WEEK 1: Frankenstein Response

While I have read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley several times, when I read it this time, I paid close attention to the book's parallels with other Gothic literature. I observed that this novel has both Romantic and Gothic elements which create a magnificent story. While, the idea of Gothic has been around for centuries, the age of the gothic novel started to become more prevalent after Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.

Most Gothic novels are mysterious and supernatural which are traits that Shelley used throughout Frankenstein. For instance, the mysterious way that Victor goes about creating the monster, by gathering body parts for his experiments in the graveyard and how his unusual practices are quite foreign to the reader. Shelley also uses the theme of the supernatural by raising the dead and research of the dead. When one hears this story for the first time, particularly the idea of raising the dead, one might be horrified, disturbed, and fascinated all at the same time. I feel these mixed emotions are what the author set out to inflict upon the reader and why the novel is still so successful. 

A common pattern with Gothic novels is that they often happen in settings such as mansions, castles, or dungeons that set the mood for mysterious activity. Also, I feel a reader is more likely to be attracted to grand, far away mysterious places. Frankenstein was written to take place in Switzerland and Germany which creates sort of a fantasy and distant atmosphere for the reader. In addition to this, Victor's laboratory, where he creates the new formed human, is a foreign concept to most readers which adds mystery and suspense. 

One might say that a Gothic novel, such as Frankenstein, blends the mortal and supernatural worlds together. This state of sublime is meant to wake the reader up and introduce them to dangerous and exciting worlds.  It it important to note that while the novel was based on Mary Shelley real life hardships, she created a memorable novel in the Gothic tradition.

-Abigail