Look at the significance of chapter five to the novel as a whole. Essay

Look at the significance of chapter five to the novel as a whole. Focus on the relevance and effect of the writer’s language to describe setting, character and what it shows about social and historical influences. Frankenstein is a Victorian novel written in the gothic genre. It is about a man, Victor Frankenstein, giving life to an inanimate being and abandoning it. The monster then seeks revenge and the love of what he believes to be his mother, Frankenstein. The author, Mary Shelley, wrote the book at the age of nineteen but was not able to get the book published at first, as she was a woman. Her husband, Percy Shelley, finally got the book published by an unknown author. It took years for Mary Shelley to officially become known as the author of Frankenstein. At the time the ideas portrayed in Frankenstein were grotesque and many thought it unbelievable for these thoughts to have come from the mind of a woman. Chapter five is the most significant chapter within the book as this is where the monster is created, which is the main beginning to the story. The first four chapters are to set the scene for the story and to show why Victor Frankenstein was so determined to bring life to an inanimate object. The novel addresses many important issues. Mary Shelley writes about how Frankenstein chose the most perfect body parts for his creation but once it is complete he finally sees the monster he has created. ‘No mortal could support the horror of that countenance’, this shows that when Frankenstein finally sees what the monster looks like he becomes afraid. Frankenstein had been blinded by obsession and has no sense of reality, ‘ how can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe’. He has taken such ... ...d. She shows this in the story as the monster was infused with life by electricity. Mary Shelley has a lot of social influence in the novel as she talks about the monster losing his mother, which symbolises the loss of her own mother. She was also shunned by society when she married Percy Shelley, which is like the society shunning the monster. When she talks about Frankenstein abandoning his creation she is symbolising the death of her own children. Also when she talks about the monsters sense of abandonment she is symbolising her life as at a young age as her mother died. She then ran away with Percy Shelley and was shunned by society and her father. Her and Percy had three children, two of whom died, and then Percy drowned leaving her with a two-year-old child and no money. The novel of Frankenstein reflects some of the pain within Mary Shelley’s life.