How Does Nature Influence Frankenstein

876 Words2 Pages

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill", and Percey Shelley's "To Jane: The Recollection", the authors depict nature's great influence on the individual through the use of various expressions of vivid imagery throughout the works. This is used in order to emphasize nature's keen ability to make the individual feel overwhelming sadness, its power to isolate, and its role as a healer to the individual. In the literary works, the speakers frequently use desolate and haunting language and tone in order to describe nature's influences on the individual's miserable or regretful mood. This is shown through Mary Shelley's description of the eerie moment before Frankenstein's monster came alive: It was on a dreary night of …show more content…

(Shelley 34)
This gothic imagery, evident in the use of words such as "dreary", "November", and "rain pattered dismally" influence Frankenstein to feel "anxiety, "agony", and paints the image of a dark and desolate scenery with Frankenstein surrounded by the monster he has created. The actions of the monster such as how he "breathed hard" and "a convulsive motion agitated its limbs", reflects the desolate and gloomy imagery around him and also serves to foreshadow how monstrous and evil the creature will become and the havoc he will spread. This is emphasized by his coming to life on a rainy night in November while almost in complete darkness, evident when the speaker says, "my candle was nearly burnt out…. glimmer of the half-extinguished light…." Shelley further uses imagery in nature in order to display the idea that through nature, the character is able to be alone with one's thoughts and that especially through dark imagery in nature, the individual has a moment of harsh clarity: "Yet, as

Open Document