How does the language used in the letters and the first two chapters of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' reflect it's gothic genre?

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How does the language used in the letters and the first two chapters of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ reflect it’s gothic genre?

The gothic genre was popular around the nineteenth century. It is often associated with dark, evil things and death. This seemed appropriate at the time as there were no electric lights or televisions so it was generally darker than it is in the present day. It brings to mind stories like Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It may have been popular at this time because it is typically based about ominous things in dark places making it seem more realistic because of the use of candles at the time.

I am focussing on the beginning of ‘Frankenstein’ and observing how his dreams drove him to his own destruction, and how he is left to destroy the monster which he created.

Robert Walton, an explorer travelling through the icy wasteland of the North Pole, sees the monster and is suddenly overwhelmed by his evil presence, he then finds Frankenstein, almost dead and consumed by the coldness of the bitter environment. Victor comes with his warning, and his story, as he explains just what a dream can lead to.

The first part of the book is Robert Walton’s letters from St. Petersburgh and his ship to his sister in London. The letters are written in the first person and the present tense, making the story much more real and believable as it is being told directly and as though it were really happening as the reader is reading it. The letters also emphasise Walton’s distance from home and how isolated he was. In the first letter he is writing about just how eager he is to continue with his journey, and how the undiscovered land could be so beautiful. He writes of all the great things that will come of his journey. In the letters we meet Walton, his Shipsmaster, his crew, Victor Frankenstein and the monster. Walton also speaks of people from his past and his father; he refused to let Walton become an explorer because of the great risk it entails. The letters are set in St. Petersburgh in Russia and in the icy, desolate wasteland in the ocean around the North Pole. Here Walton writes of his isolation and how he lacks someone that he can confide in on the ship.

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Throughout all four letters we notice Walton’s spirits getting worse as he goes from being eager to go on his adventure to longing to get home. This is typical of the gothic genre, a light beginning gradually leading to a dark ending.

It is not until the fourth letter we meet Victor Frankenstein. Walton and his crew find him nearly dead. They found only one dog of the several that Frankenstein had pulling his sleigh. This shows just how cold it must have been for the specially bread dogs to be unable to survive it and yet, Frankenstein is still ...

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