Analysis of Horror Literature: Frankenstein and Society

This essay provides an analysis of Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, examining its place within the horror literature genre and its enduring relevance to society. The essay explores the relationship between literature and society, emphasizing how literature reflects and influences societal values. It ...Read More

Running head: ANALYSIS OF HORROR LITERATURE
Analysis of Horror Literature
Name of the Author
Name of the University
Author Note

1ANALYSIS OF HORROR LITERATURE
Literature is something that is referred to a body of the written works. It can also be
referred to any form of art that or any form of writings which is considered to have an artistic
value in the society itself. Almost all the countries of the world have their own forms of
literature so that the people of the country would be able to know about these stories or the
novels of the country itself. Horror literature have always been a part of the literature of any
country. It is through the horror literature of the country that the people of the country knows
about the supernatural creatures of the horror genre.
The purpose of this essay is to determine the qualities which made Mary Shelley
compare the characters of Victor Frankenstein and that of Zeus’ son Prometheus and
how she considers Victor Frankenstein to be the “modern Prometheus” of the modern
age.
Literature is said to relate the society in a variety of the ways. Literature is called as
the reflection of the society in the way that the literature presents to the society both the good
and the bad of the society as well as the portraying the wrong ness of the society so that this
wrongness of the society can be amended by the people of the society as the ills that are
needed to be amended by those people so that the society can be free of all forms of faults.
The same things can be related to the novel by the name of Frankenstein which was written
by Mary Shelley. As stated by Shelley (2009) in the novel, the readers get to know about the
story of Doctor Victor Frankenstein and his desire to create a man-like monster which
ultimately leads to his destruction.
Thus, it can be said that the theme of the novel Frankenstein is said to play a very
important role in the society of England during the time the novel was written. In the book, it
is said that the lead character of the novel Victor Frankenstein, had the quality of over-
ambition inside him which had led the protagonist to his destruction (Shelley, 2009). The

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novel is said to have played a very important role in the English society of the same time.
This is because the English people of the time got to know about the themes presented in the
novel itself. In the novel, the various themes of the greed and the ambition of the people with
harmful consequences are maintained. Similarly, the literature of the times also lets the
people know about the various feelings of the greed and the over-ambition that ruled in the
people’s hearts. The readers have also found several other ambition of the character in many
other literature which have dealt with the same issues in the form of short stories as well as
novel forms. For e.g. – the example of William Shakespeare “Macbeth” is taken.
Although the play is a tragedy, however, it still forms a part of the literature of a
society. In the play, the main character Macbeth starts out as a person who was honest and
believed in the good in all things. However, it is the prediction by the witches which brings
out Macbeth’s greed and over-ambition inside him, which causes him not only to murder
King Duncan and become the King himself, but also murder his best friend Banquo and
declare Macduff to be a traitor and drive him to exile (Shelley, 2009). These themes of greed
and jealousy are also common in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Thus, it is seen that literature indeed informs the readers about the various references
produced in the novels itself how literature helps the readers to understand the themes and the
societies that were present during those times. All these information helps the reader to
understand the roles and functions that a certain type of literature plays in the society.
It is often important to understand that the literature often influences the society. It
influences the society in a lot of ways. As stated by Shelley (2009), this is because in
literature helps the readers to find various kinds of stories that helps the readers to find the
stories to understand the human action that is presented in the literature of the times.

3ANALYSIS OF HORROR LITERATURE
Therefore, it is truly said that the literature influences the society in the form that it imparts
all these values to the citizens of the society during those times.
It is correctly said that a piece of literature that was written in the year 1818 will
indeed be significant in the in the society of the year 2019 because the issues that were
presented to the readers in the society in the novel of Frankenstein still exists in the real-life
society of the present days. This is because in the novel “Frankenstein”, the readers are
presented with the issues of greed and over anxiety as well as ambition of the character. All
these emotions are significant in the present times. Over anxiety and jealousy are very
common factors among the human beings of the present times as they get ambitious of
achieving something and failing to achieve that, becomes depressed and obsessed which
leads them to commit suicide or resort to other violent means of self harm (Shelley: 2009).
This fact is also mentioned in the novel in the instances where Victor Frankenstein tried to
commit suicide having failed to destroy the monster that he created.
Therefore, it can be said that the novel Victor Frankenstein by Mary Shelley indeed
imparts the readers information about the issues in the society that have been told in the novel
named “Frankenstein”. The novel not only truly belongs to the genre of the sci-fi horror
movie but also teaches the readers about the dominant social issues that were present in the
society both in those days as well as in the present days of mankind. Lastly, it can be said that
Frankenstein indeed is a true horror movie that teaches the world a number of values.

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Reference List
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818. Engage
Books, AD Classic, 2009.