Chapter 5 of Mary Shellys' Frankenstein

Authors Avatar

7

Chapter 5 starts with ‘It was on a dreary night of November’, The word dreary means very miserable and dull, and this can refer to Gothicism. Mary shelley opened this chapter like this because it sets the mood for what is going to happen throughout the chapter and also gives the reader a hint of what to expect.

‘With an agony that almost amounted to agony,’ Mary Shelly uses alliteration here, to give an effect on the reader. Mary Shelly uses word like; ‘anxiety,’ and ‘amounted to agony.’ These also are gothic references because they are building up sadness and emphasise Frankenstein’s stress and worry. ‘The rain pattered dismally,’ the word dismally means gloomy or melancholy, these are negative word associated with gothic genre. ‘The candle was nearly burnt out,’ Mary Shelley uses this sentence because it symbolises gothicism, she also uses this sentence because when a candle burns out there is no light and when there is no light darkness takes over causing stress and panic’. ‘I saw the dull yellow eye of the sad creature open,’ the word dull means; not bright, sharp or clear, so Mary Shelly used this word because Victor could see the eye but couldn’t get a clear vision. The fact that the eye is yellow also suggests that this is an animal rather than a human. ‘How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe,’ she used the word catastrophe to define Frankenstein’s emotions. Catastrophe means widespread disaster, this also relates to gothicism because disaster is a word branching of ‘sudden sadness,’ Also Mary Shelly used ‘how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?’ this is a rhetorical question which makes the reader think about Frankenstein’s creation. The word ‘wretch,’ means an unfortunate or unhappy person at the time, This could describe Frankenstein as a wretched person at the time, and also is gothic because unhappy relates to the gothic genre. Frankenstein uses word to describe his creation such as; ‘His yellow skin,’ ‘Lustrous black,’ ‘horrid contrasts,’ ‘watery eyes,’ ‘dun white sockets,’ ‘shrivelled complexion,’ and ‘straight black lips.’ These are all references to an ab-normal human.

Join now!

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 ...

This is a preview of the whole essay