Gothic Elements and Anxiety in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

This article explores the Gothic elements and anxiety in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It discusses the anxieties of Victor and his monster, and how they are intertwined in the novel. The article also examines the themes of monstrosity, identity, and the lack of escape from anxiety in the novel.

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Gothic novels- Frankenstein
In the history of English literature, the latter part of the eighteenth century is considered
important not only because of the beginning of the Romantic Movement but also the Gothic
literature. This Gothic revival was marked by the publications of Frankenstein and many other
titles (Alam 295). Both Romantic and Gothic ran parallel and enriched the English literature.
Gothic novels are characterized by certain elements that are found to be common in them, such
as the setting around an old castle and haunting or abandoned places with claustrophobia flavors.
The Gothic influences can be seen in the disturbing visions, dark imagery, the supernatural and a
threatening atmosphere (Murugan and Peruvalluthi 149). Dramatic events take place in these
gothic novels with a narration that is filled with emotions and disturbing visions. There is always
suspense and mystery in these novels. Frankenstein satisfies the Mario Praz definition of the
Gothic genre that reflects of an anxiety from which there is no escape.
Mario Praz defines the fundamental theme of the Gothic genre to be ‘an anxiety with no
possibility of escape’ (Dryden 39). It is this unavoidable anxiety through a malicious ‘other’ that
undermines the cohesion of the self. For example, in “Frankenstein,” Frankenstein and his
creation are connected in a number of ways, like as the creator and the created or the father and
the son. However, they are the elements of the same individual. As the fate of Frankenstein and
the creature get more tangled, their identities merge when approaching death. In Frankenstein,
there is anxiety from which he cannot escape after he creates the monster based on perverted
science (Dryden 39).

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Frankenstein is the story of a young college boy who has always been interested in the
ancient alchemists and their works. He learns about modern science when he attends university
and becomes fascinated with the conception of life (Ginn). He starts experimenting with the
body parts of the dead with the objective of creating a monster. When his family and professors
point out that he is taking his obsession a bit too far, he continues his pursuit and loses control
over himself as well as loses everyone who is important in his life (Anderberg). As asserted by
Skalošová (16), the novel carries Gothic elements such as secrecy, murder, monstrosity and the
relationship of a monster and his creator
In “Frankenstein,” Victor lacks self-awareness and thus develops it via self-
consciousness. His confrontations with the Monster he creates is like showing himself a mirror.
Victor Frankenstein can be seen as a subject of study in human psychology. It is his excessive
ambition that creates the repulsive monster, and his creation brings down his downfall. Victor
Frankenstein himself feels alienated from the monster when he looks at him and classifies the
creature as an animal. The yellow eyes of the monster are similar to an animal, and Victor feels
frustrated seeing those eyes. He feels the anxiety within him when he sees his own creation and
confronts the monstrosity of his creation. It can be concluded that Victor’s reaction is the human
in the animal as well as the animal in the human. The animal in Victor distances from humanity
in the monster (Skalošová 26). Victor works alone and in secret to create the creature using
materials gathered from slaughterhouses and dissecting rooms. His mind is filled with anxiety
and tension about his ambitions. He makes his creature large and tall. However, the moment the
creature comes to life, Victor is overcome with revulsion. His mind is filled with fear, and he
tries to escape the very “monster” that he has brought to life. It is the anxiety within the young
scientist to know more about the creator and his creations or how he creates. And then it is the

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fear of his own creation that creates certain anxiety within him. He is unable to face his creation
and thus seeks escape from it. He feels that he has no control over the monster he has created.
Victor, as he narrates the story to Walton, writes that it was his anxiety that had almost
turned to the agony that made him infuse a spark of life into the lifeless thing. “For a year I had
worked to make this creature, but now it looked terrible and frightening. I almost decided to
destroy it. But I could not. I had to know if I could put life into it” (Shelley 11).
The above lines show the burning desire and anxiety within Victor if he could put life
into the lifeless and create a creature. Howsoever, although he was successful in his experiment
and could create life, he was not free of his anxieties. In fact, now he found himself sinking
deeper into his anxieties and agonies, once he realizes that the creature he had made was even
more horrible and ugly, now that it was alive. Suddenly he wanted to be away from that ugly
thing and escape from it.
“Fear for my family and hate for my monster were with me day and night. I became ill
again, and Elizabeth's love could not help me” (Shelley 18).
After his creation materializes, Victor is engulfed with fear, fear for his safety and his
family. He lives with those feelings of anxiety day and night and became ill. He wanted to
escape those feelings but couldn’t. He was now filled with great anxiety and fear at what he had
done and what he had created.
Frankenstein’s monster is given some character features of monstrosity. The monster
possesses supernatural forces with some elements of horror and terror (Skalošová 13). The birth
of the monster is not a natural one and takes place in a scientific lab and based on laboratory
work. Thus, the monster is a mixture of several identities, and this is where his namelessness

