Gothic Elements in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein is a novel written by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein is about a man who had a strong urge to finish a scientific project and did not accept his consequences for his own mistakes. Mary Shelley’s work consists of Gothic elements and have great emotion that go along with them. Mary Shelley’s childhood may have affected her writing, she had a tough life growing up and her book shows this. Throughout the novel there are many Gothic elements that all contribute to the events in the book. Victor neglecting his own responsibility and disrupting the natural order of things ultimately leads to the death of the two major characters in the end of the novel.

Mary Shelley’s childhood would not be considered easy. Her mother died a little over a week after she was born and her dad got remarried after the death of Mary Shelley’s mother. The women he remarried had two children of her own and the stepmother was not fond of Mary Shelley. Abandonment plays a huge role in her novel Frankenstein and she was very familiar with how this felt because she was abandoned by her parents. Mary Shelley met Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was seventeen. Percy was married to another woman but he left her for Mary and they had a daughter that passed away. The woman Percy left Mary for took her own life because she felt abandoned by her once so called husband. Mary and Percy kept having children and the kept dying. Percy Florence was the name of there son and he was the only one of their children to live until maturity. Percy was sailing with his friend and their boat sunk. Mary was devastated by this and this sent her into a state of depression (Magill 490-491). People were always questioning whether or not they were good people. Mary Shelley had to live ...

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...elps you really connect with the characters (Walling 35). This book is a perfect example of the Gothic tradition of writing. It is truly a great book and always will always be a classic.

Works Cited

Griffith, George V. "An overview of Frankenstein." Literature Resources from

Gale. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

Magill, Frank N., ed. The Lives and Works of 135 of the World's Most Important

Women Writers, from Antiquity to the Present. New York: Henry Holt and

Company, 1994. Print.

Telgen, Diane, ed. Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Commonly

Studied Novels. Detroit: n.p., 1997. Print. Vol. 1 of Novels For Students.

Thompson, Terry W. "Shelley's Frankenstein." The Explicator 58.4 (2000): 191-92.

Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

Walling, William A. Mary Shelley. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1972. Print.