The Author of Frankenstein the novel Mary Shelly had a very unfortunate childhood. Death reeked all around her throughout her life. Her mother died giving birth to Mary and ever since Mary had blamed herself for the death of her mother and this is one of the many factors of her life that can be related to the novel disturbing story line. Her sister and her son William perished before her in along line of illness and disease.
Chapter five starts with possibly the most famous line of any book. “It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils” This is an excellent example of classically gothic text. It explores the uses of internal horror. It also sets the scene, which is one of disgust and anguish. A rhetorical question is used in the first paragraph; it is used to make the reader build a picture of just how hideous the monster is.
Page 45 “How could I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how can delineate the wretch whom which such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?”
Page 45 “His limbs were in proportion and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!” – Great god!
Throughout chapter five, when read between the lines one can begin to discover that Victor Frankenstein is beginning to believe that he is god himself the creator of life and all beings. This has much significance in respect to horrific behaviour of Victor Frankenstein. Chapter five is full of harsh but appealing words. Most of these are used in description of the creature. “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open”
The novel contains internal and external horror in ways that deceit ones mind into feeling sympathetic to Victor during the agonising mental torture of Justine’s trial for the murder of Mary and Victor’s son William. On page 67 Victor blames himself for Justine’s hanging and clearly states his emotions and yet he still denies himself of a loss of pride in admitting to the creation of the monstrosity it was.
P67 “I cannot pretend to describe what I then felt. I had before experienced sensations of horror and I have endeavoured to bestow upon them adequate expressions but words cannot convey an idea of the heart sickening despair that I then endured”
This is cowardly and horrific behaviour on Victor’s behalf as he sands in silence whilst Justine is hanged for murder when she was innocent. The repetition of ‘I’ in this quote shows the ironically selfish behaviour.
In chapter , the creature is puzzled by the beating that he receives from the man. There is no anger or desire for revenge at this stage, the creature feels their happiness and shares their sorrows.
“When they were unhappy, I felt depressed, when they rejoiced, I sympathised in their joys.”
He becomes very fond of them and when he realises that they have little food, he feels guilty that he has been stealing from them. He has no evil intentions towards anyone or anything at this stage, he is still innocent.
When Frankenstein fell asleep he had an awful nightmare evolving Elizabeth and his dead mother.
"I embraced her; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the funnel."
This is a long sentence that helps to build up tension, which helps create drama and atmosphere. This sentence also hints at what is to happen to Elizabeth as later on in the novel she is killed by the monster on there wedding night and in the sentence Mary Shelly has used the alliteration of "folds of the funnel" to emphasise the element of horror. Such descriptive words as shroud, grave-worms and corpse all create a sense of reality. They are harsh and produce internal horror.
In all I think that Frankenstein can be classed as classically gothic novel. It contains continuous references to typically gothic features. Such scenes as the creation of the creature and the frequently occurring deaths all help to analyse the novel. The novel contains internal and external horror that is cleverly used to make the novel more exciting and satisfying.
