Meanwhile, this revenge is interpreted as symbolic resistance by the colonized against European colonial violence, combining with the history of anti-colonial uprisings in India, Egypt, and other places in the early 19th century to reveal Mary Shelley's profound anxiety and strong condemnation of the brutal retaliation triggered by British colonial expansion, ultimately implying the retreat of colonial rationality through Walton's return voyage.

6　Conclusion

Analyzes the colonial metaphor constructed by the "Chinese box" structure, reveals the operation of British colonial power, and expresses the author's humanist sympathy for colonial peoples and colonial critique.