Supernatural And Gothic Characteristics In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Josh Barnette

Honors English IV

Mrs. Schroder

12/6/17

Frankenstein Essay Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written in the early 19th century and contains many attributes of gothic characteristics in many different ways. Frankenstein carries many gothic characteristics, such as the mysterious and supernatural, the story taking place in a dark place, and the coming together of the mortal and the supernatural world. Shelley uses all of these gothic characteristics to her advantage when portraying the book as gothic and mysterious. Gothic Novels tend to focus on mysterious and supernatural things. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses strange circumstances for when Victor Frankenstein creates the monster. In the novel, Victor uses body parts of the

The places Mary Shelley uses in Frankenstein are cold and lonely places, places that attract nobody. Shelley does this to set up an environment that is consistent throughout the story. The story takes place all throughout Europe and even extends into the Arctic. The places that the novel focuses on are usually very secluded places to set up a sense of loneliness for the creature and make the environments that they are in seem dark and sad which is a strong element of a Gothic novel. The setting of the buildings that Frankenstein takes place in are dark and gloomy. Shelley also uses weather as a big role in setting up the mood and scene she is trying to create. Throughout the novel the weather will be a cold and rainy setting that sets up a gloomy mood. Gothic novels take place in depressing and scary places like castles, towers, and old buildings. All of these examples are in the novel which just proves that Shelley wrote a gothic novel. Shelley uses supernatural and scary elements to set up a bridge between the natural world and the supernatural world. Whenever someone is dealing with raising the dead people will be scared. Shelley brings together science and fear when creating this aspect of gothic literature. Frankenstein creating the creature is huge when setting up the “Supernatural and natural world”, this scene is pivotal because it makes the creature seem like he is already

Victor became so carried away when doing his experiments that he lost track of himself and did not realize how evil it is to try and be God. Only God is supposed to have the power to create life, and Doctor Frankenstein knows this when he starts putting together the body parts for The Creature. Several curses come to any person who tries to obtain the power and strength of God. By taking dead body parts and creating life from them, Doctor Frankenstein curses The Creature from the moment that he is made. Mary Shelley does an excellent job when making this novel a gothic novel. With her compelling writing, she creates a setting that is dark and gloomy to make the reader scared and intrigued, she incorporates a sense of mystery with the murder of a innocent boy, which intrigues the reader to figure out who did it, and Shelley magnificently bridges a large gap between the supernatural world and the natural world and makes both become