While my right hand grasped a pistol which was hidden in my bosom; every sound terrified me, but I resolved that I would sell my life dearly and not shrink from the conflict until my own life or that of my adversary was extinguished.
This also uses suspense. Here you can see Mary Shelly has used an extended sentence structure to build up the suspense. She has also included the words "every sound terrified me" which shows Frankenstein's distress.
This novel even includes a supernatural aspect about it. The monster has "pale yellow skin", which describes the non-human appearance.
Pathetic Fallacy is featured a lot in the novel as a reflection of tragedy. For example, Frankenstein's creation occurs on the "dreary night of November", whilst the rain was, "pattering dismally against the panes", of Frankenstein's laboratory. Another Example of this is before Elizabeth's death. "Suddenly a heavy storm of rain descended", the weather hints at what events are to follow.
Another novel, which includes the Classic Gothic genre, is The Red Room, by H G Wells. The Red Room is a great example of the Classic Gothic genre.
The Red Room shows great similarity to Frankenstein, it is all about raising the tension gradually, a dimly lit room, being isolated in a small room with danger lurking and the unexpected, unusual series of events:
By this time I was in a state of considerable nervous tension, although to my reason there was no adequate cause for my condition. My mind, however, was perfectly clear. I postulated quite unreservedly that nothing supernatural could happen, and to pass the time I began to string some rhymes together, Ingoldsby fashion, of the original legend of the place. A few I spoke aloud, but the echoes were not pleasant. For the same reason I also abandoned, after a time, a conversation with myself upon the impossibility of ghosts, and haunting. My mind reverted to the three old and distorted people downstairs, and I tried to keep it upon that topic. The somber reds and blacks of the room troubled me; even with seven candles the place was merely dim. The one in the alcove flared in a draught, and the fire flickering kept the shadows and penumbra perpetually shifting and stirring.
Like Frankenstein, The Red Room is not constructed merely on Classic Gothic; it is combined with Modern Gothic. The narrator mainly gets frightened because of things going on his mind. In this novel the narrator gets scared because of the candles blowing out, even when he struggles to keep them alight. The narrator gets startled as the candles blow out, this could simply be the wind blowing the candles out, but the narrator is convinced that there is another presence in the room. These fearsome thoughts, are adding fiction to the fact.
Frankenstein’s use of the Modern Gothic allows the reader to feel involved. The first person structure, and the fact the book test’s you to think about why Mary Shelly is writing in such a style, and depressing way.
Frankenstein is ironically compared with the monster he created. The fact that he left the monster in his laboratory, and abandoned it, really makes him as much of a monster as the creation, if not worse. If Frankenstein had never mad the monster, or even looked after and made it feel welcome, none of the tragic events, would never of taken place. Towards the end of the novel, the monster could be classified, more human than Frankenstein. In the chapter where the monster is telling his story to his creator the monster says, “ A thrill of terror ran through me.” This is a very human feeling, and it is odd that this monster, thought to of had to care, feels this.
This is where the doppelgänger is introduced. The monster could be considered Frankenstein’s darker side. Frankenstein seems the nice innocent man, whereas the monster is considered the hateful, ugly, violent beast. The monster could be considered Frankenstein’s rage being released, and it shows that he really isn’t as innocent as made out. This draws comparison to Jekyll & Hyde. All though Frankenstein was made before Jekyll and Hyde, they are incredible alike. Jekyll & Hyde also involves the doppelgänger. Dr. Jekyll’s evil other half, Mr. Hyde, is the result of Dr. Jekyll’s ‘thirst for knowledge’. He keeps drinking this potion, which turns him into Mr. Hyde. Eventually the potion becomes a part of him. He can’t control when he turns into this ‘monster’. This is viewed as Dr. Jekyll’s darker side, which he has no control over. It is the anger that Dr. Jekyll owns, released through this part of him, with a mind of it’s own:
The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde they soon began to turn towards the monstrous.
Social Critique is an all-important element to the novel Mary Shelly began to construct during the summer of 1816. Social critique is the third element to the book which helps combine the Modern Gothic with the Classic, two different styles which would never really of been considered to merge together to form such a novel which influenced the later horror genre. The following extract demonstrates the combination of Classic and Modern Gothic:
I trembled excessively; I could not endure to think of, and far less to allude to, the occurrences of the preceding night. I walked with a quick pace, and we soon arrived at my college. I then reflected, and the thought made me shiver, that the creature whom I had left in my apartment might still be there, alive, and walking about. I dreaded to behold this monster; but feared still more that Henry should see him.
This extract shows how social critique brings Modern Gothic and Classic Gothic together. The fear of the monster, and the hurtful things that the monster will unleash is basically Classic Gothic; where as everything going through
his mind is Modern Gothic. The first person structure allows the Modern Gothic to flow through the novel. He is speaking from his mind. You hear what he is thinking, and see what he sees. This is supposed to frighten you in a completely different way to the Classic. Classic Gothic is much more real, and pure, where as Modern Gothic toys with the narrators mind as well as the readers. The social critique is the backbone to this Gothic formula. It holds it all together. Social critique is basically the critical analysis of society. The fact that Frankenstein abandons his monster allows the two Gothic elements to mix. The Classic Gothic element to it is that the monster is alive, wondering around, and he knows it. The Modern Gothic elements to the extract are that he knows that and it is corrupting his mind.
