I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and

trampled on were Frankensteins monsters dejected last words heard in the book,
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (130). In this book, the idea of Gothic horror, which is the idea of
combining both the dramatic themes of Romanticism and adding in supernatural
terrors and atmospheres of mysterious horror that infiltrate the action, is established. One of the most
common characteristics of the Gothic novel is the lonely and frightening setting.
Frankenstein is no exception. Taking place in Geneva and the cold Swiss Alps during the 1800s,
Shelley has created a suiting background to emphasize the solitude and isolation from
people the monster feels. All these traits and characteristics make Frankenstein the quintessential
gothic novel. Three specific characteristics that make Frankenstein the gothic
novel are the belief in the supernatural, the struggle between good and evil, and the focus on the
grotesque.
In one moment of the book, the text mentions some lines from John Miltons The Paradise
Lost and says Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I
solicit thee From darkness to promote me? (89). In this line, Adam from the Bible bemoans his fallen
condition, and this situation is directly compared to the monster who conceives of
himself as a tragic figure. Similar to Adam, the monster is shunned by his creator, although he is trying to
be good. These rhetorical questions express the monsters ill will toward Victor
for leaving him in a world relentlessly hostile to him and foist responsibility for his ugliness and eventual
evil upon Victor. The very backbone of this idea comes from the belief of the
supernatural. For example, in Adams case, God is the creator and the supernatural being that exists.
In the monsters case, this being would be Frankenstein, who completely
believed that he could make life out of something through science. The firm belief in the supernatural is
what kept Frankenstein studying and later creating the monster. When
Frankenstein was creating the monster, he saw a flash of lightning illuminate the object and
discovered its shape plainly to himself and its gigantic stature (60). In this quote,
Frankenstein was interested with lightning; he was also always interested in lightning as a child and he
thought that it was lightning that gave life and had mysterious powers. This is also
a firm belief in the supernatural that Frankenstein followed, and was clearly an important thing because
he did use electricity in his experiment to create the monster. Clearly,
Frankenstein uses the elements of the supernatural, and this one factor why Frankenstein is a gothic
novel.
Similar to the way the belief in the supernatural is one characteristic that makes Frankenstein
a gothic novel, the theme of good versus evil is also such a trait. In the story, this
theme is expressed when the monster beheld those Frankenstein loved spend vain sorrow upon the
graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to the monsters
unhallowed arts" (73). In this specific instance, the monster had killed one of Frankensteins relatives,
and this is an act that is against Frankenstein for abandoning him. Frankenstein is
the bad side because he is the one that created the monsters suffering, and the monster would be the
good side because all he wants is peace and a partner to live life with. This great
conflict that goes through the book is representative of the theme of good versus evil because the sides
are clearly depicted and conflict between the two beings are displayed. For
example, the monster says I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as
deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must
be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create (129). In this quote, the
monster wants Frankenstein to make him a female partner, but Frankenstein
refuses to make him one after he realizes that he is creating another wretched creature. Again conflict is
depicted between the monster and Frankenstein, and this conflict is also
representative of the theme of good versus evil. By means of displaying this theme, the characteristic of
gothic horror is represented, and this characteristic is what Frankenstein
possesses.
Similar to the gothic traits of believing in the supernatural and the theme of good versus evil,
the focus on the grotesque is also on characteristic that makes Frankenstein
a gothic novel. All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all
living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom
thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us, says the monster to
Frankenstein when Frankenstein continuously rejects him and does not care about him at
all, just like the rest of society (83). The focus here is the reason why the monster is rejected. When the
monster was first created, Frankenstein was very happy with his
accomplishments. However, once he actually looked at the monster, he realized how ugly it was and had
to abandon it because he did not want to take blame for creating such a
disgusting creature. Specifically, the focus on the grotesque is depicted when Frankenstein does not
listen to the monsters pleas for creating happiness for him; the idea of being alone
and not having a say in society is truly frightening. Another view of the grotesque is also described when
the monster says, 'When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me.
Was I, the, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?
(105). The monster looks at himself and others, noticing quite big differences.
Shelley also goes ahead and adds vivid and horrific descriptions of how the monster actually looks like,
as the monster was made from scrap body parts from the graveyard. By means of
displaying the two different sides of the grotesque, Frankenstein is clearly a gothic novel.
Throughout the book, a struggle is evident. This struggle is the monster trying to fit into society,
but it does not work because he is different from everybody else. This
depressing theme represents the gothic type literature because the book displays this theme in a
dramatic and frightening way. This is evident when the book displays the themes of
believing in the supernatural by creating artificial life, the struggle between good and evil with the
monster and Frankenstein, and the focus on the disgusting, grotesque characteristics
of the monster. Clearly, Shelley has written a novel that depicts the time period of Romanticism,
specifically the branch of Gothicism which focuses on the frightening themes.
Work Cited:
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and J. Paul Hunter. Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, Contexts, Nineteenth-
century Responses, Modern Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.