How does Mary Shelley create tension and horror in Frankenstein?

How does Mary Shelley create tension and horror in FRANKENSTEIN ?

There are many forms of tension and horror in this novel. There is a monster, there’s grave robbing, the whole story is against religion and it is warning the reader that trying to play God can only have bad consequences. The novel is controversial in its content and it focuses on people’s prejudice and discrimination together with how people judge others too readily. Another thing that could have been scary for the readers at the time is the idea of electricity bringing life. Since electricity was a reasonably new thing, the concept of this new, weird technology described in the book could have been seen as horrific. Also, the atmosphere was a big part of the horror and tension, pathetic fallacy was used when Dr Frankenstein was creating his monster “It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out,”

It was strange, at the time of the novel being published, for a woman to write a book quite as horrific as Frankenstein. There were many things which could have influenced Mary Shelley in writing a book of this sort, myths, religion, other novels. She could have been influenced by the legends of the poles when creating Robert Walton’s character. She was most likely to have been influenced by scientific research and advances at the time such as discovering electricity. She could have been trying to get people to understand that this type or research and messing around with life and death were wrong. Lastly I think she also had literary influences and I believe that Mary Shelley wanted the novel to be romantic in a way.

Mary Shelley creates a lot of tension in the novel, this all starts in letter four from Robert Walton to his sister. She does this very effectively the whole way through the letter, the first line shows this, “So strange an accident has happened to us that I cannot forbear recording it…” it then takes Walton quite a while to get to the point of explaining the “accident”, this creates a lot of tension. The whole story about Victor Frankenstein and the events in the letter four are told slowly and gradually adding to the sense of tension, mystery and intrigue for the reader. This effect is carried on throughout the whole novel which is, I think, one of the main reasons for the novel being so well known and enjoyed.

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There are quite a few causes of tension in letter four, another example is when Walton’s ship was surrounded by ice, which closed it in’ “scarcely leaving her the sea-room in which she floated.” This creates tension by giving the impression of them being trapped in a dangerous environment. After this, the spotting of the creature creates tension, “we perceived a low carriage… a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the sledge.” The fact that this is a creature unlike a normal person adds to the tension. Also as the crew and Walton thought that they were alone, being away from civilization, trapped on a boat with a strange creature nearby creates fear as there would be no help at hand if needed. The next thing that created tension was having Dr Frankenstein on board; he was quite a strange person and did not appear normal. When he was found he asked Walton where he was going before he boarded. This, under the circumstances, is a weird question to ask. Walton wrote, “You may conceive my astonishment on hearing such a question…from a man on the brink of destruction.”

Shelley gives Frankenstein two personalities, “such a man has a double existence” and much of the tension in this letter revolves around this strange and changeable character. Frankenstein obviously has many secrets and many troubled thoughts, Walton describes him as being “impatient of the weight of woes that oppresses him.” He also says “I often feared that his sufferings had deprived him of understanding.” As Walton is the narrator his fears are passed to the reader. Neither Walton nor his crew know anything about Dr Frankenstein, they are curious about this person and yet can’t, or shouldn’t, ask him questions since it would not be polite. Lastly, Dr Frankenstein is normally very depressed but he suddenly becomes excited when he hears about the creature “From this time a new spirit of life animated the stranger.” This introduces the intriguing question of a possible connection between the two.

By chapter four Shelley shifts from tension to horror. At the end of letter four Frankenstein decides to tell his own story and the novel switches narrator from Walton to him. In chapters one and two Victor tells Walton about his childhood, in chapter three he speaks of the death of his mother and going to university. This all creates the background on which the character is built. In chapter four Frankenstein speaks of his experiments, this marks a change from tension to horror as there is a lot of description. Victor starts talking about his slightly crazy side; he often refers to dead bodies and his actions towards them as if it did not matter. He says “a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies.” This blasé and indifferent attitude towards what he was doing causes horror. Also Victor has an unnatural drive or obsession for what he is doing “I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit.” His ambition overcomes his fear, guilt and morality. The horror is sustained by the fact that he is almost isolated or separated from reality. Also, he forgets his method once he has finished so he can not undo what he has done. Finally there is the physical horror of both the degeneration of Victor and the image of the creature itself, Victor states “I resolved… to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionally large.” The idea of recreating life is horrific and the idea that that life is a new large species increases the sense of horror.