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stems from. The reader wonders if the monster is an animal or a human or neither. The monster
has a brain that makes him aware of his imperfections and how he is a misfit in the society of the
humans (Skalošová 54). He cannot escape the recklessness and insensibility of the society. The
creature longs to feel part of a family and society.
“One day I saw my own face in the water of the river. It was a terrible face. I understood
why people were frightened, why they shouted and threw stones” (Shelley 24).
Still, he knew he could never be a part of the society as he was ugly and looked
monstrous.
When Frankenstein’s monster cries “Who was I? What was I? Where did I come from?
What was my destination? He is looking for an identity. It is obvious that the literature is about
the identity or the lack of identity (Dryden 39). Victor Frankenstein denounces his creature as a
“demon,” a “devil,” and a “fiend.” However, there is anxiety within the creature, and he insists
that he has a heart that is susceptible of love and sympathy. There is a capacity for hope in him
as he thinks that it was misery that made him a fiend, but earlier he was benevolent and good
(Bailey 62). The monster carries his own anxieties within him. Although he is sturdy and strong,
he feels like an outcast and yearns for companionship. He demands that Victor create another
female monster for his companionship so that he is not forced to live a solitary life. The monster
realizes that he can never be part of the society and his anxiety forces him to escape to an
isolated life (Braanstorm 18).
According to Anderberg Victor loses everything he cares about in his life, whether it is
his friend, brother, and wife. And it is all because of his persistent desire for fame and being
successful. Although he keeps on making mistakes, he never learns from them as he fails to see

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them as he has become blind because of his intense ambitions. The reader feels sympathetic
towards the Monster than for Victor (Anderberg).
In Praz ’s explanations, there is a gothic dilemma in Jekyll and Hyde as three is no escape
from the anxiety (Dryden 39). The two characters of Jekyll and Hyde are intertwined in the same
way as Frankenstein and his monster. When Jekyll shakes up that “fortress of identity” he creates
Hyde and realizes that this is the ugly side of himself as asserted by Dryden (40).
Conclusion
In Frankenstein, one finds no escape from the anxieties felt by Victor and his monster.
Victor drives away all his loved ones because of his desire to create the creature. Although he is
successful in creating his monster, he gets further consumed by his own creation, and there is no
end to his anxieties. While earlier, he could have turned and escaped, but now there is no escape
for him from his anxieties. He has bought out that hidden monster that is dangerous for him and
society. As for the monster, he suffers from his own set of anxieties. He wants to be part of the
humanity and the moiety. However, he knows he can never be a part of the society and thus
escapes away from it. Thus, both Victor and his monster are involved in anxiety with no
possibility of escape.

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Works Cited
Anderberg, Jeremy. “Victor Frankenstein Character Analysis: Frankenstein Novel.” The Art of
Manliness, 26 Feb. 2014, www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02/26/lessons-in-unmanliness-
from-victor-frankenstein/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018
Alam, Zaheed. “Treatment of the Gothic Elements by the Early Romantics.” ASA University
Review, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 2012, pp. 295–304.
Bailey, Ronald. “Victor Frankenstein Is the Real Monster.” Reason, vol. 49, no. 11, 2018, p. 56.
Braanstorm, Carina. "An analysis of the theme of alienation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."
Lulea university of Technology, vol. 1, no. 1, 2006, pp. 1-24.
Dryden, L. "The Modern Gothic and Literary Doubles: Stevenson." Oklahoma, vol. 1, no. 1,
2003, pp. 1-220.
Ginn, Sherry "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Science, Science Fiction, or Autobiography?"
Clas.ufl.edu. 2018, www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/ginn.html. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018
Hughes, William, David Punter, Andrew Smith. " The Encyclopedia of the Gothic." John Wiley
& Sons, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1-912.
Murugan, R., and V. Peruvalluthi. “Postcolonial Gothic Hybrid in Arundhati Roy’s The God of
Small Things.” Language in India, vol. 17, no. 3, Mar. 2017, pp. 149–157.
Skalošová, Žaneta. "Monster and Monstrosity in Mary Shelley’s." Masaryk University, vol. 1,
no. 1, 1989, pp. 1-60.

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Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein." Oxford University Press , vol. 1, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-71.