The Setting of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

525 Words2 Pages

In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” the setting is more then just a time and a place. She reveals information in the story that most authors would not about the setting. Shelley painted a picture in your mind of every setting in the book when presented. Her attention to detail about the setting pulled the reader in and gave the reader a better understanding of how or why certain things were happening.

In Frankenstein, much of the setting, from a geographical standpoint takes place a lot in places such as the Swiss Alps, where the cold weather isn’t very friendly and the seclusion is lonely, much like the monster. The characters in the story seem to be consistent with the geographical setting. For example, Victor creates a monster on a night that is stormy and scary. Another example is the monster, feeling lonely and sad runs to the far northern ice for seclusion where Victor fallows him and eventually leads to his death.

Another setting that was consistent with the story was the time of the story. In the eighteenth century, the technology was reaching new levels then seen before, but...

Show More
Related

  • Frankenstein's Laboratory Setting Analysis

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shelley is very good at using the settings in this novel to evoke emotions from the reader. Whilst some of these settings are named areas, there are also some which include mere words that create a depiction of Frankenstein’s emotions and the seriousness of the current happenings. The significance of a setting is very important in a novel because, ‘Setting is the time and place where a scene occurs. It can help set the mood, influence the way characters behave, affect the dialog, foreshadow events, invoke an emotional response, reflect the society in which the characters live, and sometimes even plays a part in the story. It can also be a critical element in nonfiction

    Read More

  • Isolation And Intimacy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans and nonhuman animals are social creatures by nature and crave intimacy with others. God is the only being that can remain in isolation without intimacy without facing negative consequences. While God does not have intimacy with others he does love all human beings equally. A man living in isolation will eventually lose his mind unlike God. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein exhibits a need to be God that makes him believe he can live in isolation and without intimacy like God. Some may argue that Frankenstein has a god complex because of his unshakable belief in himself and consistently inflated feelings of personal ability, privilege, or infallibility;

    Read More

  • Use of Setting in Frankenstein

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    In writing there are multiple ways to reveal information about the characters of a story. The most common way is through actions and conversation, but Mary Shelly also uses the setting of each scene to do this. By using this method the story seems more in depth and stays in the readers mind. Mary Shelly's detailed description of the scenery of story makes the story more memorable, helps the reader understand events, and assists to reveal the character's personalities.

    Read More

  • Social Geography and Monstrosity : Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    2379 Words  | 5 Pages

    Social geography plays a big role in a person's life. Social geography includes segregation, economics, class, and race. All of these factors play a part in how a person lives and the way they are treated in society. Another factor that affects a person's society is the way that a person looks. Monstrosity can affect a person's entire life as far as where they live and even their class. In the novels Frankenstein, The Monster and Native Son, there is a relationship between social geography and monstrosity. The characters in the novels were victims of the relationship between monstrosity and social geography.

    Read More

  • The Controversial Issues of ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Controversial Issues of ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley ‘Frankenstein’ is a Gothic Horror novel written by Mary Shelley. An ambitious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, creates a creature from Human body parts in secret. Instead of taking responsibility for the creature he abandons it. The creature spends its life learning about Humans, learning to read and trying to find Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    Victor Frankenstein: The Real Monster. & nbsp; Science is a broad field that covers many aspects of everyday life and existence.  Some areas of science include the study of the universe, the environment, dinosaurs, animals, and insects.  Another popular science is the study of people and how they function.  In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is an inspiring scientist who studies the dead.  He wants to be the first person to give life to a dead human being.  He spends all of his Frankenstein is to blame for the tragedy, not the monster he has created, because he is the   mastermind behind the whole operation, and he is supposed to have everything under control, working properly as a good scientist should. & nbsp; Although some critics say that the monster Victor has created is to blame for the destruction and violence that followed the experiment, it is Victor who is the responsible party.  First, Victor, being the scientist, should have known how to do research on the subject a lot more than he had done.  He obviously has not thought of the consequences that may result from it such as the monster going crazy, how the monster reacts to people and things, and especially the time it will take him to turn the monster into the perfect normal human being.&nbsp something that would take a really long time and a lot of patience which Victor lacks.  All Victor really wants is to be the first to bring life to a dead person and therefore be famous.  The greed got to his head and that is all he could think about, while isolating himself from his friends and family.  In the play of  Frankenstein, when Victor comes home and sets up his lab in the house, he is very paranoid about people coming in there and & nbsp; I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.  For this I deprived myself of rest and health.  I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. (156)  & nbsp; Victor is saying that he has isolated himself for two years and in the end, he is not at all happy because of the bad outcome.  He also adds, "Winter, spring and summer passed.so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation" (156).  By spending most of his time inside on his experiment, never going out, but mostly worrying about his success,  he has got himself crazier.  This has made him lose sight of his surroundings and judgment & nbsp; Moreover, the monster should not be held responsible for killing Victor's family members and friends as shown in the book and movie, because it is Victor who has brought a dead creature back to life.  He expects the monster to know everything when he wakes up cool, calm, and collected.  But when the monster is awakened, he does not know anything.  He sees a world different from what he is used to, which makes him get nervous and scared, so he&nb has removed him from  dead.  With the dawning of life, the monster has to learn about his new environment.  In the play of Frankenstein, the monster starts to gradually get used to things.  The problems he encounters are with Victor's assistant, Peter Krempe,  Victor's friend, Henry, and other family members, including Elizabeth, and these are reactions to how these people treat him.  These reactions are clearly shown in the movie of Young Frankenstein, where Victor tries to teach the monster how to live like to show off the monster to an audience in a dance routine of sorts.  But then people start to scream,  panic and throw things at the monster, so he reacts by attacking them to defend himself.  In this case, it is clear that Victor tries to push the monster too hard because he wants to be famous.  

