This novel would have frightened and fascinated Victorian readers, due to the change in science, religion and the technology. Victorian readers would have been confused enough with there way of living but having read this novel and a monster being created by science and not through a natural birth would have confused them. Therefore they would be fascinated but terrified that the novel may be true.
Mary Shelley had many reasons for writing this novel. She had a bet with Lord Byron along with her husband Percy Shelley to write a short scary story. In the Victorian era women were considered as uneducated, however she won the competition, thus proving that she was just as equal to men, she was very proud to have beaten two men. There are also many autobiographical quotes included in the novel. As a child Shelley lost her mother and later on she lost a child of her own. Therefore the creation of a new creature may have been both a way to recreate her mother and daughter, there are a couple of quotes in the novel which explains this tragedy, such as “I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms” which tells you about her mother dieing and also “I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing” as her husbands ex-wife tried committing suicide and there was an attempt to jump start her with a spark of electricity. This was what happened in the novel when brining the monster to life.
In chapter 5, this is when the creature is finally brought to life after Victor spent most of his life creating him. This chapter is highly gothic as you can tell straight away as the first line is “on a dreary night of November” which sets the mood of dullness. After bringing the creature to life, Victor Frankenstein goes and visits his friend and fellow scientist Henry Clerval; he drives home, back to his apartment to find that the monster had escaped. Frankenstein has an emotional meltdown and ends up falling really ill. In the spring, he is nursed back to health by his friend Clerval and then receives a letter saying that his brother had been murdered. This chapter is full of constant changes which creates tension and suspense for the audience. Therefore this is a very highly important chapter within the novel.
The setting of chapter 5 is highly gothic as it is set both in winter and a dark old apartment belonging to Victor Frankenstein. The chapter opens with ‘I was a dreary night in November’. This sets the scene for a dreary and cold atmosphere, and Shelley’s use of pathetic fallacy throughout the chapter, and the novel, lets the gothic atmosphere effect the mood. When the monster was brought to life by ‘Frankenstein’ there was a quote saying” the beauty of the dream vanished”, showing that when Victor brought the creature to life his emotion turned to guilt when he saw that he had created an ugly monster instead of a beautiful new human being. This was gothic as it mixes romantic and horror. All of the revenge led by the creature and ‘Frankenstein’ lead to a death which sets the theme throughout the novel. With this romantic horror theme Victor says ‘I dreamt I saw Elizabeth’, who ends up a corpse and Shelley shows that Victor’s dream becomes a nightmare by saying” dream vanished and breathless became horror” which explains about all the dreams becoming a nightmare and the death in the novel.
This novel would appeal to both contempory and modern readers because the contempory readers would be fascinated by the novel and how the creature could be created by science and would believe it, they would be scared by it as they were highly religious and believed in and were brought up to know that a human could only be conceived by a women in birth, well as the modern readers would say that this novel is an exciting read and would not believe this. Shelley chose to write this novel set in the winter months and at night in the old room in the old house to give it a drearier, cold feeling which makes it a more gothic feel which makes the novel even more exciting than it already is.
Frankenstein receives a letter about his brother being dead, even though many new pieces of technology were being invented; the Victorians were not as advanced as we are. The Victorians relied heavily on their beliefs and religions; and this was changing which confused them. There were many changes and findings in science at the time. Victorians thought that the story could really be true and that a creature could be invented using science. This is because their beliefs about religion and science were changing drastically at the time due to new inventions and the findings of Charles Darwin.
