To what extent can Mary Shelleys Frankenstein be seen as a Gothic Novel?

Authors Avatar

Ross Keys 10A                Coursework

To what extent can Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ be seen as a Gothic Novel?

Mary Shelley was born in 1797 and died in 1851. She was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and was the daughter of well-known feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and equally well-known anarchist and philosopher William Godwin. She met Percy Shelley in 1812 and after spending two years together they fell in love. In May 1816 they went to Switzerland. On one night, when forced to stay indoors, they were telling ghost stories. Mary could not think of one, but later that evening she had a waking-dream about a living corpse lying at her feet and ‘Frankenstein’ was conceived. When she returned home she started to write ‘Frankenstein’ and by the spring of 1817 she had finished it.

        The time in which Shelley was writing was a time of uncertainty. The French revolution had just finished and the Industrial revolution was well under way. Science, technology and education were beginning to be accepted. Mary was opposed to all these ideas and her views are voiced in ‘Frankenstein’. Shelley was especially opposed to education and the Monster’s character reflects that she thinks education will be the down-fall of mankind. The majority of Gothic fiction arose around this time and the whole Gothic genre can be seen as rebelling against the social repression of the time and mirroring the social unrest. These views are certainly portrayed in Frankenstein.

        Before the story starts the book contains a number of letters. These are letters are from Robert Walton to his sister. He is talking about his travels to the Northwest Passage. This is a part of the arctic that is particularly difficult to get to: “floating sheets of ice continually pass us, indicating the dangers of the region towards which we are advancing” Shelley uses the example of Robert Walton to show how society is moving into a state of danger and unrest ‘the dangers of the region towards which we are advancing’. It could also be perceived that Shelley is trying to show us that trying to go further and moving forward at all costs is not always the best thing to do. Shelley feels that society is moving too fast and leaving behind the moral values and embracing new ideas far too quickly. This could also be a comparison to the learning and education of the monster, later on in the book.

Join now!

        At the start of the novel, the reader is shown how Frankenstein has a passion for science. This grows over time to become an obsession. “From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation.” Shelley has shown how Frankenstein has become obsessed with science. The phrase ‘from this day’ shows that something has happened to push Victor into retreating and depending on science. The phrase ‘my sole occupation’ shows how Victor is being controlled by his obsession with science. This represents how Shelley feels that science and technology ...

This is a preview of the whole essay