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Importance of supernatural in literature
Essays on gothic literature
Key elements in gothic stories
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Recommended: Importance of supernatural in literature
Josh Barnette
Honors English IV
Mrs. Schroder
12/6/17
Frankenstein Essay Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written in the early 19th century and contains many attributes of gothic characteristics in many different ways. Frankenstein carries many gothic characteristics, such as the mysterious and supernatural, the story taking place in a dark place, and the coming together of the mortal and the supernatural world. Shelley uses all of these gothic characteristics to her advantage when portraying the book as gothic and mysterious. Gothic Novels tend to focus on mysterious and supernatural things. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses strange circumstances for when Victor Frankenstein creates the monster. In the novel, Victor uses body parts of the
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The places Mary Shelley uses in Frankenstein are cold and lonely places, places that attract nobody. Shelley does this to set up an environment that is consistent throughout the story. The story takes place all throughout Europe and even extends into the Arctic. The places that the novel focuses on are usually very secluded places to set up a sense of loneliness for the creature and make the environments that they are in seem dark and sad which is a strong element of a Gothic novel. The setting of the buildings that Frankenstein takes place in are dark and gloomy. Shelley also uses weather as a big role in setting up the mood and scene she is trying to create. Throughout the novel the weather will be a cold and rainy setting that sets up a gloomy mood. Gothic novels take place in depressing and scary places like castles, towers, and old buildings. All of these examples are in the novel which just proves that Shelley wrote a gothic novel. Shelley uses supernatural and scary elements to set up a bridge between the natural world and the supernatural world. Whenever someone is dealing with raising the dead people will be scared. Shelley brings together science and fear when creating this aspect of gothic literature. Frankenstein creating the creature is huge when setting up the “Supernatural and natural world”, this scene is pivotal because it makes the creature seem like he is already …show more content…
Victor became so carried away when doing his experiments that he lost track of himself and did not realize how evil it is to try and be God. Only God is supposed to have the power to create life, and Doctor Frankenstein knows this when he starts putting together the body parts for The Creature. Several curses come to any person who tries to obtain the power and strength of God. By taking dead body parts and creating life from them, Doctor Frankenstein curses The Creature from the moment that he is made. Mary Shelley does an excellent job when making this novel a gothic novel. With her compelling writing, she creates a setting that is dark and gloomy to make the reader scared and intrigued, she incorporates a sense of mystery with the murder of a innocent boy, which intrigues the reader to figure out who did it, and Shelley magnificently bridges a large gap between the supernatural world and the natural world and makes both become
Rousseau's ideology of education and nature laid the basic groundwork for many of the Gothic novels. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, was able to forge a bridge of thought that was able to span the chasm formed by the age of reason between the supernatural and reason. As a predecessor of the romantic movement, the Gothic novel was a direct reaction against the age of reason. The predominate idea of the age being that the world which is governed by nature is rationally ordered and given man's ability to reason, analyze and understand nature, man possesses the innate ability to use nature to create a rational society based on nature's dominate principles. The Gothic novel allowed the reader to pass from reason and order of the day to a region born of the supernatural which inspired dread and abounds in death and decay as nature's only true end.
Using gothic conventions Frankenstein explores Mary Shelley’s personal views on the scientific developments, moral and economical issues that occurred during the 19th century and Shelley’s personal emotions and questions regarding her life. As an educated person, Mary Shelley had an interest in the development of the world such as political and moral issues and she challenged these issues in the novel.
The literary elements of remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress, clearly show “Frankenstein” to be a Gothic Romantic work. Mary Shelley used this writing style to effectively allow the reader to feel Victor Frankenstein’s regret and wretchedness. In writing “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley wrote one the most popular Gothic Romantic novels of all time.
Examine the Concept of Monsters and the Monstrous in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Miss Hutton “Frankenstein” has a variety of monsters and monstrous things/incidents within it, however I am jus going to focus on some main aspects of the monsters and monstrous. Shelley got the idea for “Frankenstein” whilst she was on holiday. AS well as being challenged by Lord Byron to produce a horror novel, she was also influenced death many times; she was abandoned and had a literacy upbringing. Shelley relates her story to fears which were carried by many humans at that time.
Gothic literature was developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth century of the Gothic era when war and controversy was too common. It received its name after the Gothic architecture that was becoming a popular trend in the construction of buildings. As the buildings of daunting castles and labyrinths began, so did the beginning foundation of Gothic literature. The construction of these buildings will later become an obsession with Gothic authors. For about 300 years before the Renaissance period, the construction of these castles and labyrinths continued, not only in England, but also in Gothic stories (Landau 2014). Many wars and controversies, such as the Industrial Revolution and Revolutionary War, were happening at this time, causing the Gothic literature to thrive (“Gothic Literature” 2011). People were looking for an escape from the real world and the thrill that Gothic literature offered was exactly what they needed. Gothic literature focuses on the horrors and the dark sides to the human brain, such as in Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein. Gothic literature today, as well as in the past, has been able to separate itself apart from other types of literature with its unique literary devices used to create fear and terror within the reader.
The term ‘Gothic’ conjures a range of possible meanings, definitions and associations. It explicitly denotes certain historical and cultural phenomena. Gothicism was part of the Romantic Movement that started in the eighteenth century and lasted about three decades into the nineteenth century. For this essay, the definition of Gothic that is applicable is: An 18th century literary style characterized by gloom and the supernatural. In the Gothic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a wide range of issues are explored. Frankenstein represents an entirely new vision of the female Gothic, along with many other traditional themes such as religion, science, colonialism and myth.
