Chapter five is an important part of the book as it looks at the birth of the creature but as well as horror, this chapter includes much more below the surface of the famous horror scene, touching on rejection and problems at childbirth. In the beginning of chapter five, Shelly starts to use setting to create a chilling atmosphere of horror. She writes of it taking place on a dreary night, this builds a sense that it is dark with a creaking noises of wind, thunder and rain pattering ‘dismally on the pain’. In addition to these the book describes the ‘half extinguished light’ and the moon as a ‘dim and yellow light’ these words suggest darkness with only a small amount of light about, emphasising the feeling of gloom and despair. Shelley then goes on to describe the character’s appearance writing of his’ dull yellow eyes’ and ‘his yellow skin’ this gives the reader an increasing idea that the monster is diseased or unnatural and therefore would appear more frightening to the reader, and also suggesting the creature has all the characteristics of a devil describing it as ‘the demoniacal corpse’. Shelley also tries to create a feeling of horror through the imagery of Frankenstein’s dream or more, nightmare which Victor is ‘started from’ ‘with horror’ apparently ‘disturbed by the wildest dreams’. Mary Shelley writes of Victor seeing ‘the corpse’ of his ‘dead mother’ scaring Frankenstein in order to scare the reader also.
The book, on the other hand, shows more than just a horror story with many different themes being linked into it. In chapter five it particularly shows both the physical and psychological effect on Victor. Physically, Frankenstein tells how he has ‘deprived’ himself ‘of rest and health’ trying to create the monster. This gives the reader a better impression of how obsessed he has become and that nothing else was of importance while he was creating the monster. It also shows how he takes a sudden hatred to the creature and realises that he has gone against nature and what he has done is wrong, describing the ‘breathless horror and disgust’ filling his heart. This paragraph is not simply for clear cut horror but also examines the sudden change in Frankenstein when the creature is born.
As in chapter five the rest of the book juggles both the horror aspect and the deeper themes. Mary Shelley uses horror in the rest of the book in a similar way. There are many references to the creature as ‘the demon’ or the ‘devil’ this suggests Shelly has constructed it so that the audience perceives it as an evil being. The monster is also described as ‘the shape’ suggesting the unknown which would frighten people as it could be anything and be a great danger. The book also shows how Frankenstein reacts and feels at certain points when he is scared ‘Trembled with rage’ or ‘I felt a faintness seize me’. Shelley also uses setting but in a different way. Instead of being dark and dreary, the writer uses ‘wild and mysterious regions’ because they are dangerous areas and are totally isolated giving a sense of loneliness and helplessness.
One of the main themes within the book is the dangers of obsession and how Captain Walton follows the same course to obsession. Both men are obsessed by one thing, Walton writing in his letter ‘I dedicated myself to this great enterprise’ and Frankenstein admitting that he had ‘worked hard for nearly two years, for this sole purpose’. At many places in the book it mentions of how because of obsession Victor compromises his physical and psychological state and the relationships and lives of his family. As written in chapter five he ‘deprived’ himself ‘of rest and health’ and similar to this, Walton writes in his letter how he also has ‘voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst and want of sleep’. Frankenstein also suffers from obsession as he pushes people away from him, especially his love Elizabeth, and again Walton is indifferent as he writes to a beloved one a long way away, which suggests he has been away from her a long time. The two characters are both very alike wanting to be remembered in history with Walton saying ‘I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path’. Because of these similarities Walton is then able to see his future self through Victor, and therefore sees this as a warning, eventually turning back.
This also links to the theme of being a warning, that it may go wrong as when Victor talks to the Captain saying, ‘I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you’, hoping that for Walton it does not turn bad as it did for himself. He also tries to warn him with, ‘I imagine that you may deduce an apt moral from my tale, one that may direct you if you succeed in your undertaking and console you in case of failure’ Victor is trying to warn him that even if you do what you have set out to do, you may not get what you want, that although he achieved in making the creature, he did not act as he should have done and warns Victor to do the correct thing if he succeeds.
