You’ve Gone Too Long Without Sleep.
While the stereotype of Frankenstein lies in a night shrouded in lightning, mad science, and a climactic birth of unexplainable terror, the novel remains remarkably different in its presentation of a central terrifying part; one that may be nonexistent and instead scattered throughout the masterpiece. A moment of immense fright and horror comes in Chapter 20 when the monster returns to the scene of his own crime; “. . .by the light of the moon, the daemon at the casement. A ghastly grim wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had alloted to me.” (145) In this instance, Shelley’s masterful craft of the genre is exposed vividly; capturing the reader in this moment of heavy tension and forcing a picture of the monsters indescribable figure into their minds. The true malice of the creature is shown but at the same time, the acts upon which he now prides himself are only beacons of helplessness and confusion; a spiteful taste of the world and its levels of evil and correction. I believe it may relate back to Paradise Lost again in this way; in that the monsters actions could arguably be out of ignorance and fright, much like those of Adam and Eve in Milton’s classic. The tragic elements of Frankenstein swallow up all of the characters from Victor to the monster, Henry, Elizabeth, and many others; all of which contribute to the tragedy itself which ultimately, is Victors fall from grace. Shelley’s brilliant rhetoric conveys to us the magic of her story, and the hell it possesses.
