Everything that happens in the earlier chapters leads to the dramatic events in Chapter 5. The story previously is told in letters and in reports of conversation with various characters who are involved. This technique brings in, various first person narratives which allows the reader a chance to see events from the point of view of each narrator, so that a deeper understanding of their character, their desires, and their different feelings can be revealed to the reader. Chapter five is Frankenstein’s story of his ‘success’ in creating a human being and his feelings of horror at the sight of what he had created.
Chapter five begins with an eerie, mysterious atmosphere, ‘dreary night in November’ which allows an example of pathetic fallacy where the emotions of the character reflect the weather and the environment surrounding you, ‘rain pattered dismally’ uses onomatopoeia which makes our understanding more vivid. ‘Half- extinguished light’ symbolizes a dark, depressed environment. It also symbolizes the life of Dr. Frankenstein and how it is ‘burnt out’ due to the obsession that he beheld. The candle is a very important aspect in this chapter as it portrays darkness and evil seeping through and overpowering the peace and serenity of the Doctor’s life.
As the chapter progresses, Frankenstein cannot behold the sight of his creation. He runs away, like a parent abandoning their child. In the streets of his town, Frankenstein is anxious and worried about that he has set loose, ‘I nearly sank to the ground in extreme weakness’. The chapter was set during winter which symbolizes death of his spirit but as he wakes up from his Pneumonia a few weeks later it is the beginning of spring. A positive, new life awaits Frankenstein, or that how he feels, ‘the young buds were shooting forth from the trees’. He calls the spring ‘divine’ signifying it is Godly and that God is approving it.
Frankenstein is in many ways a good man. The details given about his family and his friendships tell us what he has a good life. But he cannot connect that part if his life with the kind of scientific work he has been conducting. When he runs way from the monster, he is like a parent rejecting a child. He is responsible for creating the monster
