“All things totally wicked start from innocence” (BrainyQuote.com). Throughout the beginning of Frankenstein, Victor tries to do good by creating a “monster” to stop people from dying. It is through these actions the Gothic elements can be seen. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein with such an eerie feeling, critics still value her work. “It is a hair-raising, chilling story of terror that more than an century and a half after Mary put down her pen still has the power to fascinate, frighten, and haunt its reader” (askwillonline.com). The Gothic elements can be found in Frankenstein through the atmosphere, Victor’s actions, and the creature itself.
One way the Gothic elements are revealed in Frankenstein is through the atmosphere. For example,
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Shelley does an excellent job with Victor’s character because she creates him through her own experiences with modern science (mytholyoke.edu). Throughout the story, Victor tries to go above and beyond to learn new scientific studies, and that leads him into trying doing the impossible; raising the living from the dead (mytholyoke.edu). Gothic novels tend to focus on mysteries and supernatural doings, and Shelley uses that of a mysterious circumstance to allow Victor to create the monster (cliffnotes.com). Victor first starts out by going out and gathering body parts for his experiment, which gives the book an eerie feeling right from the start (cliffnotes.com). The outcome of the experiment results in a monster that is “the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature,” this allows readers to visualize the creature as having abnormal qualities (askwillonline.com). “Frankenstein brings into a creature who, though not innately evil, is a torment to himself and to others precisely because he is without companionship and a sexual counterpart” (Bloom 29). The monster is without a companion and that results in him having many interactions with Victor because he is determined to kill anybody close to Victor until Victor can create him a partner (askwillonline.com). The creature was not born evil but with the misconceptions of humans, he became isolated from society which turned him into a …show more content…
The appearance of the monster led society to misunderstand him. He appears to be horrifying; therefore, no one ever befriends him. “He strives for friends, yet his disturbing appearance causes him to fail and be shunned by humans” (briancroxall.net). It is a common myth that the creature is green and walks like a zombie. Many people believe this simply due to the movies that were made about the novel. In the actual novel, the creature is a dull yellow color and is unevenly stitched together. His nails and his lips are black, and his body is disproportioned (Shelley 43). Due to his appearance and his loneliness, he eventually seeks revenge on his creator and goes on murderous rampages. The creature was upset that everyone in the world had rejected him and he wanted Victor to feel the same way so he went on a killing streak and killed off Victor’s family. “The monster came out of his hiding place and put his arms around the child. The boy screamed in terror” (Harris 91). The murder of William gets blamed on Justine, and she later gets hung for it. Victor knows it was the monster, so he feels guilty and decides he must stop the monster’s killing. Victor agrees to meet with the creature where the creature requested Victor make him a mate so he wouldn’t be lonely. Victor refuses, but later attempts. After all the work and madness that he put into the second creature he ends up destroying her. The monster states: “It
Rousseau's ideology of education and nature laid the basic groundwork for many of the Gothic novels. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, was able to forge a bridge of thought that was able to span the chasm formed by the age of reason between the supernatural and reason. As a predecessor of the romantic movement, the Gothic novel was a direct reaction against the age of reason. The predominate idea of the age being that the world which is governed by nature is rationally ordered and given man's ability to reason, analyze and understand nature, man possesses the innate ability to use nature to create a rational society based on nature's dominate principles. The Gothic novel allowed the reader to pass from reason and order of the day to a region born of the supernatural which inspired dread and abounds in death and decay as nature's only true end.
Using gothic conventions Frankenstein explores Mary Shelley’s personal views on the scientific developments, moral and economical issues that occurred during the 19th century and Shelley’s personal emotions and questions regarding her life. As an educated person, Mary Shelley had an interest in the development of the world such as political and moral issues and she challenged these issues in the novel.
There is one common thread throughout Victor Frankenstein’s behavior in the novel: he is ruled by his passions. From the beginning of the novel, he is unrestrained and unbalanced, and his major action in the novel is an expression of the fundamentally selfish and presumptuous desire to create life. As he says, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source...” (Shelley 55). He wants to be lauded by the world as the first and only man who could create life. This desire to be special and noticed stops him from contemplating that there might be a reason that no one else has created life before. Once the creature has come to life, Victor is overpowered by fear and unable to provide care for him, an action of fundamental irresponsibility that is almost as reckless as his initial creation. He does not even begin to contemplate the ramifications of his act of godlike creation until it has already been done. It is only after he has lost everything that he seems to develop a somewhat more accurate and much more critical view of himself and his actions. In Victor Frankenstein, Shelley shows the folly of allowing your desires to rule over
Gothic Horror utilizes iconography of shadows, ghosts and other supernatural creatures to not only thrill, but also to intrigue with ideas of the unknown. One of the very first successful science fiction novels of supernatural terror, Frankenstein by Marry Shelley is an exemplary case of Gothic representation in both nineteenth century British Literature and modern day film. Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 film Black Swan draws upon a deluge of Frankenstein’s themes and motifs to truly depict the emotional aspect of Gothic Horror. Through including Gothic themes of: nature-versus-nurture, isolation, and the supernatural, Aronofsky is able to present Gothic Horror in modern day without the need of a 19th century haunted castles, ghosts, or vampires.
Later on in the novel the creature commits horrific crimes, “Could the daemon who had murdered my brother also in his hellish sport have betrayed the innocent to death and ignominy?” This quote is from Victor, after victor gets the news that his brother is murdered he immediately thinks that the creature murdered him. Victor has a 2D image of the creature from the beginning and that is that he’s a monster. The creature murders many innocent people and also blackmails Victor. The creature also has supernatural powers which frighten the other characters in the story.
