Frankenstein Ghost Story Essay

Frankenstein is a name that many people know. It is also one of Mary Shelley’s most famous works that has managed to stay in the public eye for almost two hundred years. After many years Mary Shelley finally released an introduction to the story stating how she came about the origin of Frankenstein. It began one very late night; she was listening to a conversation between Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley, about the experiments that Dr. Erasmus Darwin had conducted. The reported experiments were about how Darwin was challenging life itself, by using electricity to cause a piece of vermicelli to move on its own accord. Byron then proposed that each of them should write a ghost story to share with one another. Finally, after many

It is possibly one of the first modern myths posing the age old question: In search for knowledge about the mysteries of life, are some things better left unanswered (Wells 77)? Mary Shelley titled the story after the name she had given the creator of the beast, which happened to be the same name of the noble family whose castle, Burg Frankenstein, she saw along the Rhine River. Her stay in Geneva also provided the location in the story. The story of Frankenstein connects the gap between gothic and science fiction, which at that time had not yet been invented. “The novel also adheres to romantic conventions in that it narrates experiences charged with powerful emotions, many of which the characters experience alone (Bloom

In the letters Robert describes the man he had met, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s will to tell his story. In the first letter, Walton describes his scientific expedition toward the North Pole; he wanted to accomplish a great purpose of discovering the secrets in “a part of the world never before visited (Bloom 12).” In the second letter, it introduces one of the major themes of the novel: the need for companionship, Walton finds it very difficult to have no friend to share his interests with or confide in. A few months pass before the third letter is sent. The third letter basically just describes that Walton’s expedition is going very well and is very far north at this point. The fourth letter is when the real story of Frankenstein starts. Walton and his crew are surrounded by ice and cannot proceed any further; this is when they see an unnaturally large man in the distance on a dog sled. The following morning, Walton and his crew find a man floating on an ice block, he too has dog sled but only one dog remains alive. Though the man is in terrible need of help, he refuses to board the ship until he hears that they are heading north. The stranger reveals the reason for being out on the ice. He tells that he was going after someone who had fled from him. After he tells his reason, he is told of the giant man they had seen just the day before. At