Frankenstein & Horror Tropes

For someone who has never read it before; Frankenstein is a deceptively emotional story. Everyone spends their time whining about their feelings through slightly incestual letters to their families while describing other people's stories within stories, etcetera. It's kind of funny, actually. Purely because it's unexpected from what I believed a gothic novel to be. As soon as I divorced myself from the feelings of what a gothic novel "should be", I kind of enjoyed Frankenstein and the unexpected nature of it. As mentioned, it's rather emotional. We are introduced to the story through Robert, who is writing to his sister in a loving fashion, while also explaining to her how much he needs a friend. Robert's love for his sister, Margaret, is slightly uncomfortable (hilariously so) and runs very deep,  but is only overshadowed by his intense, somber longings for a male companion that understands him. His begging throughout the letters genuinely made me question whether or not this was meant to be a homosexual character, which I found fascinating for the time period in which this was written. I now recognize this excess of emotion is extremely gothic in nature. However, these letters between Robert and Margaret are most definitely important in establishing the incestual undertones of a gothic novel (especially in Shelley's work as read in the beginning notes) and how human relationships are valued in relaying a gothic story.

Robert's initial deep emotional reaction, to Victor's arrival on his vessel, drive the essence of the story. Robert asks Victor to tell him his past and thus we learn about the creation of Frankenstein's monster (The Demon). Again, through letters, Victor writes to his family while in Inglostadt. They miss him a lot, particularly his "cousin-sister" Elizabeth who is not actually related to him in any way. But it's the incestual implications that count, right? Victor begins to investigate creating man, he starves himself, becomes a shell of a man, and due to his curiosity; eventually creates a demon of human form that tortures him for the rest of his life. The monster flees, Victor freaks out for a long period of time. This is then followed by Victor's young brother, William, being murdered. It's revealed later, as the monster chronicles his adventures upon leaving Victor's laboratory, that it was him that did it! Ah!

Frankenstein's monster's great story of how he learned of humanity and his miserable existence, was pretty excessive and emotional. If you're still following these layers, here's how it goes: Robert>Victor>The Demon>Some foreign family's hardships being exiled from their home country>Then that family's relationship with an Arabian woman and her family's hardships. Through the observation of this family, The Demon tells of his acquisition of language and understanding of humanity.

Observation is a common theme used in Gothic and Horror genres. The Demon follows Victor around, killing the people he loves. This causes a great paranoia to build within Victor. Victor not only feels guilty of his creation of this beast and is serving as his own torturer, but now he must deal with the responsibility of potentially releasing another Demon into the world, just to please Mr. Demon. This part of the story discusses heavy-handed topics of humanity and internal motivation, I liked it. It ends with Victor deciding to destroy Ms. Demon, enraging Mr. Demon further.

And towards the end of this all, around Clerval's expected murder, I wondered if Frankenstein's monster could have kept up this chase forever. Or at least the expectation of a chase. He could have made Victor believe that he was going mad, as he was, in an effort to punish him. Maybe that was the point all along. In the end, Victor's dedication and loneliness killed him anyway; as he spends most of the story in a fugue-like state. This led to the Demon swearing to kill himself, as he too felt he no longer needed to exist.

The Demon once said as he recalled the story of the family from his hovel, "Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was," and this describes one of the struggles of humanity, I believe. The more we know of the world and our existence, the more we know that we cannot change much about it all, and this makes us feel regret or helplessness. I feel that this is what The Demon was to personify: humanity's struggle with the knowledge of our reality and why we are created. The Demon lashes out because he is disgusting and horrifying and is extremely unsure of what to do about it. Therefore he asks his creator, of whom he has tortured, to help him. This appears to make no sense, unless The Demon's motivation; his internal struggles, is understood. William criticizes him of this, "You throw a torch into a pile of buildings; and when they are consumed you sit among the ruins and lament the fall," Is this not what humanity does?