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A response to the scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution, the British Romantic period was a literary movement that revived an appreciation of the arts, stressing intense emotion in its works. In particular, Gothic fiction, a genre of Romantic literature that centered around dark, macabre elements, gained popularity throughout Europe and the world. One such Gothic-based timeless classic, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, explores the theme of science versus nature. Victor Frankenstein, a radical monomaniac-scientist who shatters the laws of nature and revolutionizes the life creation process - using science - plays with fire at his own expense, facing life-changing tolls as a result of his actions.
Through the use of imagery to display Victor Frankenstein’s bodily manifestations of emotions, Shelley illustrates how he ceaselessly shoulders anxiety and remorse for his overreaching and irresponsible venture in creating the creature, conveying that manipulating the natural order of things will inevitably have repercussions. Shelley utilizes rich descriptive language to illustrate Victor Frankenstein’s physical and mental derangement shortly after he brings the creature to life, demonstrating the consequences of crossing the limits of nature.
After instilling life in the creature, Victor is appalled by its outlandish appearance and attempts to seek forgetfulness, remarking, “...I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth...as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death...I saw the grave worms crawling in the folds of [my dead mother’s] flannel. I started from my sleep in horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch…” (Shelley 56). Shelley evokes the absurd death of Elizabeth, an endearing person and source of joy to Victor, in his nightmare, implying his true loss of sanity after he is overwhelmed with horror. Victor’s morbid dream insinuates subconscious fears that by creating life, he is bringing death - not only to the creature but to his loved ones as well. Impulsively, Victor flees his apartment, expressing, “Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly, I felt the palpitation of every artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through languor...I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared every turning of the street would present to my view…[I] felt impelled to hurry on, although wetted by the rain, which poured from a black and comfortless sky...My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear…” (Shelley 57-58). Here, Victor is shown suffering fluctuating bodily responses to his intense heart palpitations, suggesting that he is in an incapacitated-like state as a byproduct of his terror.
The fact that Frankenstein becomes much more conscious of his organic self indicates the haunting impact his over-ambition and knowledge of biology have upon his psyche. In addition, Shelley invokes Gothic scenery to reflect Frankenstein’s mental state at the time; the wet, dismal, comfortless weather echo Frankenstein's lassitude and anxiety. The mood of suspense is intensified for the reader as Shelley suggests that the pursuing force that Frankenstein experiences is unrelenting and has a terrifically detrimental effect on the pursued. By writing as such, Shelley is able to overtone that tampering with the moral laws of nature will come at a price. Gothic elements fuse with vivid kinetic and visual imagery to reflect Frankenstein’s mental and physical loss of sanity as well as inevitable doom as he is stupefied by his creation.
The author uses sensory imagery to illustrate Victor’s traumatic emotions when he starts losing loved ones at the grips of the creature, suggesting that it is a punishment for interfering in the realm of nature. After learning about the murder of his brother William, Frankenstein arrives home and soon after, witnesses Justine, a close family friend, be wrongfully executed with the charge. He adjudges that the creature played foul, blaming none other than himself for their deaths. Victor is guilt-ridden, claiming, “The blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart, which nothing could remove. Sleep fled from my eyes; I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible, and more, much more (I persuaded myself), was yet behind.” (Shelley 101). Here, the author reveals the extent of Victor’s pressing remorse by exemplifying imagery through the use of a powerful simile, likening his state to an “evil spirit”. This has a double effect on the reader suggesting Victor’s condition is too miserable to describe, thus empowering the reader to imagine him as the most Hadean individual in his/her eyes. By depicting Victor as such, Shelley is effectively able to portray the extirpation of his soul and predestined damnation, underscoring the costs of manipulating nature.
Victor’s misery upsurges as the creature continue to impinge on his life, ultimately murdering all his loved ones in a sinister, systematic manner. Following the demise of his venerated father, Victor contemplates, “What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me...For [my miseries] had called me mad; and during many months, as I understood, a solitary cell had been my habitation.” (Shelley 245). Shelley capitalizes on the bleak and traumatic consequences of Frankenstein’s actions in creating an unnatural product of science by accentuating Victor’s literal and emotional imprisonment, where he is swallowed into an abyss of “chains” and “darkness”. When Shelley writes that Victor is a “lost sensation”, she suggests he is benumbed in physical and mental claustrophobia, implicating to readers that Frankenstein is in a living hell. Through portraying Frankenstein’s inner crises, Shelley is effectively able to convey the consequences of tampering with the laws of nature. Throughout the story, Shelley brings Victor Frankenstein’s character to life by detailing his seemingly perpetual traumatic physical and mental condition, indicating it is the price he has to pay for his actions.
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