Frankenstein. Look at the significance of Chapter 5 to the novel as a whole. Focus on the relevance and effect of writers use of language to describe setting, character and what it shows about social and historical influences.

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FRAKENSTEIN.

ENGLISH COURSEWORK

VANESSA NHARA. 10-1

Look at the significance of Chapter 5 to the novel as a whole. Focus on the relevance and effect of writer's use of language to describe setting, character and what it shows about social and historical influences.

The novel Frankenstein was created by a woman named Mary Shelley. She made up the tale when telling ghost stories with her family, who later told her she should publish the story because it was good. She officially published her story in 1831. 'Frankenstein' or 'The Morden Prometheus' is about a young student - Victor, who discovers the secret of creating a new life, and by gathering body parts he creates a monster who promises revenge on his creator after being rejected from society. In the novel, chapter 5 is seen as the key chapter for the reason that this is where the real story about revenge and consequence begins. In this chapter we (the audience) are introduced to the gothic genre of the novel "It was on a dreary night of November" and "the rain pattered dismally against the panes." Both indicate the shady and gloomy atmosphere of the gothic era.

We are brought to the place where the creation is created and is first described "his yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath"; with fear Victor runs away from his apartment leaving the 'monster' alone and abandoned. Bad parenting as being one of the main themes of the novel is shown when Victor gives life to his 'monster'- like a new born baby, and deserts him. This can be related to Mary Shelly's life. Shelley lost two of her children within a two year period, it was said that she did not cope very well with the loss of her babies and she blamed herself for their deaths. By some means writing this book lets out some personal feelings, and by creating a new life form in her novel suggested that she wished that she could bring back her children back to life. The quotation also shows that the language used is very descriptive, and the talk of yellowing skin barely holding in the muscles and blood vessels, is a nauseating image. To put things in to view, and to show contrast, Shelly also states Frankenstein's creation as good, signifying that even though the creation was vile to the eye, somehow the creator found beauty within the created.
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Chapter 5 links what happens on later in the story. This is shown by the setting, language, character behaviour and the gothic ideas. Shelly uses descriptive words to create imagery and atmosphere in the setting as well as the character behaviour. Applying words such as "dreary", "dismal", "horrid", "disgust", "miserable", and "wretched" to a sentence immediately paints an image of gothic atmosphere. A dramatic example is when Shelly describes Victor Frankenstein holding "the corpse of (his) dead mother...a shroud enveloped her form...the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel". Further on in the chapter happiness is shown ...

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