To what extent do you agree with the view that, in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is exploring 'the dark side of the human psyche'?

The novel is in first person narrative and Victor actually narrates until around chapter eleven, when we get the monster's perspective. Shelley uses Victor to narrate as he is looking back over his life, trying to understand, to explore what went on and why he created the monster. Shelley internally explores the dark side of the human psyche through Victor in the novel, "I wandered like an evil spirit... for I had committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible". Shelley wants the readers to see that Victor understands that he is delving into the dark side of the human psyche within his deeds. The mental anguish in which Victor suffers is closely related to the gothic as the protagonists are often faced with such anguish and confusion.

Another way Shelley explores the dark side of the human psyche is through the use of dreams within the text, "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 the flannel". This quotation shows that Victor's mind state is poor and to dream of something so dark which originally starts out positive is the idea coming through that Shelley is exploring the dark side of the human psyche.

Shelley portrays the monster as innocent, like a child, in the beginning. He is eager, much like his father, Victor, to learn and gain knowledge, "fortunately the books were written in the language the elements of which I had acquired at the cottage" chapter fifteen is in the monster's perspective, he is eagerly reading books and contemplating right and wrong, but agrees with the laws that society has in place. In contrast, chapter twenty three, "the murderous mark of the fiend's grasp was on her neck", within this chapter we get a completely different side to the monster, we see the darker side of his psyche. He kills Elizabeth. Shelley does this throughout the novel because she wants to show the fine line between humanity and being a monster, Victor is as irrational and over emotional as the monster, they are almost a double of each other and Shelley represents this through the exploration of the dark side of the human psyche within the actions that take place within the novel.

I agree with the statement that Shelley explores the dark side of the human psyche within her novel Frankenstein. She riddles her chapters with different elements of thinking and shows the different mental states of both the monster and of Victor, so that as a reader we can compare the dark side of the human psyche from the more positive way of thinking. We as a reader are able to analyse and explore the human psyche ourselves as Shelley shows Victor and the monster going from a more rational mind set to a much more dark and sinister side.