SETTING

SETTING

1. BEGINNING

   • ANALYSIS
     • Adjective ‘filthy’ emphasises the unpleasant elements of darkness and dirt present in the workshop, but also indicate that Victor’s actions of creation are morally ‘filthy’. Victor’s study involves the ‘corruption of death’, showing that his studies involve aspects of society considered improper by a contemporary reader. The use of the everyday noun ‘workshop’ could also emphasise how Victor sees this as a relatively mundane place of work and his character is so far removed from the norms of society through his ‘filthy’ acts.
   • CONTEXT
     • Shelley uses the Gothic setting to instil a sense of fear into her readership, although it could highlight the intrinsic ‘filthy’ personality present in Victor. It could be argued that Victor’s nature has made him intrinsically selfish and prone to explore the powers of God, or that he has been spoilt.

2. MIDDLE

   • ANALYSIS
     • Shelley’s use of ‘delight’ shows how Clerval is easily impressed and restored by the natural world. Nature provides a sense of ‘delight’ to Clerval; this is in direct contrast to Victor. Shelley uses nature to restore Victor to health but also projects his darkest thoughts and miseries onto nature too. Even something as simple as nature can never fully provide Victor with ‘delight’ in the way it does with Clerval.
   • CONTEXT
     • Clerval embodies ideals of Romantic writers inspired by nature to write about human emotions. Clerval can feel the sense of ‘delight’ nature provides in the same way that nature becomes a surrogate parent and source of ‘delight’ to the creature following his rejection by Victor. Although nature does restore Victor to health, Victor’s obsession with science and ‘playing God’ prevents him from appreciating the true beauty of God’s natural creation in the way that the overly Romantic Clerval can.

3. END

   • ANALYSIS
     • Shelley frames the narrative in a threatening and dangerous setting to emphasise the power of nature, but also to serve as a warning to overambitious characters. The ‘mountains of ice’ are physically dominant and represent powerful aspects of God’s natural creation. They offer ‘no escape’ to the sense of moral judgement for Victor and Walton for their overambitious and selfish aims in society. Alternatively, the ‘mountains of ice’ could represent the ‘mountainous’ extent of the ambition shown by Victor and Walton and the destructive nature of their ambition ends up ‘threatening every moment’ of their existence through the creature’s murders and exposure to cold killing Walton’s sailors. The creature’s ability to survive ‘extremes of heat and cold’ further emphasises his ability to ‘threaten’ both Victor and society as the barren wastelands of the North Pole cannot harm him in the same way as Victor and Walton.
   • CONTEXT
     • The concept of having ‘no escape’ links into the idea at the end of the novel that Shelley presents some form of judgement for playing God and pushing ethical and moral boundaries in the novel. Victor’s ‘every moment’ is ‘threatened’ following the creation of the creature which could be a metaphor by Shelley saying that he will never escape moral judgement for his actions. This is similar for Walton who has ‘no escape’ from his responsibility to his crew. Ultimately, the deaths of several of his crew are down to Walton’s arrogance and Shelley uses nature as a metaphor for the responsibility of arrogant men in society towards their fellow man.