Theme Of Morality In Frankenstein

TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE THAT FRANKENSTEIN IS TYPICALLY GOTHIC NOT ONLY IN ITS VIOLENCE AND THE RADICAL CHALLENGES TO SOCIAL ORDER IT PRESENTS, BUT ALSO IN IT BEING AN EXTREMELY MORAL TALE?

Mary Shelley’s 1931 edition of her gothic novel Frankenstein is often regarded as a transgressive text within Gothic fiction, however many traditionally Gothic elements and themes are retained throughout the text. This includes the incorporation of violence, radical challenges to social order or transgression and the overarching theme of morality, accompanied by a concluding ‘moral teaching’ or lesson. This moral teaching can be interpreted as reflecting Shelley’s own experiences and life in a post French Revolution society, the scientific endeavours

For Shelley this may have been an expression of her own anxieties regarding both motherhood and the fear of giving birth but feeling no connection with the child; fears which she often discussed. It is often speculated by critics that the experience of life in post French Revolution Britain may have impacted upon Shelley’s writing and themes of morality presented in Frankenstein. Fears common among many of Shelley’s fellow British middle-class of this period often included the use of violence and revenge and revolution. The Creature can be determined to have similarities with a proletariat, who although has potentially good intentions, is unable to execute them effectively and thus, once overtaking the ‘creator’ or upper-class in power enacts violence and revenge. Shelley seems to present this path as being undesirable as, in the concluding chapters of the novel the Creature appears to be experiencing great remorse for the murders he has committed, and upon Frankenstein’s death feels so riddled with guilt that he takes his own