What is the writing technique of the novel Frankenstein?
The novel is told in the epistolary form - written in a series of letters. This effectively integrates the reader into the story by allowing them to feel as if they are receiving a personal account of the events of the novel, adding an element of immersion.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein falls under two different genres of literature: Gothic novel and science fiction. As a Gothic novel, Frankenstein embodies many of the setting and plot elements associated with the genre.
Shelley uses foreshadowing in Frankenstein to create suspense by writing characters who make vague claims or threats. Then, she has these claims or threats present themselves later in the story to progress the plot and development of the characters.
Frankenstein exemplifies many of the values associated with Romanticism, an artistic movement that began in Western Europe during the late 1700s through the mid-1800s.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Plot Summary, Characters & Themes Mindmap! | English GCSE Revision!
Is Frankenstein Romanticism or realism?
Frankenstein is a Romantic work in that it shows the harm of science and the struggles of the Creature against a society that fears and shuns him. Victor himself is a warning against science without checks, of ambition getting in the way of common sense.
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is most frequently read and interpreted as a Gothic horror on the dangers of the unbridled optimism of science. Gothic horror is a subset of romanticism as a genre that thrives on the excitement and terror of the mystery of nature and the supernatural.
Two incongruous ideas appearing side by side. For instance, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creature in the story learns English from John Milton's Paradise Lost. Because of this, his elevated and intelligent language is juxtaposed with his grotesque appearance.
What imagery does the author use in Frankenstein? Mary Shelley uses imagery throughout her novel. She uses vivid descriptions of the Swiss Alps, the ice that traps Walton's ship, and most importantly, of Frankenstein's creature.
Suspense in literature is a literary device in which tension holds our attention between one moment and another. Suspense happens when the reader is on the edge of a pivotal moment, and they don't know what's going to happen next.
Immediately after the monster comes to life, Victor has a nightmare involving a vision of Elizabeth lying dead, and then transforming so that “I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms.” This vision foreshadows that Elizabeth will die, and that her death is in some way connected to the monster.
The tone of Frankenstein is largely bleak and despairing. The tone begins with optimism from the perspective of Captain Walton who is excited and hopeful about his Arctic voyage.
Shelley uses Realist techniques to describe scene, to develop the characters, and the narrative is generally structured by these character's actions. However, she also draws on techniques more familiar to the Gothic novel, melodrama, and (unsurprisingly) Romanticism.
In Chapter 4, Victor uses a metaphor of light to describe his reaction after discovering the secret to life: Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
In her book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the literary devices of figurative language and personification to help add meaning and significance to the story she is telling.
Frankenstein is at its core a representation of the duality of scientific progress. Mary Shelley's warning that the pursuit of knowledge loses it's honor and becomes dangerous when pushed to the extreme manifests itself through the symbolism of fire.
Metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, simile, personification, assonance, alliteration, consonance, onomatopoeia, etc. These devices have a powerful impact as they work on our senses to strengthen the subject matter of the text. You will find specific examples of the above techniques throughout this toolkit.
Both Elizabeth and Henry Clerval are foils for Victor Frankenstein. While Frankenstein acts like an Enlightenment thinker, using cold science to try to master life and nature, Elizabeth and Clerval act like Romantic thinkers, focusing on beauty and morality.
In the context of Mary Shelley's biography and prose style, the theme and structure of Frankenstein indicate that, in addition to being an esteemed work of gothic horror, the novel is a feminist birth myth: a perverse story of maternity and a scathing critique of patriarchal dominance over the feminine.
Familial Responsibility. The most important theme in Frankenstein is the idea of familial responsibility and what people owe to each other. Victor Frankenstein is essentially the creature's father; he created him and has a responsibility to take care of his creation and to teach him about the world.
Victor Frankenstein represents Romanticism because he is a warning against scientific pursuit without thought. Romanticism was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and Victor created something without considering the consequences of his actions.
Instead of freeing humanity from the terror of mortality, he delivers his family into early and violent deaths. Victor dreams of founding a new species that would bless him as a father and creator. Instead, his creature curses rather than blesses him for abandoning him to a lonely life.
Situational Irony: An example of situational irony occurs at the beginning of the novel when Victor spends years devoted and obsessed over a creation he ends up despising with every ounce of his being when it is brought to life, "the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart' (70).
