Frankenstein is dreaming and having a nightmare.
‘The beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror filled my heart,’ Mary Shelly uses the word ‘horror,’ and ‘disgust,’ to emphasise Frankenstein’s emotions at the time. ‘Horror,’ and ‘disgust,’ all lead to Gothicism, and when Mary Shelly uses the word ‘heart,’ it can mean emotion or a source of power i.e. an engine in a car. Frankenstein kisses Elizabeth on the lips and describes her lips as, ‘livid with the hew of death,’ this means that in Frankenstein’s dream he is describing her lips as lifeless and no colour. When Frankenstein saw Elizabeth ‘in bloom of health,’ this is a metaphor because he is describing her as beautiful like a flower. Frankenstein then embraced her and she became ‘livid with the hue of death,’ this means that the bloom and beauty of Elizabeth has been sucked up by Frankenstein. But this is all a dream, and this dream could be giving Frankenstein a sighn/message for the road ahead. His dream then had a twist as first he was with Elizabeth, then her features started to change. Frankenstein dreamt that he held the corpse of his dead mother. Mary Shelly used a lot of imagery here; she wanted to create an image in the reader’s mind, or she wanted to express the emotion of Frankenstein with a certain style of writing, which was influenced by the time in which she was writing in.
Frankenstein is still dreaming and saw a grave with worms crawling on it. This imagery is unpleasant and makes the reader think what is going on in Frankenstein’s mind. The imagery of the worms can symbolise horror, and disgust in the future ahead and also to warn him about death
Later in the paragraph Mary Shelly used ‘the dim yellow light, of the moon,’ This is also gothic, because the word ‘dim,’ is referred as a light, but faded light. If dim means faded, the Mary Shelly used this word to make Frankenstein’s dream fade out and where she writes ‘yellow light,’ this might be a sort of light at the end of the tunnel for Frankenstein. Frankenstein then says ‘I beheld the Wretch of the miserable monster,’ the meaning of miserable is very unhappy. This is another branch leading to the gothic tradition and the word ‘miserable,’ links on to words like ‘sadness,’ ‘wretched,’ and ‘poor.’ The last sentence in this paragraph is; ‘approach of the demonical corpse to which I had so miserably given life.’
In this sentence Mary Shelly uses the word ‘miserably,’ again to stress that Frankenstein feels misery, when he thinks about his creation.
Frankenstein looks upon his creation before he gave it life. Mary Shelley uses the word ‘ugly,’ in ‘he was ugly then.’
This is not a direct reference to Gothicism but is in the direction of Gothicism, because the word ‘ugly,’ meaning bad looking, not pretty. This is suggesting that Frankenstein’s creation will do ‘ugly’ things.
Frankenstein is physically feeling agony about his creation. In the last sentence; ‘dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become hell to me.’
Mary Shelly uses the word ‘hell,’ meaning the devils home to symbolise what Frankenstein is feelings were toward his dreams.
Frankenstein is dreading to encounter his creation. It starts of with; ‘Morning, dismal and wet,’
Mary Shelly uses ‘dismal,’ and ‘wet,’ to best describe the morning, also when Mary Shelley created this paragraph she made the weather to fit the mood of Frankenstein. Also the opening of this paragraph is powerful, because it has three words open which has a powerful impact on the reader because Mary Shelley used commas to separate the words. Also in this paragraph; we are presented with a lot of imagery i.e. ‘it’s white steeple clock,’ this is of the church of Inglstadtand. ‘I did not dare return to the apartment which I had inhabited, but felt impelled to hurry on, although drenched by the rain which poured from a black sky.’
This is important because it creates suspense. Mary Shelly again uses weather to set the mood and uses the word ‘black’ as in, poured from a black sky,’
Mary Shelly chose the word black to symbolise that this chapter and novel is definitely a gothic novel.
Frankenstein is now feeling anxious about going back to his apartment. This paragraph is an up-tempo paragraph and Mary Shelly uses the word ‘walking,’ 9keeping in mind that Frankenstein must keep moving because he is under the stress of the rain. The last sentence says ‘my heart palpitated in sickness of fear,’
This is sort of a gothic reference because Mary Shelly uses the word ‘sickness,’ and ‘fear,’ also when Mary Shelly wrote ‘irregular steps,’ it can symbolise that Frankenstein is like an animal locked up in a cage and walking irregular. This suggests that something bad is going to happen because his steps are irregular (not normal.)
‘Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head,
Because he knows a frightful friend,
. Doth close behind him tread.’
Frankenstein says this poem as he is walking. The writer of whose this poem is in real-life is Coleridge ‘Ancient Marnier,’ has links to the gothic tradition and also is a literacy link.
Clerval (Frankenstein’s friend) has arrived and Frankenstein is overwhelmed. Cleval brings a certain feeling to Frankenstein. ‘And in a moment I forgot my horror,’
Mary Shelly uses the word ‘Horror,’ to sum up what Frankenstein is going through.
This paragraph is about how fearful Frankenstein is of his creation, And how Frankenstein left his creation at his apartment hence being scared to go back. Frankenstein goes to his apartment with Cleval, this is the first time Frankenstein has been in his house, since he saw his enemy. When Frankenstein finds out his creation is not there he is very happy. Mary Shelly shows Frankenstein happiness by using; ‘I could hardly believe that so great a good fortune had befallen me,’ also she used ‘I clapped my hands with joy.’ The fear factor in this paragraph is mainly converted into suspence. Mary Shelly creates this suspense by; ‘and the thought made me shiver that the creature that I had left in my apartment might still be there alive and walking about.’
Mary Shelly brings gothicism by, I then paused ; and a cold shiver came upon me,’ again Mary Shelley uses the word ‘shivering,’ this is a device that Mary Shelly uses to also make the reader shiver, and also to make the reader realise what Frankenstein is going through.
The next paragraph is about how, even more, Frankenstein is scared about his creation. Mary Shelly uses; ‘I felt my flesh tingle with excess of sensitiveness, and my pulse beat rapidly,’
By this Mary Shelly is creating a vivid description which the reader feels what Frankenstein is feeling. Later in this paragraph, Cleval finds something unusual about Frankenstein and is astonished.
The next paragraph it says ‘for I thought I saw the dreaded spectre glide into the room. Spectre can also mean a ghost. Frankenstein thought he saw his creation, and referred the creature as ‘dreaded.’
Frankenstein then says a meeting which anticipated with such joy, strongly turned to bitterness,’
Mary Shelley creates this sentence in a different way, as she first writes positively then shifts to negative feeling from the way in which she writes.
This paragraph starts with ‘this was the commencement of nervous fever, which confined me for several months,’
The opening of a paragraph in a novel should indicate what the paragraph is about but Mary Shelly does the opposite and uses suspense. ‘I afterwards learnt, that knowing my fathers advance age, and unfitness for so long a journey, and how wretched my sickness made Elizabeth,’
The gothic elements in this are the word ‘unfitness,’ ads this could mean old, dying or cannot go on with life. Another element is ‘wretched,’ meaning misery (linking to Gothicism) and ‘sickness,’ can put an ill image in the readers minds.
Mary Shelly uses language to create a gothic effect on the reader. Mary Shelly might have been influenced by the time in which she was living in and the style of language and writing. I stongly think that this is a gothic novel because Mary Shelley uses the wheather, dreams and imagery which creates a gothic mood with the reader. Mary Shelly also twists things around i.e. when Frankenstein is dreaming about holding his mother’s corpse. Mary Shelley uses gothic references to separate the ‘dreamworld,’ and reality. Mar Shelly also wanted to evoke suspense and fear to the reader, this is another link in which I think this is a true gothic novel.