Show how Shelley creates "Horror" by her use of language in Ch. 5 and elsewhere in the text we've studied so far .
Gothic novels originated from gothic architecture, this medieval type of architecture was pointed arches, cathedrals, ruins and ancient statues, therefore these novels where very often set in a gloomy castle replete with dungeons, subterranean passages and sliding panels. Gothic novels were written mainly to evoke terror in their readers; they also served to show the dark side of human nature. They describe the "nightmarish terrors that lie beneath the controlled and ordered surface of the conscious mind." The foundations that make an excellent gothic horror novel are the inclusion of supernatural elements, a story line that builds up suspense and tension, which also frightens the reader. The weather is also an element, which should be included, where the atmosphere is overcast and dull. Surprisingly, there were a vast number of female Gothic authors. .
Mary Shelley was one and she used some of the most recent technological finding of her time to create Frankenstein. She has replaced the heavenly fire of the Prometheus myth with the spark of newly discovered electricity. The concepts of electricity and warmth led to the discovery of the galvanisation process, which was said to be the key to the animation of life. Mary was born in Somers Town, Great Britain, in 1797. In 1816, she and her husband went abroad, spending time with Lord Byron and his friend Polidori in Geneva. It was there Byron suggests they all should write a ghost story. Mary writes Frankenstein, the only story of the four that was ever to be published as a novel.
Frankenstein is not set in a dull and dreary castle, but you could say that where Frankenstein worked on his creation to be a gloomy dreary room. Most of these gothic novels are more likely to be set in a castle. Many of the elements previously mentioned appeared in Frankenstein.
