Significance of Chapter 5 in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Comment on Chapter 5’s significance in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Famous writer, Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797. She was the

daughter of writer William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley’s

mother sadly died while giving birth to her. This was an influence

included in the later successful novel ‘Frankenstein’. At 19, she

married poet Percy Shelley, who she married in 1816. Together, Mary

and Percy had five children, but only one survived past childhood.

This tragedy, along with the early death of her mother influenced Mary

Shelley's theme linking creation with death. She started to write

Frankenstein at the age of 18, completing it in less than a year. She

said the idea came to her in a dream, and dreams are created by

unrelated events, and memories.

Science became one of the main influences for Shelley’s novel. At the

time, the influences of the scientific world became fascinating to

everyone. The idea of bringing people back to life was being tested by

some of the most intelligent minds.

The main character in the story, Victor, grew up in Geneva, where Mary

Shelley wrote the novel. Whilst staying there, Mary, Percy and Byron

then met ‘Monk’ Lewis who was famous for writing supernatural novels.

Byron’s group talked for hours on end, and reading ghost stories. He

challenged the group to write a ghost story – Frankenstein.

Frankenstein is a gothic fantasy novel as it features horrifying

events, stormy and dark settings, satanic imagery and themes of

revenge and pursuit. The novel was purposely written to shock and

scare readers. The novel has been suggested to be a romantic,

psychological, social, political tale. However, I think that it is a

philosophical tale. Certain events which...

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...ontrast to this statement a little bit later on, ‘…and I selected his

features as beautiful’ - Victor goes from negative to positive.

Another significant aspect of chapter 5, is Shelley’s description of

Victor’s nightmare, which shows how disturbed he is by his creation.

Shelley immediately links the ‘birth’ with death, and mentions

Elizabeth, Victor kissing her while she is being killed. ‘…imprinted

the first kiss on he lips, they became livid with the hue of death.’

This is ironic because Elizabeth is murdered later on in the story, by

Victor’s creation. Shelley also uses a variety of motifs. ‘By dim

and yellow light of the moon’, this phrase is associated with the

monster, as it appears when the monster is created. When the monster

threatens revenge, it comes across as an eerie moment. ‘One hand was

stretched out’. This is again, a different motif.