Frankenstein Essay Research Paper FrankensteinUnbelievably Mary Shelley

Frankenstein Essay, Research Paper

Frankenstein

Unbelievably Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein at the age of eighteen. This great work captures the imaginations of its readers. Frankenstein remains one of the greatest examples of Gothic literature. Unlike other Gothic novels of the time, however, Frankenstein also includes elements of Romantic writing, and therefore cannot be classified as soley Gothic. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist. The daughter of the British philosopher William Godwin and the British author and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Born in London in 1797, Mary was privately educated. She met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in May 1814, and two months later she left England with him. When Shelley’s first wife died in December 1816, he married Mary. Mary’s first and most important work, the novel Frankenstein, was begun on Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816 as her contribution to a ghost-story competition. A remarkable accomplishment for such a young writer, Frankenstein was a success. No other work by Mary Shelley achieved the popularity or excellence of this first work, although she wrote four other novels, books of travel sketches, and miscellaneous tales. In 1818 the Shelley’s left England for Italy, where they stayed until Shelley’s death. Only one of Mary’s and Percy’s children survived, Percy Florence, and in 1823 Mary returned to England with him and concentrated on his education and welfare. The image of Mary Shelley presented by the biographers suggests an intensely private, imaginatively exuberant, yet also emotionally withdrawn figure, whose political melancholy and strong religious faith are intriguingly at odds with the optimistic rationalism of her famous parents, and her poet husband’s atheistic radicalism.

The story of Frankenstein begins in the polar ice of the Arctic Circle. The ship of an English explorer, Walton, is trapped in the ice and is unable to travel. During the day the men on board spotted a sledge, driven by a huge man and drawn by dogs followed by Victor Frankenstein, a man in very poor condition. Walton nursed him back to health as the stranger told Walton his story. Victor Frankenstein was born in Geneva and at an early age showed promise in the natural sciences. Victor was sent to a university when he grew older, and that’s where he stumbled on to the secret of creating life. With great brilliance Victor created an eight-foot monster and gave him life through electricity. Once Victor had realized what he had done he panicked and left the creature. When the creature wondered into the city everyone he met screamed and ran away. Finally the creature found a place to live in a cottage outside the city. Through observation of the family in the cottage the monster began to learn the ways of man. In doing so the monster longed for friendship, but everyone he encountered was repulsed by him. This repulsion caused the monster to become bitter and angry towards men. The monster’s anger caused him to murder William, Victor’s brother. The monster makes a horrible demand on Victor, to create a companion to give the monster love and friendship. Victor did not go through with the demand, and for punishment the monster kills Clerval, Victor’s friend and Elizabeth, Victor’s wife. Victor vows that he will chase the monster until the monster’s death. Victor died in the frozen North, and the monster disappeares into the ice field.

As the before mentioned events show the Gothic novel was a late eighteenth-century revival of the tale of terror. One of the earliest and best-known Gothic novels was Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto , a scary story about a castle terrorized by a giant. Another contributor to Gothicism is Clara Reeve who wrote The Old English Barron , which she considered to be an improvement on Walpole’s novel. Then came Frankenstein. The first Gothic characteristic of Frankenstein is evident in its grotesque elements. To create life Victor had to use the bodies of dead humans. At night Victor would secretly steal the bodies from their resting place and take them to his chamber. Victor would take the body part from the deceased that he needed and would cut it off. He would then attach the part to his creation, the monster. The description of the monster at its moment of coming alive is hideous : His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black and flowing, his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but those luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes and straight black lips. The monster’s yellow skin, watery eyes, and black lips help add terror to the story and are examples of grotesque elements. Another characteristic of the Gothic novel in Frankenstein is the mystery. In the book Mary Shelly never tells the reader how Frankenstein is really created.

We know that Victor used the limbs of dead bodies to create the body of the monster, but we never found out how the monster was brought to life. It is also a mystery that the monster was able to follow Victor everywhere he went. How did the monster know that Victor was going back to his home in England, and how would the monster be able to travel the great distance? These are elements of mystery that can’t be answered. A characteristic that is in many Gothic novels is the desolate environment. As you remember the story of Frankenstein begins and e