The term ‘Gothic’ conjures a range of possible meanings, definitions and associations. It explicitly denotes certain historical and cultural phenomena. Gothicism was part of the Romantic Movement that started in the eighteenth century and lasted about three decades into the nineteenth century. For this essay, the definition of Gothic that is applicable is: An 18th century literary style characterized by gloom and the supernatural. In the Gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a wide range of issues are explored. Frankenstein represents an entirely new vision of the female Gothic, along with many other traditional themes such as religion, science, colonialism and myth.
Gothic literature was developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth century of the Gothic era when war and controversy was too common. It received its name after the Gothic architecture that was becoming a popular trend in the construction of buildings. As the buildings of daunting castles and labyrinths began, so did the beginning foundation of Gothic literature. The construction of these buildings will later become an obsession with Gothic authors. For about 300 years before the Renaissance period, the construction of these castles and labyrinths continued, not only in England, but also in Gothic stories (Landau 2014). Many wars and controversies, such as the Industrial Revolution and Revolutionary War, were happening at this time, causing the Gothic literature to thrive (“Gothic Literature” 2011). People were looking for an escape from the real world and the thrill that Gothic literature offered was exactly what they needed. Gothic literature focuses on the horrors and the dark sides to the human brain, such as in Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein. Gothic literature today, as well as in the past, has been able to separate itself apart from other types of literature with its unique literary devices used to create fear and terror within the reader.
First, Before the monster is created Victor says that he hopes this creation would bless him as his creator, and that the creature would be excellent nature and would be beautiful. After the creature is created Shelley creates sympathy for him by Victor’s description of him in a unique yet horrific way, “he’s ‘gigantic,” “deformed,” “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” this makes the creature abhorrent to typical humans. When thinking of the descriptions together, Shelley has created a vivid, unnatural image of the monster in the mind’s eyes. The language Shelley uses is powerful and emotive “shall I create another like yourself, whose joints wickedness
As a romantic novel Victor is responsible, because he abandoned his creation. As an archetype novel, Victor is the villain, because he was trying to play god. Finally, Victor as a Gothic novel, Victor is at fault, because, he and the creature are two different parts of the same person. If Frankenstein is looked at as a romantic novel, Victor, not the creature, is truly the villain. When Victor created the creature, he didn't take responsibility for it. He abandoned it, and left it to fend for itself. It is unfair to bring something into the world, and then not teach it how to survive. The creature was miserable, and just wanted a friend or someone to talk to. On page 115, the creature said, "Hateful day when I received life! Accursed the creator. Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust." This line shows the agony the monster was in, because of how he looked when he was created which led to even Victor running away from him. If Victor didn't run, he could have taught the monster and made his life happy. After the creature scared the cottagers away he said, "I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter ...
Older Gothic literature was in castles and deserted buildings. Modern Gothic novels were written in more populated areas. Another text that can be classed as ‘Gothic’ is the novel ‘Frankenstein’. The reason for it being a ‘Gothic’ novel is the way it has a mutant character. Frankenstein is a mutant and is made by a crazy scientist ‘I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of.
As can be seen Frankenstein utilises many of the conventions of the gothic genre and can thus be considered a gothic novel. Its links to the Romantic movement are also evident. The stereotypical settings, characters and plots, interest in the sublime, emphasis on suspense, the production of excessive emotion in the reader ( particularly that of terror and horror), the presence of the supernatural and the notion of the ’double’ are all features of Frankenstein that illustrate this.
The literary elements of remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress, clearly show “Frankenstein” to be a Gothic Romantic work. Mary Shelley used this writing style to effectively allow the reader to feel Victor Frankenstein’s regret and wretchedness. In writing “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley wrote one the most popular Gothic Romantic novels of all time.
In the examination of Northanger Abbey and Frankenstein one comes to very different conclusions as to why their authors used gothic elements. The two authors had very different purposes for their stories. Powerful emotions are often an element of gothic literature as it was a genre that took Romanticism to excessive extents. While Austen used this gothic element to satirize the gothic novel, Shelley used it to display a deeper point about the evils of ambition. Both authors exhibited characters severe emotions to show the importance of rationality instead of extremes, but ultimately had a different purpose in presenting this view.
When one normally thinks of the word gothic, an emo kid sitting in his basement and hating society is what normally comes to mind. However, the true meaning of gothic is much more romantic, dark and mysterious than anything we experience in society today. It evokes the images of dark castles, monsters and the mad scientists who made them. Graveyards and death, but mountains, flowers and life as well. When a work is gothic it shows the beauty in life, but the ugliness in it as well. The author wishes for the reader to value life, but see its faults as well. The reader sees how they may undervalue life, and fear the loss of it. They see how uncontrollable some things are, and how one small mistake may lead to your destruction. In Frankenstein,
The gothic style of writing is a style that was popular during the victorian era of the arts and literature, and the gothic style resembles the time that it was made in as it combines its gothic roots with the wildly popular romantic writing of the time, thus making gothic writing pieces a high emotion, yet gloomy, and fearful form of art. Throughout history the gothic form of writing has produced many literary classics that are still well regarded to this day, this list includes Frankenstein, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, and Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. Most notably of the aforementioned gothic books, Frankenstein was a gothic novel written by Mary Shelley combining the more gloomy and scary side of Gothic elements through Frankenstein's monster, murder, Justine falsely taking blame for