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 are starting to take over society and more and more people are being sucked into the vortex that is the thirst for knowledge. This phrase also links science and the desire to learn to evil. This certainly is an aspect of the Gothic genre and Gothic novels.
Towards the end of chapter four Victor becomes deeply interested in the science of the human body. So he starts to create the monster. “One of the phaenomena which had particularly attracted my attention was the structure of the human frame, and, indeed, any animal endued with life.” This, linked with his awe and wonder at the amazing powers of lightning, shown in an earlier chapter, encouraged and persuaded him to discover how to bring the dead back to life. “After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” After discovering how to bring the life back to dead, he sets about creating the Monster. “It was with these feelings that I begun the creation of a human being.” Frankenstein’s creation of new life could be seen as Shelley trying to show how all the changes in society were like a new life and how this new life is not as good as it is meant to be. This, in itself has Gothic connotations and links to the gothic genre.
Chapter 5 is where the monster comes to life and Frankenstein starts to regret his decision. Chapter 5 opens with Victor working late at night in his laboratory. “It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.” The scene is set at night which in itself has connotations of the Gothic genre and supernatural. Furthermore the addition of ‘dreary’ gives the scene a spooky and Gothic feel. The fact that he ‘beheld the accomplishment of my toils’ shows that he was working late at night which gives his work a certain mystery and secrecy which, as well as appealing to the reader has elements of a Gothic genre and scene.
After setting the scene Shelley describes the room that Frankenstein has been working in and the situation he finds himself in. “I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out.” The description of the scene is in the first person, so it is being made by Frankenstein himself. Frankenstein describes the scene using relatively complex language. This shows how important and complex the moment is. We can see from the words and phrases used; dismally, burnt out, that he is tired and the night has been long. The phrase ‘my candle was nearly burnt out’ could be perceived to mean that he was nearing the end of his patience with his work. The idea of infusing a spark of life into something as very Gothic origins as the idea of bringing something back to life has very supernatural ideas.
Then the monster is brought to life, and Victor realises he is just that, a monster. “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes.” Shelley has used the monster to represent society and to show how society is failing. Victor’s imagination thinks his creation will be beautiful; this represents how people in society were thinking. The monster represents how Shelley predicts society will turn out, a disappointment and a hideous creation that should never have been allowed to develop.
Later on in the book, the monster starts to learn about the world. He travels and eventually settles, to study a family called the De laceys. However, before this he was animalistic and relying on instincts. “I lay by the side of the brook resting from my fatigue, until I felt tormented by hunger and thirst. This roused me from my nearly dormant state, and I ate some berries which I found hanging on the trees or lying on the ground.” These actions show that he monster has not yet developed properly and is still relying on basic instincts to get him through life. However this means that the monster is unaware of any wrong in the world, which in turn makes him kind and gentle. This can be seen to represent the gothic genre in the idea of a gentle giant. Also, this can be seen as Shelley’s view about society at the time, that they are ignorant but ignorance is bliss and it is better to know nothing rather than know something that will ruin the way you think about the world. This is what Shelley believes will happen if society accepts science and technology.
The monster starts to learn things through books that he finds: Ruin of Empires, Sorrows of Werter, Lives and Paradise Lost. He reads the books but discovers nothing positive about the world. “Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle.” The monster finds out that man is wonderful and brilliant and yet at the same time evil and malicious. Shelley is trying to show mankind’s faults and weaknesses, it could be perceived that Shelley thinks that with the introduction of science and industrialisations our faults and weaknesses will be magnified and greater exposed.
The monster educates himself through he books that he finds and through spying on the De laceys. However everything that he finds out is negative and he starts to wonder whether he will be accepted into this cold world. “When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?” The monster is starting to question why he is the only one like him. He has learnt from his surroundings and the only things that he has gained have been negative. Shelley is trying to show us how education is bad and that it will eventually lead to nothing but negativity as we learn more about ourselves and develop how we think not just about ourselves but the human race as a whole. It is also the idea that education will lead us into wanting to move further forward i.e. creating an empire, an idea that Shelley was known to be very opposed to. Also this shows gothic ideas as it explores emotions and reveals unwanted ideas and feelings.
In answer to the question, ‘To what extent can Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein be seen as a Gothic novel?’ I believe that this novel is greatly involved in, and influenced by, the Gothic genre. The novel has many aspects and elements of the Gothic genre like, the supernatural and the main feature throughout the novel, which is the criticising of society at the time and the way that society is moving. It is for these reasons I believe that Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ is a Gothic novel and a brilliant story.