DISCUSS CHAPTER 4 OF 'FRANKENSTEIN' BY MARY SHELLEY AND RELATE IT TO THE WIDER IDEAS IN THE NOVEL

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Dale Smith        Frankenstein Coursework        02/05/07

DISCUSS CHAPTER 4 OF ‘FRANKENSTEINBY MARY SHELLEY AND RELATE IT TO THE WIDER IDEAS IN THE NOVEL.

In 1816 the famous gothic novel ‘Frankenstein’ was begun, Frankenstein was largely successful because it was the first sci-fi novel that anyone had ever seen. The Gothicism that this genre is meant to expose is very good because it really is written to evoke terror in readers and show the dark side of human nature, and of course another reason the novel was a success, was because the author Mary Shelley had a first hand experience of the death that this book precedes. Mary began the novel in Italy after staying with Lord Byron and after a discussion about science they challenged each other to a ghost writing competition, Mary’s mother died soon after Mary was born. Mary had two children that died and one was called William, these experiences of death were mirrored in Mary’s novel. Also reading journals from her husbands early life, he wanted to be a surgeon, and after talking with him and the family doctor where she thought up the idea of using electricity to bring corpses to life. In this essay I will be writing the about atmosphere of the chapter, the facial contrasts of the creature, Frankenstein’s dream, the creatures intentions, the creatures special request, the prejudice against the creature and the destruction of Frankenstein. Frankenstein hysterical reaction towards his creation, I will show you is prejudice and unjust.

        At the beginning of the chapter 4 Mary Shelley starts off by setting the scene of Frankenstein’s workshop, the aura created around the scene was shown as sinister and dreary, I comprehend from the text that it was a rainy night by the following quotes,

        “It was on a dreary night of November.”

        “The rain pattered dismally against the pane.”

 The dim-lighted room was established through quotes saying,

        “My candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light.”

 As he refers to his candle nearly burning out it would also seem that he would compare to his own emotions and feelings, as he feel sleep deprived and his energy has nearly gone, the only thing that fuels him is his ambition to bring his creation to life. The reason this atmosphere was created for this chapter is because this is when the creature comes to life and by setting this kind of scene, would make it seem as if here was a dark ritual occurring, this would make the reader think that Frankenstein’s hardships are not good deeds there are in fact evil, whereas if it was a sunny day without a cloud in the sky, the reader would think that if the creature came to life it would be a good and happy thing. Frankenstein feels nervous about his labours and all the anxiety that he had felt has ‘amounted to agony’ I believe that Frankenstein was feeling tired and because of this crazy ambition to animate a corpse had been mounting up to this very moment,

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        “For this I Have deprived myself of rest and health.”

And as the night was soon coming to an end Victor Frankenstein’s creation was nearly ready to come to life Frankenstein could not have imagined through his years of work what the outcome of this experiment could come to.

        On the dreary rainy night of November the single candle had nearly gone out, Frankenstein saw through the dull glimmer of half-extinguished light,

        “I saw the full yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a violent convulsion shook its limbs.”

 The yellow eyes and the violent shaking just ...

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