Mary Shelley makes this effective in many ways, but I believe the main way is how she writes the text, constantly referring to the first person, ‘I beheld the accomplishment of my toils’ and ‘I might infuse a spark…’ (Both chapter five). This works well because it helps the reader fully understand how they feel, unlike if a narrator said how they felt.
Due to the time period the novel was set, certain aspects of the book will undoubtedly have scared people more in the past then than it does nowadays. In the 1800s religion played a much bigger role in day to day life than it does now and this may be one factor for this. People were horrified that the dead could be revived, man had the power to do this and the fact that the monster was capable of murder was thought to be terrifying. This idea of reviving the dead was also completely against the religious views of the time, as it was thought of as man playing god.
The first scary part of the book is when Mary Shelley introduces the monster to the audience after Victor Frankenstein has just completed making his creation in chapter five. The passage starts with an in depth description of the scene, almost warning readers about what is about to happen. The author uses words and phrases such as, ‘dreary night of November’, ‘candle almost burnt out’ and ‘ the rain pattered dismally against the panes,’ to give the audience an dark and dreary image of the room and one that is perceived by most people to be scary whilst also building anticipation at the same time. All of these effects adds to the gothic genre that the book is known to have a reputation for.
A short text of highly descriptive writing follows, thus giving the audience a portrait of the monster and one that stays with them whenever the monster is mentioned. The author describes the truly grotesque monster as having, ‘Yellow skin scarcely covering the muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes,’ chapter 5. Mary Shelley goes on to describe the monster’s ‘shriveled complexion and straight black lips,’ also chapter five. I find this text very effective as the descriptive language does not only give the audience a visual picture of the monster it sends a sense of shock into the reader which will build anticipation whenever the monster is mentioned again. Victor then realises he has made a huge mistake as the monster is born, all of the attractive body parts that he picked out for the monster to have, made the monster look truly grotesque and noticeably different to an ordinary human being.
That sense of shock is felt in the next few paragraphs when the monster makes his first real entrance. He is made to sound strong and powerful to scare the reader as Mary Shelley uses words like ‘forced’ (chapter five) to describe his entry into the room awaking Frankenstein’s sleep who flees in terror. The author has leapt at the chance to make the monsters arrival a frightful one and this will surely make any other encounters with the monster scarier as he has now got a reputation.
As the story continues however, Mary Shelley confuses the audience as she describes Frankenstein’s creation seeking a companion. A friendly non powerful person is shown secretly helping a poor family collect food in dismal weather conditions. His intelligence is showed as he quickly picks up the ability to speak from the family he not only helps but observes and seizes the opportunity for his first human conversation with the blind old father who is left at home alone by his family. The old man shows sympathy towards the monster as he tells of his misery of not fitting in due to his obvious disfigurement. At this point the reader starts to feel sorry for the monster. When the family returns however, his welcome is not quite as pleasant as he had hoped and he is forced out of the house and made to flee, as the family jump to the conclusion he is up to no good simply because of his ugliness. The audience feels sorry for the monster as it seems apparent that the monster was never given a chance to explain himself to family as he had to the old man. Frankenstein’s creation’s tolerance of mankind has now run out and he looks for revenge with one name in his head, Victor Frankenstein from Geneva.
When the monster heads to Geneva to investigate his creator the monster’s anger is shown as a killing spree including Victor’s nephew, best friend Clerval and wife Elizabeth; this shows just how powerful he really is. The monster makes it clear to victor that the ruthlessness will continue until Victor cares for him, but when realizing this will not happen, his next plee is for another monster to be made for a companion for the creation. Although the reader feels sorry for Victor, they can’t help thinking that it is his own fault for ‘playing god’ and refusing to care for his creation. In a sharp twist at the end, a grieving monster is shown upset and shocked over the body of his creator, who passed away on board the captain’s ship, the monster leaves to commit suicide.
In conclusion, the novel Frankenstein is as relevant and terrifying as it was in 1818 because of mankind’s fear of the awakening dead and Shelley’s obvious understanding of this. The highly religious audience of the 19th century will have been morally against the ideas proposed in the book, adding to the fear that people may and eventually would try and copy these ideas. Although the modern day audience is less religious, in comparison to the original audience, we still find the concept of awakening the dead sickening and it is a thought not accepted in modern day society. Her introduction to the monster gave readers a sense of shock which was repeated whenever the monster is mentioned again in the book, which is one of many reasons why it has fascinated and shocked audiences for over 190 years and will continue to do so for many more. She makes her narrative very affective by using three accounts of the story combined into one effectively narrated by the sea captain which works well.
