• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

In this essay I will explore Chapter 5 of Mary Shelley's &quot;Frankenstein&quot;.

Extracts from this document...


Frankenstein Essay "Mary Shelley wanted Frankenstein to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart in chapter 5. How did she achieve this?" In this essay I will explore Chapter 5 of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". The novel was first published in 1818 but Mary Shelley published it under her husband's name (who was a romantic poet) because of how women were looked at in those days. She released a revised edition in 1831, in which she published it under her name. This caused controversy but shows that the novel was a great success for her to re-publish it 13 years after its release. The novel studied for this essay was the one published in 1831. This essay will look at how Mary Shelley wanted Frankenstein to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart in chapter 5. The novel genre is gothic horror and romanticism of which was very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, although in some parts of the novel Mary Shelley diverts from the stereotypical gothic horror genre. In the novel science is used against religion, which historically was important as science was developing and was thought to be taking over religion. ...read more.


Yet despite these wonderful things, he was disappointed in the way the creature looked. He was disgusted, "No mortal could support the horror of that countenance." He refers to his creation as a hideous wretch and say's it to be a thing that Dante, who was an Italian poet concerned with representing Hell, could not have conceived. He was possibly scared of its appearance and he prejudged it. Frankenstein being prejudice towards the creature lead to his rejection towards it and all the others that see it later on in the story feel the same as well, apart from a blind man. The monster was rejected as soon as it was infused with life, as soon as it "born", when it was a young baby and most needed it's "Mother", as a factor of this the monster grew up to be cold hearted and to have a dislike to humans, and a hatred to his creator. An important part of this chapter, is a dream that Frankenstein has shortly after he creates the monster. In this dream he sees his wife Elizabeth, whom he is "delighted and surprised" to see, but as he kisses her, her lips become ...read more.


In the chapter there is a poem called Coleridege's Ancient Mariner - "I like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread." This gives the idea that the monster is always close behind Frankenstein at the end. Frankenstein uses scientific language to show the awareness he has of the affects the creature has on him "my pulse beat so quickly and hardly that I felt the palpitation of every artery." I think that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein to express her feelings about her life and her past and to discuss the matters and developments that were happening in science and modern life at that time. She may have also written it to say that people make us who we are and how we act and feel. The most obvious meaning to the story though, is that religion was better than science and that science had a far way to go, and that people shouldn't experiment with it unless they were able to cope with the consequences. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text


Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE Mary Shelley essays

  1. Frankenstein Essay

    The book is structured so that there are three narrators, Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the creature. As Walton and Victor are the first to narrate, Shelley builds up our expectations of the creature. Victor is very negative towards the creature, during his narration.

  2. Frankenstein essay

    Another thing which Mary Shelley uses to influence the reader's opinion of the monster is its appearance. We are introduced to the living monster in chapter 5 and this is where most of the description concerning its "horrid" appearance is used.

  1. Frankenstien essay

    Walton writes a letter to his sister from St. Petersburg. In his letter Walton says that he knows that ordinary people are worried about his ambitions. He says his sister regards it as an 'evil forbidding'. Walton prepares for the expedition by being hard and very tough on himself as if he enjoys torturing himself.

  2. Frankenstein Coursework Essay.

    help him, and be friends with him because in this chapter this is all I think he needs, is someone there for him. After he was beaten he treks across the wood-land, until he meets a little boy who comes running up to him.

  1. Frankenstein essay

    How did he get here? Why is he here? All of these questions are gradually answered as the stranger is invited to tell all. After a fortnight of silence, in which he recovers from his travels, he begins to explain his terrible ordeal to the Captain, who takes everything down in writing.

  2. Frankenstein Essay

    However, with encouragement from husband, Percy, she expanded this into her first and most celebrated novel of all her work. It was first published in 1818. Shelley's mother, philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, died just 10 days after Mary was born due to puerperal fever, and this tragic event embedded

  1. Frankenstein: Look at the significance of Chapter 5 to the novel as a whole.

    In Chapter 5, Victor describes the monster in a way which will inevitably repulse and frighten any human-being: "A mummy endued with animation could not be as hideous as that wretch".



  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work