What makes a gothic novel?

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2 What makes a gothic novel? Dark medieval settings. Very dark and bold architecture Women (or other culturally disempowered person) in distress. Evil villain who is in a position of power Supernatural events Evokes fear through psychological and physical dangers.

3 Prove it, dude. Setting: Stormy weather? Dark woods? Creepy houses? Check, check and check. Victor s wife, totally in distress. Justine also distressed. Monster who kills kids; guy who creates monster that kills kids- villains for sure! Giving life to a mass built of butchered corpses seems pretty supernatural. Monster kills people. Scary. Monster drives Victor mad, also scary.

4 Mary Shelley, a Lady, woah Mary started writing Frankenstein when she was 18 and finished when she was 19! Had several children, but only one lived past childhood Met her boyfriend in a cemetery next to her mother s grave. Eloped with Percy Shelley when she was 16; he was 21 Given an unusually advanced education thanks to her father. Parents relationship mirrored Victor and Elizabeth s Wrote other texts (including a book about the last surviving member of the human race, after everyone has been killed by a plague-guess what it s called) but nothing as successful as

5 Percy Shelley-husband, writer, adulterer Radical poet-philosopher His wife drowned herself while she was pregnant because of his relationship with Mary Widely considered the greatest lyric poet in the English language. Friends with Lord Byron; They are the most famous of the Romantic poets Everyone thought he was super cool and totally on the level. Blood I agree, Percy Shelley Is totally down for a good poem. Oh Percy, you are so cool.

6 Mary Shelley s mother was a prominent protofeminist. She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women Died giving birth to Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley s father idolized his wife, and raised Mary in her shadow

7 Sci-Fi? Like spaceships? Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus is widely considered to be the first true Science Fiction novel. In the fifties and today, sci-fi was/is often considered a genre about robots & space-travel Yet many famous novels, particularly dystopian texts such as 1984 and Brave New World, are also considered sci-fi No spaceships, but Victor giving life to inanimate objects gave this novel the label of science fiction.

8 Ok, so what about the narrative structure? (Yeah, that s right, I said it) Narrative structure is the way the story is built/told. This novel is written in epistolary form guess what that means Yep, that s right, it s a series of letters Through the letters, we get the entire story, containing both the monster s and Frankenstein s narratives

9 But whhhyyy? That s so annoying! Ugh, I hate everything! Yeah, me too. Anyway, there are several reasons for structuring the novel this way 1. Robert Walton serves as a parallel for both Frankenstein and the monster He s a scientist too, and his pursuit of knowledge is threatening others by their situation on the ice The first few letters are all about Walton s crippling loneliness. Plus, to a lesser extent, his crew wants to mutiny, so people don t really seem to like him

10 OK, perhaps I hate things slightly less now Good. Another reason for such a confusing structure is the gothic nature of the novel Gothic literature often has convoluted plots. You re just lucky there s not a bunch of ghosts running around with the same name. (Wuthering Heights) Finally, can we trust someone s story secondhand? The levels/filters through which we receive the stories (particularly the monster s) should cause you to question the reliability of the narrator

11 A Modern Prometheus Who s Prometheus? Stole fire from the gods in Greek mythology Tortured by a vulture, who eats his liver every day? Who could be Prometheus in this story?