Love, suspense, and tragic deaths are a few of the many gothic elements placed in Frankenstein, the book being read by English 10 Honors students. The novel tells the tale of a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who, from his studies of natural philosophy and chemistry, plays the part of God, giving life to his own fabrication. Ultimately, he is successful in giving life to an inanimate figure of his own creation.
The main conflict of the novel lies between Frankenstein and the monster, which he created and immediately abandoned. Readers watch the monster develop knowledge and emotions while Frankenstein, the scientist, has a growing sense of guilt for the effects of his creation. Through a series of events, the monster confronts Frankenstein, giving him an ultimatum that will determine his fate.
One major theme throughout the novel is that it can be a dangerous game playing the part of God. Several times throughout the book, there are references to religion, such as when the unnamed monster refers to Frankenstein as God and himself as the fallen angel. Frankenstein’s pursuit to bring life to something he created with his own hands directly mirrors God and his creation. Another major theme would be the quest for knowledge beyond human capability. Frankenstein, the monster, Clerval, and Walton all seek knowledge with a desire that pushes them to their limits, such as Walton, who travels throughout the artic to find the “country of eternal light”, meanwhile putting the lives of his crew and himself in jeopardy.
“Adding Frankenstein serves several purposes. First, students read a classic piece of literature that is the subject of man allusions in modern society. Second, there are many strong motifs in the text and they parallel with today’s issues perfectly,” English teacher Amy Grahm said.
Major motifs and symbols that are used include loneliness, isolation, science, and victimized female figures, all of which are a signature of gothic styled writing.
“I did not like it at all because it moved so slow and I felt like there was so much extra information in there that the story would’ve been fine without. All that made it pretty boring to read,” said sophomore Sakshi Chhabra.
Although Frankenstein is a novel pulled straight from the early 1800’s with a strong gothic influence, the plot can easily be applied to today’s style of writing. Many students have insisted that not only the diction, but the story itself is a difficult one with no real excitement pulling them into the text.
However, if one picked the storyline line apart, relieving it of its troublesome dialogue and dark tone, students would realize how fascinating and deep this text really is. They would realize that it is similar in style to their favorite current day sci-fi and drama series. The reader ultimately steps inside the mind of a man and watches as he drives himself to insanity, with plot twists consisting of drama, love, and violence, which keeps the story alive at every step.
Between time restraints and overloading projects, the last thing frustrated students want to do is analyze an assigned text any more than they have to. However, I ask fellow English 11 students who are opposed to the text to expand their view and give it a second chance.
