Characteristics And Characters In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Grace Reynolds

English IV Honors

Mrs. Schroder

December 7, 2017

Frankenstein Essay

Fear is one of the most dreaded feelings a human can face. All people whether they admit it or not they are afraid of something, most have the fear of being alone and not having someone to experience life with. In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein the main character Victor Frankenstein is afraid of being alone so he decides to use his love for science to create him a companion. There are many characteristics that influence this writing and although it is not the first gothic novel it is one of the first and most influential to other works. Many gothic literature characteristics are in the novel such as supernatural creatures, dark and mysterious aspects

In Mary Shelley's novel Victor Frankenstein creates the “monster” out of body parts be found to conduct experiments on, he puts these together in order to make his very own creation. His interest in natural sciences sparks an interest in supernatural elements such as lightning and the effects it has on living and nonliving things. His research on the unexplored fields of science is both intregiging and disturbing to readers. In Chapter 4 Victors says “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which should first break trough, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.” (Shelley 55) this quote describes how Frankenstein feels about the monster and how important science is to his life. He sacrifices a “normal” life because of his dedication to his experiments and has little to no contact with his family in periods of time even though they are loving and supportive of him. His creation of the monster has harmed his loved ones along with society, his monster killed both his brother and kills Victor’s wife-to-be creating a sense of resentment towards his own

Within the novel both Victor Frankenstein’s brother and his wife-to-be were killed and all of the evidence indicated the monster he has created did it, but it is never proved the monster killed his brother back in their home town in Geneva. The lack of closure on his brothers death creates a sense of suspicion throughout the whole novel, if somehow it is not the monster who killed him there may be a murderer on the loose in the town which would alarm people as well. Even though in the novel some characters such as Delacy think the creature has a good heart bad things seem to follow him wherever he goes causing him to end up alone, isolated in the