|
Frankenstein
as a gothic Fiction.
The
word "Gothic" originally referred
to the Goths, Gothic novel carries a
typical story focussed on the sufferings
imposed on an innocent heroine by a
cruel and lustful villian and made large
quantities use of ghosts, mysterious
dissappearances and other sensetional
and supernatural occurances. The principle
aim of any gothic novel is to evoke
terror by exploiting mystery and veriety
of horrors. So, story focussing on the
sufferings of an innocent heroine by
cruel villian, use of ghosts and supernatural
events, arousing terror with horrorific
situations are some of the most striking
elements of gothic novel which can be
applied in the Mary Shelley' novel too.
|
|
|
Frankenstein is a good example
of a gothic novel which carries
all above mentioned elements
of gothic novel. The innocent
heroine of the novel is Elizabeth
Lavenza, Frankestein's wife.
She is an innocent character.
On the very day of the honeymoon
of Victor Frankenstein and
Elizabeth Lavenza the cruel
monster kills her without
any pity and sympathy towards
her. So here monster has been
presented as the villian of
the protagonist's happiness.
It is the most striking elements
of any gothic novel which
is completly applied in this
novel; Frankenstein.
|
Similarly
there is the use of ghosts, supernatural
elements too. Crating a monster itself
is a kind of mysterious circumstance
of the novel. By the use of little known
technology Victor gathers the bodily
parts of his experiments he creates
the monster. He uses the dead for his
scientific experiments and out of the
dead he creates the monster. It is very
much supernatural and ghost like quality
of the novel. The entire plot structure
is dominated with the activities of
the monster together with unbelievable
supernaturally real miracles. At this
point also the novel carries gothic
elements.
The
third essential element of any gothic
novel is arousing terror with horrific
situation. The novel carries this quality
too. When there is the description about
how the monster traveled in different
place together with its destructive
qualities it automatically creates horrific
situation together with terror. For
e.g. when the monster takes revenge
against Frakenstein by killing the innocent
heroine at the right day of their honeymoon
there is very horrific situations filled
with terror. There are other such situations
too if we see the activities of monster.
In this way Frankenstein possess
almost all the qualities of gothic novel.
So it is a gothic novel.
|
