Mary Shelley uses various types of language to create atmosphere throughout the chapter. Shelley uses metaphors such as,’ my candle was nearly burnt out’, This has a double meaning: that his candle is actually burning low on its wick and that Frankenstein has been running out of time and patience while creating the creature, which has led him to exhaustion. This language creates tension as it gives the reader the impression that something spooky or horrifying is going to happen because it sets the scene that Frankenstein is sat in the dark, working on the creature by the light of one small candle; that soon will sizzle out and he will be left in the dark, on his own.
Pathetic Fallacy is used by Shelley to set the scene at the beginning of chapter five, such as ‘Dreary night of November’ and ‘Dim yellow light of the moon’ are used because these are classic horror genre conventions and they use imagery to set a picture of how unnatural the moon looks and how dark and scary the dreary night’s sky is. Shelley uses imagery to give us a picture of Frankenstein and the creations personality. She gives the impression that because Frankenstein has been working so hard on this creation that it is driving him to insanity, this is shown by quotations such as. ’I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms.’ This makes the reader think that the creation is driving him to insanity, and this gives the reader a bad impression of the creation. When Shelley uses emotive language such as ‘Anxiety that almost amounted to agony.’ We start to feel emotion for Frankenstein as he has been working for so long on this creature become obsessed with the creature. He has become obsessed, and worried that his whole life’s work is going to be ruined by him getting caught, as in the novel it is illegal to create life and play