How Does the Language in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Reflect its Gothic

How Does the Language in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein Reflect its Gothic GenreThe gothic genre was popular around the 19th century. It isoften associated with dark, evil things and death. This attendedappropriate at the time as there were no electric lights ortelevisions so it was generally darker than it is in the present day.It brings to drumhead stories like Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyll andMr Hyde. It may have been popular at this time because it is typicallybased about ominous things in dark places making it seem morerealistic because of the use of candles at the time.I am focussing on the beginning of Frankenstein and observing howhis dreams drove him to his own destruction, and how he is left to demean the monster which he created.Robert Walton, an explorer travelling through the icy wasteland of theNorth Pole, sees the monster and is fulminantly overwhelmed by his evilpresence, he then finds Frankenstein, close to dead and consumed by thecoldness of the bitter enviro nment. Victor comes with his warning, andhis story, as he explains just what a dream can lead to.The first part of the halt is Robert Waltons earn from St.Petersburgh and his ship to his sister in London. The letters arewritten in the first person and the present tense, making the story a lot more real and believable as it is being told directly and asthough it were really happening as the reader is reading it. Theletters similarly emphasise Waltons distance from home and how isolated hewas. In the first letter he is writing about just how eager he is tocontinue with his journey, and how the undiscovered land could be sobeautiful. He writes of all the great things that will come of hisjourney. In the l... ...k by lightning and suddenly destroyed, ...on a sudden Ibeheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak whichstood about twenty yards from our house and no soon as the bedazzlelight vanished, the oak had disappeared. This is like aninstantaneous representation of Frankensteins life, a beautifulbeginning and then a sudden turning point leadership to a horrible end.It also represents the gothic genre with the idea of a wonderful lifebeing taking by an evil force, using the electric storm as a metaphorfor the destructive force that takes such light and innocence from theworld.Many elements of the gothic genre are apparent in the letters andfirst two chapters and even though the reader knows what happens toFrankenstein in the end, they are compelled to read about his life andwhat drove him to become what he is when Walton finds him.