A Major Gothic Theme Is Death, but the Novel ‘Frankenstein’ Is More About Birth and Creation. to What Extent Do You Agree with This View?

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A major gothic theme is death, but the novel ‘Frankenstein’ is more about birth and creation. To what extent do you agree with this view? Frankenstein was written in 1818, which is before the gothic genre and themes existed. However, a major gothic theme is death, which is a theme apparent through the whole novel. Shelley, the author’s mother died 10 days after giving birth, which could influence her writing and decision to make Caroline die after child birth also. Shelley became pregnant at 16 and then continued to be pregnant for the following 5 years, however only 1 child survived. This could have had a significant effect on her writing and the themes of birth and creation, as well as death. Victor’s obsession with science and the creation of a being stems from the death of his mother, Caroline Beaufort. Caroline becomes almost like a guardian angel as she attends to her ill father for several months and also adopts Elizabeth to give her the lifestyle in which she deserves. She almost really does become a guardian angel, as she dies in child birth whilst giving birth to William. This contributes to the theme of birth and creation, as she takes her life to create a new one, in turn entwining the ideas of death and birth together. Victor’s wanting to create the monster stemmed from ‘the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn’ as he wanted to gain all knowledge and become almost God. Following the death of Caroline, Victor becomes engrossed in the creation and the idea of creating a monster and almost usurps the role of God by creating ‘man’, however it can be argued by many that the Monster isn’t a man at all, nor is he treated like one by many due to his looks. Victor believes due to his creation that ‘new species would bless me as its creator’ showing that he sees himself as almost God like and that by creating life, he has done a good thing

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