Mary Shelley, with her brilliant tale of mankind's obsession with two opposing forces: creation and science, continues to draw readers with Frankenstein's many meanings and effect on society. Frankenstein has had a major influence across literature and pop culture and was one of the major contributors to a completely new genre of horror. Frankenstein is most famous for being arguably considered the first fully-realized science fiction novel. In Frankenstein, some of the main concepts behind the literary movement of Romanticism can be found. Mary Shelley was a colleague of many Romantic poets such as her husband Percy Shelley, and their friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, even though the themes within Frankenstein are darker than their brighter subjects and poems. Still, she was very influenced by Romantics and the Romantic Period, and readers can find many examples of Romanticism in this book. Some people actually argue that Frankenstein “initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric”1, or is a more cultured novel than the writings of other Romantics. Shelley questions and interacts with the classic Romantic tropes, causing this rethink of a novel that goes deeper into societal history than it appears. For example, the introduction of Gothic ideas to Frankenstein challenges the typical stereotyped assumptions of Romanticism, giving new meaning and context to the novel. Mary Shelley challenges Romanticism by highlighting certain aspects of the movement while questioning and interacting with the Romantic movement through her writing.
In the examination of Northanger Abbey and Frankenstein one comes to very different conclusions as to why their authors used gothic elements. The two authors had very different purposes for their stories. Powerful emotions are often an element of gothic literature as it was a genre that took Romanticism to excessive extents. While Austen used this gothic element to satirize the gothic novel, Shelley used it to display a deeper point about the evils of ambition. Both authors exhibited characters severe emotions to show the importance of rationality instead of extremes, but ultimately had a different purpose in presenting this view.
As one of the first gothic novels Frankenstein explores the darker side of human nature, ambitions, and the human mind.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic science fiction novel written in the romantic era that focuses on the elements of life. The romantic era was sparked by the changing social environment, including the industrial revolution. It was a form of revolt against the scientific revolutions of the era by developing a form of literature that romanticize nature and giving nature godliness. This element of romanticized nature is a recurrent element in Frankenstein and is used to reflect emotions, as a place for relaxation and as foreshadowing. Frankenstein also includes various other elements of romanticism including strong emotions and interest in the common people.
Older Gothic literature was in castles and deserted buildings. Modern Gothic novels were written in more populated areas. Another text that can be classed as ‘Gothic’ is the novel ‘Frankenstein’. The reason for it being a ‘Gothic’ novel is the way it has a mutant character. Frankenstein is a mutant and is made by a crazy scientist ‘I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of.
Monsters are often present in gothic novels; especially in those that combine horror and romance. A monster will be the cause of individual characters fears. Frankenstein can be linked to this genre in many ways, the most obvious link being the horror element of the story. The thought of someone created from dead flesh would have been a horrific thought back then and still would be now, also Victor playing god would have been considered terrible back then “A new species would bless me as its creator” the 1800’s were still very religious times and trying to create life artificially would have been condemned by religious people.
As can be seen Frankenstein utilises many of the conventions of the gothic genre and can thus be considered a gothic novel. Its links to the Romantic movement are also evident. The stereotypical settings, characters and plots, interest in the sublime, emphasis on suspense, the production of excessive emotion in the reader ( particularly that of terror and horror), the presence of the supernatural and the notion of the ’double’ are all features of Frankenstein that illustrate this.
This novel exposes raw human emotion relating to the grotesque, dark, and unnatural, otherwise known as The Gothic, in Romantic literature (MindEdge, Inc., 2014). The Gothic is evident with a detailed description of the murder of a child (William), and the child 's struggle to break free from his murderer, as well as the description of Elizabeth 's screams as she was murdered, and her head hanging down with lifeless body flung over the bed (Shelley, 1818). Nature is also distinguished by descriptions of Frankenstein 's Swiss home, the shapes of the mountains, changing seasons, violent storms, and the narrator 's ship was surrounded by ice. Shelley 's novel was inspired by ghost stories she heard from Lord Byron (Shelley, 1818), the model for Romantic heroism (MindEdge, Inc., 2014). Nationalism is also evident when Frankenstein refers to Geneva as his country, and was dear to him (Shelley, 1818). Although this novel strongly represents Romantic literature, I see a connection to the earlier Renaissance era in the form of scientific expansion and individualism. Frankenstein was focused on his sole purpose of the scientific development of creating a human (Shelley,
The novel Frankenstein is a one of the first Gothic novels that entails both gothic and romantic elements in its plot. The novel explains how Victor creates Frankenstein, the process by which he collects body parts and how life is given to Frankenstein. Its plot is in old scary European buildings and is filled with war between good and evil. It also shows how the characters are able to connect both the mortal and supernatural world. This novel is about the war between good and evil that will eventually get to have Frankenstein on their side (Donawerth). On the other hand, the novel on Jane Eyre is a gothic novel that takes place in Europe. It is filled with old buildings and shows how a young orphaned Jane Eyre is neglected by her adopted family especially after her adopted father dies. She undergoes through periods of success and hurting in her life until she meets a man by the name Edward who later breaks her heart. This leads her to the quest of finding her spirituality (Adams). This novel shows how one gets to know their spirituality and how it leads to their strengths and succe...