Why are chapters 4 and 5 of Frankenstein important in the context of the novel as a whole?

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'Frankenstein'

"Why are chapters 4 and 5 of Frankenstein important in the context of the novel as a whole?"

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818. Frankenstein is a scientist who we follow through life to see him create a living man, from other dead people. The genre of the novel is gothic romance. At the time of writing the novel, scientists were testing humans and animals. 'Frankenstein' may have been a metaphorical question of the morality of these tests, made by Shelley.

The setting in Chapter 5 is not described as good. "Dreary night," and "the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky," maybe hint towards how the chapter is going to end up. “Comfortless” suggest that the creature itself is such a “catastrophe” that it can’t be comforted. Frankenstein also exclaims, “Beautiful! - Great God!” As if he expected the creature to be beautiful, which seems silly in itself as he was stitching it together himself and expecting miracles. He also says “his teeth of pearly whiteness; but those luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes,”. This is suggesting that something bad mixed with something good makes it overall more bad - Suggesting, that he is the ‘luxury’ pearl white teeth, and that his obsession for ‘infusing life into an inanimate body’ is the ‘watery eyes’ - that the things mixed together will just be bad.

During chapter 4 and 5, we notice a change in the change in the character of Frankenstein, as he goes from innocent and curious to sullen and as if his character has been changed for the worse by his experiences. Frankenstein’s feelings change when he is narrating, in comparison with his emotions at the time of the research. While he is narrating, he is clearly upset about the outcome of his human experiment. “Breathless horror and disgust filled my heart,” proves the “disgust” he feels toward the creature. He also lists the things he has done in order to make the creature possible; as if reeling off reasons why the creature should be ‘beautiful’ and should live up to his expectations. This is important for the rest of the novel as it tells the reader how Frankenstein is openly disappointed with his creation, even being petrified of it, and running from it. It shows how he could have hurt the feelings of the creature.

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Before he created the creature, Frankenstein was determined. He mentions “deprived myself of rest and health,”, further proving how he was obsessed with the project, not sleeping for days at a time. He is also enthusiastic and unnerved by the idea of the corpses. In chapter 4, he says “As I applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that my progress was rapid.” This shows not only his enthusiasm but determination too; him “applying so closely” means that he was working incredibly hard and paying attention to details.

After the creature was created, and he witnessed ...

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*** This is a good essay in many ways - it is well structured, uses well selected quotes and clearly shows an understanding of the novel. However there are some lapses in expression and although some literary terminology is used there needs to be more. Some of the ideas could be explored and developed further.