Is Frankenstein A Gothic Novel?
...e setting sets the atmosphere and creates the mood. The “dreary night o November” (Shelley 42) where the monster is given life, remains in the memory. And that is what is felt throughout the novel – the dreariness of it all along with the desolate isolation. Yet there are still small glimpses of happiness in Shelley’s “vivid pictures of the grand scenes among Frankenstein – the thunderstorm of the Alps, the valleys of Servox and Chamounix the glacier and the steep sides of Montanvert and the smoke of rushing avalanches, the tremendous dome of Mont Blanc” (Goldberg 277) and on the last journey with Elizabeth which were his last moments of happiness. The rest goes along with the melodrama of the story. Shelley can sustain the mood and create a distinct picture and it is admirable the way she begins to foreshadow coming danger. Shelley does this by starting a terrible storm, adding dreary thunder and lightening and by enhancing the gloom and dread of her gothic scenes. Shelley writes so that the reader sees and feels the scenes taking permanent hold on the memories. Furthermore, the setting can greatly impact the actions in a novel such as Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s dreaded creation proclaims that “the Desert Mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wondered here many days; the caves of ice which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and only one which man does not grudge” (Shelley 84). The pitiful creature lives in places where man cannot go fore reason that the temperatures and dangers of these settings are too extreme. But, towards the end, Frankenstein’s rage takes him all over the world in an obsessed search for his twin enduring terrible hardships, which the monster, too, has endured. Frankenstein pursues his creation to the Artic wastes, revenge being the only thing keeping him alive. Here it seems as if Frankenstein may finally capture his opponent, but nature thinks otherwise. The monster tempts his enraged creator through a world of ice and the setting becomes a hindrance as the “wind arose; the sea ...