Frankenstein’s use of the Modern Gothic allows the reader to feel involved. The first person structure, and the fact the book test’s you to think about why Mary Shelly is writing in such a style, and depressing way.
Frankenstein is ironically compared with the monster he created. The fact that he left the monster in his laboratory, and abandoned it, really makes him as much of a monster as the creation, if not worse. If Frankenstein had never mad the monster, or even looked after and made it feel welcome, none of the tragic events, would never of taken place. Towards the end of the novel, the monster could be classified, more human than Frankenstein. In the chapter where the monster is telling his story to his creator the monster says, “ A thrill of terror ran through me.” This is a very human feeling, and it is odd that this monster, thought to of had to care, feels this.
This is where the doppelgänger is introduced. The monster could be considered Frankenstein’s darker side. Frankenstein seems the nice innocent man, whereas the monster is considered the hateful, ugly, violent beast. The monster could be considered Frankenstein’s rage being released, and it shows that he really isn’t as innocent as made out. This draws comparison to Jekyll & Hyde. All though Frankenstein was made before Jekyll and Hyde, they are incredible alike. Jekyll & Hyde also involves the doppelgänger. Dr. Jekyll’s evil other half, Mr. Hyde, is the result of Dr. Jekyll’s ‘thirst for knowledge’. He keeps drinking this potion, which turns him into Mr. Hyde. Eventually the potion becomes a part of him. He can’t control when he turns into this ‘monster’. This is viewed as Dr. Jekyll’s darker side, which he has no control over. It is the anger that Dr. Jekyll owns, released through this part of him, with a mind of it’s own:
The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde they soon began to turn towards the monstrous.
Robert Louis Stevenson uses the hands as the point, which releases this rage. Like Dr. Frankenstein, he enjoys, and seeks the adrenaline and thrill of hurtful doings.
Frankenstein’s childhood in the novel, was so perfect, or such an ideal upbringing, that when he grew older he seeks that rebellion he missed out on as a teen. He doesn’t know how it feels and now that he does, terrible things are released. This is strangely alike Pandora’s box. Pandora finds exceptionally difficult to resist the temptations of this ‘forbidden box’. As Pandora opens this box, chaos escapes from the box, there is
no going back, and this could of all of been prevented, so long as Pandora had kept fantasy from fiction. Both Dr. Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll, can’t resist taking their experiments too far, that’s when the catastrophe breaks through and the box has been opened.
An important extract from the book is Frankenstein’s dream. This small paragraph, introduces, a whole new element to the book. The incestuous, the oedipal, the Freudian aspect to the novel:
I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Inglostadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of flannel.
Sigmund Freud splits the human psychological self into three sections. The ‘id’, the ‘ego’, and the ‘super ego’. The id is the appetite driven emotional basis for life. So what a human is forced itself into needing, such as food, sleep, and exercise. The ego is the conscious sense of ‘self’. The super ego is the sense of morality, sometimes construed as the conscience. In a more expanded sense you could relate this to what is really happening to Frankenstein. The id is the monster and the ego is Frankenstein.
To satisfy the ego, the id must do, as it needs. So the monster is really Frankenstein releasing his desires, which he could not perform as himself. This is in huge relevance to the doppelgänger.
The dream involves a morbid attraction. There is the lover, Elizabeth, whom is his object of desire. The dream suddenly changes, to the body’s turning to corpses; this shows Frankenstein’s hidden desire for death, which he releases through the id, the monster.
The dream also includes a larger Oedipal aspect, he sees his mother through Elizabeth. Perhaps that’s what attracted him to Elizabeth in the first place. He has hidden desires for his mother. The grave worms could possibly be a representation of Frankenstein’s id. The worms represent the more sexual view in which he sees his mother. The worms going into his mother. This is imagery to compare the worms to the fallacy. This is expressing Frankenstein’s darker urges.
This small part of the book also includes the religious theme, which has been silently flowing throughout the novel.
The religious element found in the book, is a factor of social critique. Mary Shelly was putting her views across, using the novel.
Around the time Mary Shelly was composing the novel, there was a lot of discussion about Religion and science at the time. People where trying to prove religion was false.
I believe that Mary Shelly believed in the bibles teachings and thought that science was just a way of destroying hope, and human belief. This is reflected in the book, because Dr. Frankenstein uses science in a god like way, which resulted in tragedy.
Mary believed that human should not try god like tasks. In Frankenstein, Victor tries to create life, which is something that only god should even attempt. Throughout the novel Frankenstein seems to think of himself as god. He places himself higher than everyone else. In the creation he says “with the instruments of life around me.” He makes it sound so simple. He seems to imply that if God can do it, he can do it, and that God is no greater than himself.
