How Does the Language in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Reflect its Gothic Genre

How Does the Language in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Reflect its Gothic Genre

The gothic genre was popular around the nineteenth century. It is

often associated with dark, evil things and death. This seemed

appropriate at the time as there were no electric lights or

televisions so it was generally darker than it is in the present day.

It brings to mind stories like Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyll and

Mr Hyde. It may have been popular at this time because it is typically

based about ominous things in dark places making it seem more

realistic because of the use of candles at the time.

I am focussing on the beginning of ‘Frankenstein’ and observing how

his dreams drove him to his own destruction, and how he is left to

destroy the monster which he created.

Robert Walton, an explorer travelling through the icy wasteland of the

North Pole, sees the monster and is suddenly overwhelmed by his evil

presence, he then finds Frankenstein, almost dead and consumed by the

coldness of the bitter environment. Victor comes with his warning, and

his story, as he explains just what a dream can lead to.

The first part of the book is Robert Walton’s letters from St.

Petersburgh and his ship to his sister in London. The letters are

written in the first person and the present tense, making the story

much more real and believable as it is being told directly and as

though it were really happening as the reader is reading it. The

letters also emphasise Walton’s distance from home and how isolated he

was. In the first letter he is writing about just how eager he is to

continue with his journey, and how the undiscovered land could be so

beautiful. He writes of all the great things that will come of his

journey. In the l...

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...k by lightning and suddenly destroyed, “...on a sudden I

beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which

stood about twenty yards from our house; and no soon as the dazzling

light vanished, the oak had disappeared”. This is like an

instantaneous representation of Frankenstein’s life, a beautiful

beginning and then a sudden turning point leading to a horrible end.

It also represents the gothic genre with the idea of a wonderful life

being taking by an evil force, using the thunderstorm as a metaphor

for the destructive force that takes such light and innocence from the

world.

Many elements of the gothic genre are apparent in the letters and

first two chapters and even though the reader knows what happens to

Frankenstein in the end, they are compelled to read about his life and

what drove him to become what he is when Walton finds him.