Chapter five continues the horror of Victor Frankenstein’s actions. The descriptions of the creature contained in chapter five are dramatically different to the later descriptions found in chapter seventeen. In chapter five Victor describes the creature as horrific, he says “breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” and “No mortal could support the horror of that countenance.” Yet in chapter seventeen, although he still does not like the look of the creature, he is not so horrified by it. When he says “A fiendish rage animated him” it is not quite as emotive and loathing as some of his comments in chapter five. In chapter five Victor describes the creature as hostile, “seemingly to detain me” and “I did not dare return” are just some of the phrases he uses. In chapter seventeen however, Victor describes the creature as reasonable, “I felt that there was some justice in his argument.” Victor did not give him a chance at first but by chapter seventeen he realises that the monster is not that hostile after all and seems to believe that it is mainly his fault that the creature feels such hatred.

Shelley maintains the horror in chapter five by making Victor terrified of the creature, he tries to hide from it “I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared” and “not daring to look about me.” In chapter seventeen, Victor is still scared of the creature but does not run from it, he says “you may torture me, but I will never consent.” This comment almost shows no fear of the creature and it is very different to Victor’s comment in chapter five about having “wildest dreams”. In chapter five Victor also describes the creature as stupid “his jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds”, but in chapter seventeen the creature is described as very intelligent “I paused for some time to reflect on all he had related and the various arguments which he had employed.” The creature talks and reasons a lot in chapter seventeen and so shows a lot of intelligence. In chapter five Victor shows hatred towards the creature when using phrases such as “the lifeless thing”, “Beautiful! Great God!”, “miserable monster” and “demonical corpse”. But, in chapter seventeen Victor describes the creature completely differently. He says, “I was moved”, “a creature of fine sensations” and “His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him and sometimes felt a wish to console him.” Victor, in chapter five, reacts badly to the creature, he instantly changes from being excited and overcome with obsession about his work to being horrified and distraught with what he has created. In chapter seventeen, however, Victor feels completely differently towards the creature, he feels for him, listens to him and almost treats him like a normal human being. But even in chapter seventeen, Victor is still having trouble overcoming the creature’s appearance. He says, “When I looked upon him… my heart sickened… I tried to stifle these sensations.” From this we see that Victor can relate to the creature and understand his feelings, he even wants to help the creature, but whenever he looks at him his feelings from chapter five come back.

I think that Mary Shelley’s purpose in writing this novel was, from the outside, simply to write a novel that would show her husband and his friend (both writers) that she was able to create a good horror novel. But, on the inside, I think she had two other reasons for writing it. The first was to be the first, or one of the first, female writers to get a book published and become famous. Secondly and, I think most importantly, she needed a way to communicate her feelings to others. She had had a difficult marriage and had a complicated relationship with her husband, she also experienced a lot of death, her mother died giving birth to her and many of her own children died. She had given birth to five children before she reached 30 all of whom had died before reaching their teens. I think Shelley had a reason for writing the book as she did; I think she had a moral to the novel. The novel gives the message not to meddle with death and that trying to play God only has bad results.

In conclusion, Mary Shelley creates tension and horror in Frankenstein by basing the novel around new science, reversing death, trying to play God and people’s prejudice and discrimination. She maintains the horror and tension with detailed descriptions of a strange obsessive man and a terrifying monster set in an atmosphere of dark graveyards, dead bodies and sinister science laboratories. As the story unfolds however, I think that essentially Frankenstein is a romantic book because all the creature ever wanted was to be accepted.

Catherine Baty 10JM.