    Read More

  • Frankenstein: The Complex Character In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Victor Frankenstein is a complex character that we have come to learn more about while reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He is a man that seems to have this fervent desire to do what suits him best without regard to what others may think. Victor’s brother William has been murdered and a childhood friend is to pay the price of his death. After sighting what is assumed as the creature created by Victor, Victor is panged with guilt that these events are his fault. If he is correct, then he would be justified in feeling this way because Victor is selfish, stubborn, and lacks compassion for others around him. Victors actions all lead up to the demise of William and Justine.

    Read More

  • Mary Shelley´s Frankenstein, an Example of Gothic Romance

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Interpretation Essay

    498 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mary W. Shelly’s classic book, Frankenstein, was written in the early nineteenth century. The setting that is taken place within the story has multiple locations. Amongst these multiple locations are Switzerland, Geneva, the home of Dr. Frankenstein, unknown villages/cottages, and the North Pole which was the exposition of the story to begin with. The style of the classic, Frankenstein, has a different style of writing due to not being written in the proper chronological nature. When Frankenstein, is adapted to motion picture film, the film focuses on the horror of Frankenstein’s monster, however the book is really about romanticism. Stephen Gould intertwines his opinion on the book Frankenstein. His opinion is

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    Analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Analyzing a book can be a killer. Especially when it contains tons of subtle little messages and hints that are not picked up unless one really dissects the material. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a prime example.

    Read More

  • Allusion In Frankenstein

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1700s, the Enlightenment period in Europe was at its highest peak. It was at this time that author Mary Shelley decided to create her most famous novel, Frankenstein. Amidst a rainy day on Lake Geneva, author Mary Shelley was stuck in a house with a few Romantic poets, so in order to pass the time Lord Byron suggested that they each compose a ghost story to entertain each other. Promptly, Shelly began to conceive a horrific tale that demonstrates the detrimental effects of isolation on the mind and soul. In the novel Frankenstein, author Mary Shelley delineates the theme of isolation and its destructive power using evolution in tone, allusions to the Bible, and symbolism.

    Read More

  • The “Other” Creation: Post-Colonialism in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein (sometimes also known as The Modern Prometheus) is the classic gothic novel of her time. In this eerie tale, Dr. Victor Frankenstein – suffering from quite an extreme superiority complex – brings to life a creature made from body parts of deceased individuals from nearby cemeteries. Rather than to embrace the Creature as his own, Frankenstein alienates him because of his unpleasant appearance. Throughout the novel, the Creature is ostracized not only by Frankenstein but by society as a whole. Initially a kind and gentle being, the Creature becomes violent and eventually seeks revenge for his creator’s betrayal. Rather than to merely focus on the exclusion of the Creature from society, Shelley depicts the progression of Dr. Frankenstein’s seclusion from other humans as well, until he and the Creature ultimately become equals – alone in the world with no one to love, and no one to love them back. Frankenstein serves as more than simply a legendary tale of horror, but also as a representation of how isolation and prejudice can result in the demise of the individual.

    Read More

  • "Frankenstein": The Modern Prometheus, Boldly Creative

    2070 Words  | 5 Pages

    Frankenstein takes place in many locations all over Europe, and some parts of Asia. The arctic ocean above Russia, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Geneva in Switzerland. The time period for this novel is sometime in the late 1700's. Science is still very much primitive but beginning to develop, that North Pole still had not been discovered as one of the main characters, Walton, is trying to reach it. Arguably one of the most important place settings for Frankenstein is Ingolstadt t...

    Read More

  • Frankenstein and the Gothic Genre

    2205 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mary Shelleys Frankenstein ( 1818 ) is considered by many literary critics to be the quintessential gothic novel despite the fact that most of the more conventions of the genre are either absent or employed sparingly. As many of the literary techniques and themes of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein adhere to the conventions of the gothic genre it can be considered, primarily, a gothic novel with important links to the Romantic movement.

    Read More

  • The Usage of Landscape in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    When reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I was struck by how Mary makes use of the landscape to parallel Victor Frankenstein's shifting mental condition. In the story, Victor Frankenstein is an overly ambitious scientist whose curious tinkling with alchemy leads him to create a giant monster and ultimately compromised Frankenstein's own destruction. After Frankenstein created his monster and witnessed the horror that was his own making, he is traumatized in a "painful state of mind," which leads him to isolate himself from the outside world. Frankenstein's power to create life from dead body parts proves to be so extreme and so immoral that nothing in society seems to be able to encompass such an enormous feat, not even Frankenstein himself after he finished his creation. Thus, because of his inability to accept the fact that he has successfully brought something so grotesque to life, Frankenstein takes his dark secret and retreats within himself. Frankenstein's self-discovered power is so great that it successfully disassociates him from all the things he has once held dear in his life, such as family and the beautiful familiar landscapes. From here on, Frankenstein can only identify with big, immense, sublime landscapes because these are the only landscapes extreme enough to communicate what Victor is feeling inside.

    Read More

More about The Setting of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

Open Document