Frankenstein Essay Research Paper Mary Shelly

Frankenstein Essay, Research Paper

Mary Shelly’s

Frankenstein

A gothic story is one of horror, supernatural, and mystery. The gothic

novel Frankenstein contains these elements, making it a well known story

around the world.

Summary of the Novel

The story begins with the narrator, Robert Walton, writing to his sister

about his preparations for a trip to the arctic regions. Later on, another

letter is sent stating that the expedition is stranded by enormous ice

blocks. While stranded, they see in the distance a strange figure of

gigantic proportions being puled by a dogsled. The next day, a starving man

is found outside of the expedition boat, and he is taken aboard and nursed

somewhat back to health.

After about a week, he tells Walton that he is Victor Frankenstein, and that

he was born into a wealthy family who were constantly looking out for those

less fortunate. When Victor was young his family adopted a girl named

Elizabeth, who was raised along with Victor.

As a young boy Victor was fascinated with the sciences, and while attending

the University of Ingolstadt he studied all of the natural sciences. He was

hoping to overcome death and decay. He began trying to design life in the

laboratory, and after many years he was able to collect the various parts of

corpses in order to create a giant creature. Upon bringing this creature to

life, Victor was horrified by the monstrosity of his creation and fled in

dismay. For a long time Victor was sick with brain fever, and was clueless

about the whereabouts of his creation. But, one day, as he was preparing to

return home, he received a letter which said that his younger brother had

been murdered. The girl who had been accused of the murder was a family

friend and Victor was positive that she was innocent. Victor immediately

knew that this murder was the work of his monster. Victor attempted to save

the accused girl, but she was hung for the murder. Consequently, Victor felt

responsible for two deaths.

So, seeking seclusion, he climbed into the mountains, where he suddenly saw

his creature approach him. The creature told Victor that after he was

created and then abandoned, having difficulty surviving, he found his way to

an old deserted shack. It was right next to the home of a family of poor

people, whom he observed daily through a crack in the wall. By doing this

he learned how to speak, read, and write. He later found a book in the

pocket of an old jacket, which turned out to be a journal of Victor’s

experiments. The creature had now sought out Victor to ask him to create for

him a companion, since he had been totally ostracized by society. The

creature vowed that if he had a companion, then he and his mate will abandon

the civilized world and never be heard of again. Victor reluctantly agreed

to make the creature a companion.

Victor soon moved to a small secluded village in Scotland where he began to

create his next creature. While he worked, he thought of all of the things

that could happen as a result of his work. He finally decided not to create

another creature, because of the great deal of harm that two of these

monsters could cause to man kind. As he is destroying his newly made work

the creature appeared and told Frankenstein that on his (Frankenstein,s)

wedding night, the creature would be there to torment him.

A short time later, Frankenstein discovered that his closest friend, Henry

Clerval, had been strangled to death. Frankenstein continued in his

preparations to marry Elizabeth, the girl who he was raised with. On their

wedding night, Frankenstein heard screaming coming from the bridal suite. By

the time he got there, he found his dead wife, and a vision of the creature

which faded into the darkness. Frankenstein vowed to follow the creature to

the ends of the earth, to find him and destroy him. This vow was what had

led Frankenstein to the arctic region.

After completing his story, Frankenstein dies, and the monster appears to

Walton, telling him of his plans to build a huge bonfire for the burial, in

which the creature would burn himself along with Frankenstein’s body. The

creature then jumps aboard an ice raft and, being carried along by the waves,

is lost in the distance.

Elements of a Gothic Story Represented in Frankenstein

Frankenstein is one of the most highest achievements in the literary

genre of gothic horror stories. A gothic story is one in which the author

(in this case Mary Shelly) emphasizes certain elements. These elements

include mystery (How was the monster created? How did it follow Frankenstein

around the world?), a desolate environment (the arctic region), the horrible

and/or unthinkable (the mass murders), the ghostly (the rainstorms and eerie

situations), and the disheartening fear that can be brought about in the

reader.

In a gothic story there is usually a setting that will be in some way

strange and unfamiliar, such as Ingolstadt. Frankenstein’s monster was

created in a weird laboratory where parts of the human body were collected.

Shelly uses every literary trick possible to give the reader such and eerie

sensation.

In addition to the basic gothic elements shown in Frankenstein, there are

other more specific ones:

1. A sense of remoteness and indefiniteness (we never told specifically

where the creature is created except that it is in a laboratory in

Ingolstadt.) The point here is that these stories take place in remote areas

which are to be unknown to large numbers of readers. The readers are then

removed from their everyday environments.

2. The creation of a single eerie and ghostly atmosphere, and to do so,

the story emphasizes the physical aspects of the various structures. Such

examples include, the weird, deep caverns, the bizarre laboratory where the

monster is created, or the desolated arctic expanses.

3. Having a monster that cannot function in the normal world.

Frankenstein’s monster is at first a super-sensitive hero, but, cannot

function in the normal world due to his physical appearance, therefore

leaving him constantly rejected.

4. The characters seem to posses some sort of psychic communication.

The creature, for example, seems to always know where the creator is.

5. The possibility of returning life after one is dead or inhabiting

one’s own corpse. For example, the monster is created from dead parts of

cadavers.

Novels such as Frankenstein utilize many aspects of the gothic and are

considered to be not just among the earliest examples of gothic horror, but

they are also considered to be some of the finest examples of the gothic

genre in all of literature.

Hallie Gerson