As well as this there is another warning Shelley covers in this book between Victor and Walton about challenging nature. Both tasks the two men set out to achieve are things never done before and include overcoming the power of nature. Victor, challenges death, trying to create a new being, and Walton tries to challenge the elements to reach to pole. Victor finds first, that doing this can only bring destruction, ‘the ever varied powers of nature’, a warning that it is too powerful to challenge. This warning, he then passes onto Walton who realises the peril he faces, and abandons his exploration. The “Ancient Mariner” was a poem written around this time by Coleridge. Coleridge was a Romantic, as was Shelley’s husband, and poems like this one were popular as this portrayed the types of things people were thinking about around that time. Mary Shelley may have been influenced by this poem about the theme of challenging nature as the poem also talks of this. It also included a ‘frightful fiend’ similar to the Frankenstein’s creature.
Nature is also linked into another theme of loneliness both of the monster and Victor. The creature tries to tell Victor how he has been rejected and is totally alone saying things such as ‘I see bliss from which I alone am irrevocably excluded’ and ‘alone miserably’. The creature’s isolation could be found as a reason for his crimes as he never had anyone who he could interact with so he has never learnt how to do it, the creature’s isolation therefore leads to destruction. Every time the creature tries to make friends he is pushed further and further into isolation until he is in the most isolated place on earth, the North Pole. Using the vast open snowy mountains as the creature inhabits allows the feeling of only him being there and no one else being anywhere near as the monster describes to his creator that, ‘dreary glaciers are my refuge’. Arguably, Mary Shelley might have been inspired, as she wrote ‘Frankenstein’, while staying in Italy in a remote place in the mountains. Shelley also shows the isolation that Victor forced onto himself, rejecting company. This means there is no one there to make him do the right thing so he continues to make horrific mistakes. The monster and Victor are isolated together at the end and only have each other. When Victor dies, his creation kills himself as the last person who could accept him and give him reason for his existence has died, and he no longer wishes to be lonely.
The reason for this loneliness is simply because of the way that he looks, that people are ‘prejudiced against’ him and only ‘behold a detestable monster’. Mary Shelley uses this to make the audience feel sorry for him and to show the reader that he has emotions just like a human. Much of this book criticises man for judging on appearance and shows that appearance and reality can be very different. The creature is ugly and deformed making him seem frightening to people where as all that he really wants is a friend and someone to love him like he describes to the blind man he has ‘no relation or friend upon earth’. On the complete opposite to this Victor Frankenstein is seen as a rational scientist but turns out to be an irrational obsessive. Mary Shelley is trying to get the point across that things are not always as they seem.
Another important theme is that of the horror of child birth. In chapter five when Frankenstein gives birth to the creature, he immediately rejects it and is in a sense rejecting his “baby”. The monster in a sense has lost his “mother” at child birth and so is lonely. This was a very personal subject that Shelley decided to include within the book as she must have felt similar feeling to the creature after losing her own mother at child birth. She is showing through the creature how lonely it feels not to be loved by a creator or mother. Through the chapters when the monster is recounting his story to his creator he is trying to get Victor to take his responsibilities of creator and love his creation calling Victor his ‘natural lord and king’ The monster also shows the similarities between Victor and God being the creators and himself and Adam the first creations trying to explain this to Frankenstein saying to him, ‘I ought to be thy Adam’ At this point Victor believes in the total opposite, and wants nothing to do with his creation that he now regrets, trying to rid the monster telling him ‘there can be no community between you and me’ ‘we are enemies’ it is only later on when he starts to listen and feel for his creation that he ‘felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were’ and that he ‘ought to render him’.
I think that to many people Frankenstein is one of the most well known horror stories including all of the ingredients to frighten the audience. To me, I believe that Frankenstein is much less a horror story as it is a novel that questions our society and the people living in it. The old man tells the monster ‘the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity’. Throughout this book this quote is proved untrue. That people are always kind and giving when it does not interfere with their own interests, is shown as wrong. This book criticizes society and man, how prejudiced we are and the greed for fame. Although this book was written nearly 200 years ago the same messages still apply to today’s modern society.
By
Amy Smith
MiDr
