Mary Shelley is an iconic writer who lived from 1797 and died in 1851. The writer lived and wrote during the era of literature when romanticism bloomed and flourished. Shelley’s works can prove that she was significantly impacted by her times because she shows major elements of romantic writing. One romantic attribute of Shelley’s novels is how she sets her novels, choosing beautiful and exotic places. The artistic ending that Mary Shelley chooses to achieve in her particular novel, Frankenstein, is gothic and romantic conventions. Shelley does so through the plot, the characterization in the book, the setting, and the subject matter. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses literary elements that exude both a gothic and romantic factor in the characters in the story. In this paper, the discussion will be on how Mary Shelley has used her writing prowess to achieve the gothic and romantic effect unique and distinguishes the book from any other piece of art.
The first element is the setting in Frankenstein. Shelley picks a romantic setting, and here the characterization of the monster and Victor Frankenstein is brought to life. As seen in many books of the romantic genre, Frankenstein uses unknown and obscure places. Switzerland’s scenic nature, the foreign country the play takes place, helps make the book romantic. Victor Frankenstein’s character shows the romance as he says, ‘The black sides of Jura, the bright summit of Mont Blanc… Dear Mountains! My beautiful lake! Your summits are clear; the sky and the lake are blue and placid. The description is used to show how the scenery is impeccably beautiful and picturesque and this curves the character of Victor as being romantic. The book continues to show how Victor loved to take refuge in perfect solitude and how he enjoyed nature. The reader sees Victor on the boat, in the lake the whole day, watching the clouds and listening to silence and waves that are rippling through. In the same breath, the reader is let in on the point where Victor is at in life because he seizes to enjoy nature because of how low he feels. The monster’s despondency is also shown through the set when he says, ‘the labors I endured were no longer to be alleviated by the bright sun or the gentle breezes of spring.’ Before the monster was shot when he had just been rescued, a child changed his perspective on life. The reader sees that the monster had a blimp of goodness and humanity in him before his feelings were hurt. Through the monster’s appreciation for nature first, his good side is seen, and then the lack of appreciation that the inhuman gothic aspect is illuminated.
It is the setting that dictates what the reader feels and how they see the character in question. The positive humanistic character of the monster is built through Shelley using nature to draw the reader. Suspense is built up through the dark, dreary, and gothic setting that the writer chooses. Victor describes the night of November as scary to make Halloween setting to see the crescendoing of the monster’s awakening. Again, when Victor is going back to Geneva, there are dark clouds, heavy rains, and a massive storm that sets the mood suitable for the horrific sighting of the monster by Victor. Shelley employs ‘the dark and stormy night’ gothic classic setting to set a horrific mood. How Shelley uses language to deploy both gothic and romantic situation makes for an unforgettable story. There being nothing more gothic than death, in Frankenstein, Shelley uses it as an intense element that is depicted all over the book. The mood is set by Victor’s mother’s death, which shows the gothic side of the story by creating a somber mood. The monster who kills both the wife and brother of Victor as an act of revenge shows the story’s gothic side. The theme of pain, which is a common feature in gothic stories, is shown in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The gothic element of the story is shown through the pain of the main characters starting with the monster in pain throughout the book. It is mostly the part where he confronts Delacy, and then he runs out of the village due to pain. The pain of losing his loved ones that Victor experiences, and even when he loses his ability to enjoy nature because of pain, shows gothic elements. Shelley creates gloomy and dark areas to show gothic as the laboratory where Victor created the monster in. Gothic stories have mystery and suspense, and in Frankenstein, Walton traveling through an unfamiliar place gives the reader a feeling of mystery and wonder of what that feels like. The romantic aspects of the novel are shown through the power of the individual. Victor and Robert Walton have a unique romanticized standing in the novel because they are individuals with different passions. Walton has a passion for discovery, and he goes to the North Pole on his voyage, which is a type of romance. Victor, on the other hand, has the goal of creating a life that he has romanticized. The characters are also shown acting emotionally, erratically, and irrationally which shows their romantic aspect.
The magnification of their emotions by the writer is to show what they feel. The reader gets to see the human protectors rejecting the monster and how irrationally destructive he becomes to show that he cares and wants to be cared for and loved in return. Reason flees from Victor’s mind, and that is why he follows the monster to the North Pole, which was a bad idea and irrational, showing the book’s romantic aspect. In many gothic stories, the characters seem to have the power to navigate both the supernatural world and the mortal one. The characters seem to have the power to live like the undead, ordinary people, and also from the world beyond. Frankenstein shows this through the monster being able to somewhat communicate with Victor, the human creator. The reason for being wherever Victor is can only be explained as the monster having powers to bridge through the mortal and supernatural world. The speed with which the monster moves is superhuman, a gothic feature used by Mary Shelley to create a memorable story. The story is entertaining but still has some important lessons that a reader can draw from the reading. Mary Shelley wants to show the reader that human beings should never forget the sanctity of humanity. As much as science and technology are intriguing, they can go too far, which is not suitable for survival and healthy living.