Frankenstein Essay

Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel A gothic novel is a story that is enriched with an ominous dark setting. The novel is entrenched with many mysterious atmospheres, horrifying events, and supernatural terrors. Mary Shelley does an excellent job of portraying what a gothic novel is in her bestselling novel Frankenstein. Mary uses examples such as weather, passion driven by a villain, horrifying events, and the supernatural to indulge the reader in this gothic novel; by using these very important elements in her book. Mary evokes both horror and fear in the reader creating a Goth feel.
The extreme weather helps exemplify a gothic novel. Throughout the book Frankenstein the weather predicts of what evil is to come in different chapters of the book. Mary Shelley uses the weather to help readers get a better image of Gothic literature. Throughout the chapters the weather is used to portray victor’s emotions and guilt as he grows as a character in the book. As the audience reads the book they will begin to identify that Victor emotions goes with the bad weather. Mary Shelley uses lightning to foreshadow the miserable feelings that Victor Frankenstein encounters when believing that the creature he created murdered his brother William." A flash of lightning illuminated the object and discovered its shape plainly to me,"(Shelley 67) telling by this quote a flash of lightning is symbolic of Victor's self being because Mary Shelley wanted readers to think that the shadow Frankenstein saw was the creature but in actuality it was the self-image of himself. Another example of weather being used in this book "The wind...rose with great violence in the west... Suddenly a heavy storm of rain descended." (Shelley 185) Wind and rain is used to foreshadow of what danger is going to transpire on this day. This horrible day was Elizabeth and Victor's wedding day. The wind and rain predicted of the dangers that were going to appear and the weather played as warnings to Victor of something tragic about to take place. Unfortunately the weather was right about what was going to happen because later on readers find out it was not Victor the creature wanted but instead took the life of Elizabeth. The significance of the weather plays a vital role in Gothic literatures to help create the mood in different scenes of the book. Alongside with weather Mary Shelley also uses a passion driven by a villain to help turn Frankenstein into a gothic novel. Another gothic element used in this novel is a passion driven by a villain. Mary Shelley uses the main character Victor Frankenstein to play the role as the villain. Throughout the book readers see the real side of Victor and how he plays the role of a two dynamic character. Readers will start to notice the drastic change in which Victor undergoes from the beginning of the book. "I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of the part of the world never before visited,"(Shelley 61) telling by this quote Victors interests changes as soon as he is interested and intrigued by creating life. Victor is adamant on creating life and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal even at the cost of losing his friends and family to his work. His passion for life instantly turns into a crazy obsession, needing to prove something to himself that the world will appreciate him for. Towards the end of the book the dynamics change and it is the creature who is the one with the passion but for all the wrong reasons. "If you comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace, but if you refuse I will gut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends,"(Shelley 121) the Creature is driven by a passion; this passion is driven by anger and animosity towards someone, the wrong passion to have. The Creature is determined to get what he demands from his Creator because he feels Victor owes it to him as his creator. In addition to driven passions by someone evil, the supernatural is among one of the gothic elements. The main focus Mary Shelley was trying to lure her readers was the fact on bringing something back to life (the supernatural). Mary Shelley was trying to create science that was not created in her time. Still to this day we do not have the medical advances to try to bring the dead alive. Since Mary saw science experiments happening in her time, that is where she got her idea of creating life back into someone and Victor Frankenstein would be the perfect character to play that role of bringing the dead alive. “I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay on my feet,” (Shelley 68) Victor tries to achieve the goal of creating life back into the dead. Frankenstein plays with the law of science because of a simple occurrence that happened to him and intrigued him. The fact that Victor achieved his goal in creating life into his creature is something science has never achieved before. “ I had worked hard for two years for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body,”(Shelley 74) Frankenstein does not start on a whole body, he decides to create life by using different body parts of different people and bringing them into one person. Frankenstein creating his creature from start to finish is the essence of the supernatural and by doing so Mary Shelley took science to a whole new meaning through her book, Frankenstein which is a perfect example of a Gothic Novel. Not only is the supernatural an element of gothic literature but also terrifying events. With a Gothic Novel comes with horrifying events in the book. Through this book plenty of events take place that are horrible and disturbing but the two that had a major impact on Victor is the death of his friend Henry and his wife Elizabeth. Every time there is a horrible event that has occurred readers will soon notice the pattern of Victor not taking responsibility for his actions and putting peoples life’s at risk. “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed other victims await their destiny, but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor,” (Shelley 189) telling by this quote this hurt Victor more than the other deaths that had happened. Victor explained that the other two was bound to happen but not Henrys death. He was completely shocked that the creature would go this far and kill someone so innocent as Henry who did absolutely nothing to the Creature, Henry’s death was simply out of revenge. The Creature had so much anger in him that forced him to kill an innocent man whom had done no wrong to him. “Why did I not then expire! Why am I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature on earth? She was there, lifeless and inanimate,”(Victor215) by this quote reader can realize the monster had killed his innocent wife and Victor is shocked and feels helpless. Victor realizes it was not him the creature was after it was his loved ones he wanted. The Creature wanted to hurt Victor the same way Victor had hurt him and the only way to destroy Victor was to hurt the people he loved. It is horrifying to know that the creature killed all his loved ones, especially Henry and Elizabeth out of revenge. These horrifying events are the cause of one person alone and that is Victor. He is the one who murdered these innocent lives, creating the creature came with the price of losing his loved ones. In conclusion it is evident that Frankenstein is indeed a gothic novel. This is obvious because of the menacing setting which it uses and it supernatural terrors that it consist of. The usage of Mary Shelley’s weather, passion driven by a villain, horrifying events, and supernatural activity exploits the themes and meaning of what a true gothic novel is. Mary Shelley makes this a gothic novel by the way she uses the elements to induce the fear and horror in the book to grasp the reader’s attention.