In Letters 1-4 of Frankenstein, What Elements of the Gothic Are Introduced and How Does Shelley Present Them?
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- Category: English: Novels
- Date Submitted: 02/23/2015 01:55 PM
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein opens with four letters written by R. Walton to his sister, ‘Mrs Saville’ describing his journey through the arctic and his meeting with Victor Frankenstein. Walton’s letters introduce a number of key Gothic elements which are seen consistently throughout the novel. The purpose of this is to introduce the major themes, establish the tone of the poem and foreshadow possible events to come.
The character of Walton is used in the opening letters of ‘Frankenstein’ to set the tone of the novel and introduce some key Gothic concepts. Walton is a confident, yet lonely sea explorer who whilst on a voyage to the North Pole becomes trapped between two sheets of ice and meets Victor Frankenstein. A number of parallels can instantly be made between the two men as Walton ‘seeks for knowledge and wisdom’ which Frankenstein ‘once did’. This similarity also extends to the desire to have power over nature shown through his aspiration to ‘proceed over the untamed yet obedient element’. This question of creating life and having power over nature leads on to becoming the major theme throughout Shelley’s novel, and thus Walton’s letters partly act as a foreshadowing to the key events in ‘Frankenstein’. In 1818, the thought of a man assuming god-like traits and having power over creation would be an incredibly blasphemes image to the majority of the population and would be almost terrifying to them. Furthermore, at the time romanticism was still very popular in literature and very few people had branched off into The Gothic style yet, So Shelley asking these blasphemes questions would cause strong anger amongst religious societies. Not only is the thought of imitating God blasphemes, but it is also a moral and cultural taboo which is an important Gothic concept in Gothic Literature. Shelley presents another traditional Gothic element in the first letter when she describes Walton’s solitude and loneliness due to the death of his parents. Absent parents...
The character of Walton is used in the opening letters of ‘Frankenstein’ to set the tone of the novel and introduce some key Gothic concepts. Walton is a confident, yet lonely sea explorer who whilst on a voyage to the North Pole becomes trapped between two sheets of ice and meets Victor Frankenstein. A number of parallels can instantly be made between the two men as Walton ‘seeks for knowledge and wisdom’ which Frankenstein ‘once did’. This similarity also extends to the desire to have power over nature shown through his aspiration to ‘proceed over the untamed yet obedient element’. This question of creating life and having power over nature leads on to becoming the major theme throughout Shelley’s novel, and thus Walton’s letters partly act as a foreshadowing to the key events in ‘Frankenstein’. In 1818, the thought of a man assuming god-like traits and having power over creation would be an incredibly blasphemes image to the majority of the population and would be almost terrifying to them. Furthermore, at the time romanticism was still very popular in literature and very few people had branched off into The Gothic style yet, So Shelley asking these blasphemes questions would cause strong anger amongst religious societies. Not only is the thought of imitating God blasphemes, but it is also a moral and cultural taboo which is an important Gothic concept in Gothic Literature. Shelley presents another traditional Gothic element in the first letter when she describes Walton’s solitude and loneliness due to the death of his parents. Absent parents...