The Importance Of Occultism In Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'

The word Occult comes from the Latin word occultus, which means secret or hidden. Most of the times, occult is about all kinds of practices and beliefs that have links with mysticism, paganism and esoterism. So deep is that link, that occultism is today synonymous with these three. The occult is also about the unorthodox beliefs in various religious traditions, and the scope of the meaning of the word is so spread that it can mean any unfamiliar religious or spiritual practice that is not agreeable to us. For example, critics of the church have termed practices like infant baptism, use of the bell, book and candle to perform exorcisms, transubstantiation, etc. as occult practices. The primary reason behind the mystery of the occult is that

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the ultimate outcome of her unconventional life, up to the summer of 1816. At that time, she was just eighteen. When she started penning down Frankenstein, she was in the company of some unusual people, and even the weather conditions were strangely unusual. One evening in Villa Diodati, when there was lightning outside the villa, and darkness inside it, with just a candle for some light, Lord Byron suggested to all those gathered there that they should engage themselves in the writing of ghost stories. This setting and the suggestion from Lord Byron resulted in Shelley’s Frankenshtein- a story that transgresses all scientific explanations and boundaries. It is obvious that without the setting of the lightning outside, the darkness inside the villa, Shelley’s unusual companions, and the climatic conditions of 1816, Frankenstein would not have been born. We have twice referred to the unusual weather conditions of 1816 having contributed to the birth of Shelley’s classic. The weather was an important factor because of what the word gothic means to us, and the way its author was affected by various factors to finally pen down this classic. In 1816, the summer was unusually damp and saddening, temperatures dropped, heavy rains occurred, and crops failed across North America, Europe

While the preparation for that is on, she is made to wear a bronze mask with spikes that are nailed to her face. And her assistant, too, is subjected to the same treatment. The rest of the movie is about two travellers in the 19th century who try to make their way through a very unusual landscape, and are never able to reach their destinations. On their way, however, they encounter a chapel with windowed coffins, beautiful princesses, suspicious villagers and much more. The plot of the movie is loosely based on Nikolai Gogol’s The Vij. This one is a Russian classic by Gogol. Black Sunday was Bava’s first film, and he was trying to be both, the director as well as the cinematographer of it (Thompson,web). He knew what he wanted, and how he needed weave the gothic texture into the movie, and hence he carefully selected the plot, and masterfully executed