Mary Shelleys, Frankenstein.
Frankenstein CourseworkMary Shelley’s, ‘Frankenstein’ came a bout when poet, Lord Byron, challenged her to a competition of who could write the most frightening supernatural tale. First told as a ghost story on the shores of Lake Geneva it was later published in 1818 under a false name and became her most famous novel.Frankenstein begins with Captain Robert Walton telling the story of Frankenstein and his monster. Walton had set out to sea to explore the North Pole and advance in scientific discoveries however his ship gets trapped within some ice which is when Frankenstein is found in a weak state. This is when he begins to tell Walton his story, of his childhood, his family, his research and then his creation. As the novel advances Walton takes over the narrative, for it to be finished off by the monster telling Walton of his vengeance and remorse before he leaves to destroy himself.In chapter five of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley uses the setting to terrify the reader. She creates an atmosphere using many different descriptive techniques such as the time of day and the weather to create fear and anxiety. In the first paragraph for example Shelley uses the weather to portray Frankenstein’s feelings, “it was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the paned, and my candle was nearly burnt out.” The use of language, “pattered dismally” mirrors his emotions. It also has a double meaning; is candle was literally burning out, and the time of
day. It suggests he is tired and Shelley sets the scene creating tension before going on to terrify the reader.Shelley maintains the use of horrible descriptive language throughout the first chapter such as the description of the monster. For example she describes it as “yellow eyed”- a signal of disease and quite an evil picture in context. Especially since it is also said the eyes describe someone’s true self, ‘a window to the soul’. Shelley closes the first paragraph saying, “a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” speaking of the monster. It suggests spasm like gestures, a very unsightly way of ...
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day. It suggests he is tired and Shelley sets the scene creating tension before going on to terrify the reader.Shelley maintains the use of horrible descriptive language throughout the first chapter such as the description of the monster. For example she describes it as “yellow eyed”- a signal of disease and quite an evil picture in context. Especially since it is also said the eyes describe someone’s true self, ‘a window to the soul’. Shelley closes the first paragraph saying, “a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” speaking of the monster. It suggests spasm like gestures, a very unsightly way of moving and it adds to the horror of the description of the monster and the story.In the second paragraph Shelley as Dr Frankenstein describes the reaction and emotions of the first encounter with the live monster. She is very emotive and expressive using exclamation marks to exaggerate Frankenstein’s feelings. Shelley uses more horrifying descriptions of the monster such as, “ work of muscles” dehumanising it as much as she can and, “watery eyes” and “black lips” which both create disgusting images and have connotations of illness and death. Shelley then goes on as Frankenstein as narrator. Frankenstein is portrayed as having a split personality. On one hand he is trying to make excuses claiming, “His limbs were in proportion” and “teeth of pearly whiteness” but then goes on to say, “Beautiful! Great God!” he is arguing with himself, both trying to justify his creation and being completely repulsed by it. Shelley also describes how the, “teeth of pearly whiteness” only creates a more horrifying image of the monster due to such a contrast in one being. The feature which could alone have been considered successful simply worsens the creature as a whole, “but these luxuriance’s only form a more horrid contrast”. Shelley goes on in the next paragraph to describe Frankenstein’s obsession with his creation, and shows how he reaches an understanding about his work, “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body”- this portrays Frankenstein’s realisation. He is starting to understand that his intentions were not for the good of science and discoveries but simply because he could. Shelley puts across Frankenstein’s desperation in the language she uses, “I had deprived myself of rest and health”, implying that he was so obsessed with finishing and succeeding that he was willing to make himself ill and sacrifice sleep over it. Shelly then uses juxtapositions as the reality sets in on what Dr. Frankenstein has done, “the dream vanished, and breathless horror…” It shows the fast change from being so desperate to finish what he thought was going to be beautiful and then the realisation of the living, repulsive monster. It’s almost as if his hard work blinded him from the realism of the situation and what was morally right. Shelley also uses imagery to create horror in chapter five, in a particular scary scene Shelley describes a dream Dr. Frankenstein has and then the encounter with the monster once he’s awake. The fact that not only is he haunted by his monster in real life but even in his sleep shows the extent of Frankenstein’s fear and guilt. In the dream Shelley describes Victor Frankenstein’s reencounter with Elizabeth. There are many images and relations to death. Victor sees Elizabeth in Ingolstadt and he embraces her however as he, “imprinted the first kiss on her lips they became livid with the hue of death”, very powerful imagery. Shelley describes it as the, “corpse” of Victor’s mother and uses terms such as, “grave worms”, she uses very horrific language and vivid imagery to describe the relations to death almost as if Frankenstein is constantly fixated on the subject, even in his sleep. His fear for Elizabeth is clear due to his previous experiences with death. Mary Shelley also puts through vast emotion in her writing it is clear her own previous experiences with death and her family difficulties have influenced her when she’s writing. Such as the death of her mother when she was a mere eleven days old, and the relationship with her often cruel and intolerant father. When Shelley writes about Victor waking up from his dream, she builds up the horror using creepy imagery, “the dim and yellow light of the moon, forced its way through the shutters”. She also uses complex sentence structures EXAMPLE using few full stops so the reader cannot pause for breath and tension is built. The monster is then described in a horrific manner using connotations of danger and wickedness, “his jaws opened”, “if eyes they may be called”, “a grin wrinkles his cheeks”, all an attempt to terrify the reader. Shelley ??? for the first time implies that the monster could be innocent, “one hand was stretched out” which could mean the monster saw Victor as his father figure and it was simple and innocent and wanted love. However Shelley then goes on to write, “seemingly to detain me” implying that the monster’s intentions were in fact bad or at least that is what Frankenstein assumed. Shelley continues to portray the guilt and remorse Frankenstein holds and it seems to be increasingly frightening and angering him, “the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life”, “Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance”. Shelley then refers to the monster as a mummy, “A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch”. This would have been very effective in the time Frankenstein was written as it was around the time when tomb discoveries had been made scientists were looking into mummification. Through the lack of knowledge they had, stories emerged of cursed tombs and truths were exaggerated as people began telling horror stories. For this reason the reference to mummies would have frightened those in the time of Mary Shelley. It is also effective today when wanting to create terror as after discovering Tutankhamen’s tomb many films and novels were produced with tales of mummification which are still around today. Another way I believe Shelley’s Frankenstein was more effective creating horror back then was because there had not been much of a horror genre portrayed in the media.
