Microsoft Word Materiallar Full

II INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF YOUNG RESEARCHERS 

379 

 Qafqaz University                         

          18-19 April 2014, Baku, Azerbaijan 

THE ELEMENTS OF MONSTROSITY IN THE NOVEL OF "FRANKENSTEIN" BY MARY 

SHELLEY 

Nurlana IMANOVA 

Qafqaz University 

[e-mail] 

 

Mary Shelley is one of the major figures in English Romanticism. She is well-known for writing the novels in Gothic 

genre. Her masterpiece, Frankenstein, is a good example of Romanticism period containing relevant elements of a Gothic 

novel. As monstrosity is one of the essential features of Gothic genre, I would like to focus on summarizing the horrific and 

monstrous peculiarities of the novel of “Frankenstein”. 

Mary Shelley depicts features of horror and produces a tense mood and a ghastly picture. The writer creates a terrible 

and ghostly atmosphere that makes the conditions more uncanny. Frankenstein, the monster’s creator, applies his 

knowledge of science to create him. There are some features that make Victor Frankenstein and his monster similar. Both of 

them have been secluded, deserted, and become vagrant in the modern society after the creature murders Frankenstein’s 

loved ones. The monster is apparently secluded and becomes an outsider because of his ugliness and defects. This is what 

drives the brute creature to do fault activities. The monster starts his life with emotional feelings like Frankenstein. When he 

is “born”, he looks at his father” with “A quizzical smile that wrinkled his cheeks” and he “Stretched out one hand” 

innocently. His guiltless behaviors frightened Victor and made him leave the creature. The inhabitants in the town are 

scared of the monster. In fact, people should not fear him as the real monster of the novel is Victor. Once he reveals the 

“mystery” of giving a life, he makes an awful monster from the parts of dead bodies. He leaves the brute creature because of 

the reason that he feels guilty for creating it and he is afraid what the monster might do. His hatred is obviously seen when 

he expresses, “I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created”. Fear is evoked well when the author 

portrays the monster interpreting how:” His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair 

was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness”. Frankenstein "chose his features nicely." Victor's 

shamelessness is seen as he picked the most defectless body parts, all to be pieced together in great prediction. Nevertheless, 

the result is terrible. He abandons him because of the ugliness of the monster. The shamelessness surfaces when 

Frankenstein blames the monster for killing William due to his fearful appearance. "I stood fixed, staring intently: I could 

not be confused.. it's gigantic stature, and the ugliness of its aspect, more ungainly than belongs to humanity... it was the 

wretch, the filthy daemon... No sooner did that idea cross my imagination, than I became convinced of its truth. He was the 

killer!"  Mary Shelley expresses such reaction as Felix beats him due to the creature’s appearance and the cruelest picture of 

all is that the monster is shot after he rescues a dweller from drowning.  

To summarize, the gothic novels gives the readers the chance to be frightened of something. The readers could tremble 

while reading the horrifying parts of the novel, or could give them the shivers for the leading characters. After reading the 

novel, the readers are scared, they boost resilience, intensify senses and instinct. This is what we get when we read the novel 

of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein – one of the famous villains that is remembered for ever in the world 

literature.