Explain how Mary Shelley Develops the Gothic Genre in chapter 4 and 5 of Frankenstein

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Explain how Mary Shelley Develops the Gothic Genre in chapter 4 and 5?

Frankenstein: a modern Prometheus

Frankenstein: a modern Prometheus, written in 1816, comes under the Gothic or gothic horror genre meaning it has both elements of horror and romance in it, it looks into science, life and death and religion. Other gothic novels include; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stokers Dracula and the tell tale heart, it is said that Horse Walpole discovered this genre when he wrote his novel in 1764, the castle of Otranto. He used terror and an extension of romantic pleasures, which were relatively themes new at the time; melodrama and parody were no longer features of gothic. Instead he associated gothic literature with the gothic architecture, hence the castles that usually feature in gothic novels. Mary Shelley had a lot of influence when she was writing Frankenstein; the eight-teen year old had a very wide knowledge of the scientific endeavours and experiments that were being carried out at the time. Her father would always insist that she would be around when ever there was a philosophical debate held in the household. There were some notable characters that were around in Mary Shelley’s time that could have been inspiration for Dr. Victor Frankenstein. One of the most famous was  Aldinei Galvani was one of the most gruesome and macabre scientists, he once preformed an experiment in which he took two criminals severed heads and attached them to each other with electricity. Aldinei and Frankenstein also shared some of the same of the same personality traits; they were both arrogant and obsessive about their work. Andrew Your was another notable character, he actually tried to revive corpses. Your, like Frankenstein, thought of people as machines with no souls, he wanted to control life, and much like Frankenstein he was detached. A theme that ran through the novel was that no one had a soul and we were all just machines. This is one way that Mary Shelley book challenges many religious beliefs. Another possible character was not a scientist but an alchemist; he lived in berk Frankenstein and allegedly collected bodies of the Frankenstein family. Frankenstein is seen as challenging many religious beliefs in many ways, as the idea of anything living without having a soul challenges many religious beliefs. The message of Frankenstein is that if the scientist of the time carried on the way they did they might not like what they find.

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From the beginning of chapter four Victor Frankenstein is furthering his knowledge, “particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation.” By this it means that he is researching so much that he is doing nothing else, hence the word “sole occupation”, he is becoming obsessed. When he starts to create the creature he is so attached that he compares making to child birth, “a work of inconceivable difficultly and labour.” The word labour, as in child labour means he thinks of it as a child. This means he could share a bond with ...

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The introduction here is exactly what examiners don't want to see: a lengthy paragraph including a lot of irrelevant background information. Some of the ideas are great in this introduction such as "Frankenstein is seen as challenging many religious beliefs in many ways, as the idea of anything living without having a soul challenges many religious beliefs." but these need to be included within the analysis to build the argument, rather than dumping a load of context in the introduction. An introduction should be used to pose a clear argument, defining the key terms in the question. If I were answering this question, I would be defining the gothic briefly and summarise how Shelley develops this. The conclusion is better, as it comes to a justified judgement and weaves together the argument. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are fine but there are a few slips. I'm not a big fan of the first person being used throughout, as I feel the style feels unsophisticated. For example saying "this effect makes me feel closer" suggests it's a personal feeling, rather than one constructed by the author. Simply replacing it with "the reader can then feel closer because of Shelley's technique" is much more sophisticated.

The analysis here is sound. I liked how language was analysed closely, with the connotations of words being explored. However, as mentioned above I feel this sort of analysis needs to contribute to an overall effect. For example stating "the words catastrophe and wretch describe the monster in distain with hatred" is great language analysis, but it isn't answering the question. There should be another sentence exploring how this language technique used by Shelley contributes to the gothic. I would've liked the essay to analyse with a different style. For example the paragraph beginning "In chapter four Frankenstein becomes increasingly obsessed" includes a lot of retelling and narration of the plot. You won't gain marks for simply having knowledge of what goes on. I would rephrase the opening as "Shelley has Frankenstein become increasingly obsessed as chapter four continues to show his lack of control, building the reader's horror for his creation". There needs to be a sharp focus on the task, and there isn't always one here.

This essay responds to the question well, engaging with the gothic concepts in Frankenstein. I do feel as if there is too much feature spotting going on, as there are numerous instances where this essay picks up on pathetical fallacy and doesn't really develop an argument to what effect they have. Whenever you're looking at gothic, it's best to look at a number of techniques which contribute towards concepts (horror, sublime, terror, uncanny) rather than simply finding features (dark imagery, violence, pathetical fallacy). This will allow a cogent argument to form which looks at the effect of gothic as a genre, rather than simply finding features which contribute to it.