UNIVERSITATEA CREŞTINĂ „DIMITRIE CANTEMIR“ – BUCUREŞTI

FACULTATEA DE LIMBI SI LITERATURI STRAINE

LUCRARE DE LICENŢĂ
The gothic myth of creation in Frankenstein

CONDUCĂTOR ŞTIINŢIFIC:
Lector univ. dr.

ABSOLVENT:

BUCUREŞTI
2017

2
Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER I....................................................................................................................................................................6
1.1 Introduction to The Victorian Gothic...................................................................................................................6
1.2. Gothic Art................................................................................................................................................................8
Gothic Arhitecture......................................................................................................................................................8
Gothic Sculpture.......................................................................................................................................................11
Gothic Painting.........................................................................................................................................................14
CHAPTER II.................................................................................................................................................................17
Mary Shelley.............................................................................................................................................................17
Chapter III.....................................................................................................................................................................19
3.1 Frankenstein - The modern Prometheus.............................................................................................................19

3
Introduction

For me, the most interesting thing in literature is the gothic novels. They bring
you to a different and mysterious world, trying your imagination with many spicy events.
The subject for my paper is the gothic myth of creation focusing more on the
Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley.
I chose this theme because I find it very inspiring and creative, most of all
because in this novel it combines gothic with the romantic movements.
In Brian Aldiss vision, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is the first true
science fiction story; a genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with imaginative concepts
such as futuristic science and technology, space and time travel, faster than light travel, parallel
universes, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of
scientific and other innovations, and has been called a "literature of ideas."1
Science fiction is based on hypotheses still blurry, on some theoretical possible
but not realized like time and space travel, hidden world, witchcraft, beasts etc.
Here is a list of the most interesting and captivating SC-fi movies that everyone
should watch:
1) Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)

2) Frankenstein (1931, dir. James Whale)

Marg Gilks; Paula Fleming & Moira Allen (2003). "Science Fiction: The Literature of Ideas".
1

WritingWorld.com.
2

4
 3

3) The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951, dir. Robert Wise)

4) Godzilla (1954, dir. Ishiro Honda)

5) Planet Of The Apes (1968, dir. Franklin J. Schaffner)

6) Star Wars (1977-2017)

3
4

5
 5

7) Star Trek (1979-2016)

8) RoboCop (1987, dir. Paul Verhoeven)

9) Predator (1987, dir. John McTiernan)

10) Terminator (1984-2015)

5
6

6
11) Jurassic Park (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg)

12) The Fifth Element (1997, dir. Luc Besson)

13) The Matrix (1999, dir. the Wachowskis)

14) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, dir. James Gunn)

15) Suicide Squad (2016)

7
CHAPTER I
1.1 Introduction to The Victorian Gothic

Gothic fiction was a dominant literary genre, in the Victorian era. It began in England in the
eighteenth century and, not very long, it spread all over the world.
The author Ann Radcliffe uses tropes in the eighteen century in The Mysteries of Udolpho in
which were transported and interwoven into many late-nineteenth century narratives. The tropes included
mystery and the supernatural, psychological and physical terror, doubling, madness, and heredity curses.

What bring a sense of verisimilitude and thereby to the narrative are the tropes of the supernatural
and the uncanny within a recognizable environment, not like the familiar themes of Gothic fiction -
helpless heroines, ruined castles, and evil villains.
The elements in the gothic literature consist in creepy atmosphere such as mystery filled with the
feeling of horror, the stormy weather, dark forests, imposing mountains, dungeons, secret rooms, the
hiding of the passengers.

The protagonists of gothic literature are trapped in a house far from civilization, cut off from the
people around them, most of all they are isolated or alone. Emotions run high in Gothic literature.
The characters in gothic novels are often passionate and strong-willed: women are often curious
and have a tendency to swoon, while men storm and rage in reflection of unseen inner torments. The
events that happen in those kinds of novels emphasize high emotion and often reflect a heightened sense
of drama where murders, kidnappings, people going mad and tragic illness take place.

The overall impression of a Gothic world is one of decay: a formerly great family,
community, country or individual who has peaked and now begins a slow process of
decline.7

In the nineteenth century, the term supernatural, was hard to be defined because individuals used
the idea of the supernatural in support of different hoaxes that promoted 'unexplained' phenomena such as
ghosts and weird manifestations.

7
https://www.npd117.net/cms/lib02/IL01001910/Centricity/Domain/303/Elements%20of%20Gothic%20Lit.pdf

8
 One other characteristic of gothic fiction is the idea that the dead could communicate with the
living, the spiritualism has different interpretations of the supernatural that could allow spiritualists to
believe in ghostly presences and skeptics to explain the phenomena as psychological. Supernatural events
such as table-rapping, automatic writing and full-body materialization of spirits were construed as new
forms of nature which had previously been overlooked. These elements, in some gothic novels, have a
rational explanation, ultimately, but the implication always suggests something not very normal for this
world.

Gothic novel, European Romantic, pseudo medieval fiction having a atmosphere of mystery and
terror. It is called gothic because its imaginative impulse was drawn from medieval buildings and ruins,
such novels commonly used such settings as castles or monasteries equipped with subterranean passages,
dark battlements, hidden panels, and trapdoors. A sensational type of Gothic romance exploiting horror
and violence flourished in Germany and was introduced to England by Matthew Gregory Lewis with The
Monk (1796). William Beckford’s Oriental romance Vathek (1786) and Charles Robert Maturin’s are
other landmarks of Gothic fiction. Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and Dracula
(1897), by Bram Stoker, the classic horror stories that introduce the existential nature of humankind as its
definitive mystery and terror.

We can associate mysteries with the methodical stories of Sherlock Holmes and their various
adaptations in film and television. Gothic novels with their mysterious elements contributed more to the
overall atmosphere of the story rather than taking center stage. The readers of gothic novels needed to
know everything that was about to happen, and most of all, they love the feeling of suspense, making
their own scenario and in the end, all of the expectations being the ones that they had or not at all.

Some of the most important themes of this style are:

- God and Evil
- Fear and dread
- Revenge and justice
- The mystery and also the intrigue

9
1.2. Gothic Art

Gothic Arhitecture

The Gothic architecture took root in Spain, Mudéjar architects creating this hybrid style. The
most important post−thirteenth-century Gothic styles in Spain are the Levantino which are characterized
by its structural achievements and also the unification of space.

It is said that the medieval councilors have had a vow of horror, so there are no square
centimeters of unscrambled surface on the walls of the cathedral - with sculptures, bas-reliefs, statuary
consoles and strange beings. All these plastics, which produced great effects, served The fundamental
function of the cathedrals, which was of a symbolic nature: it is to the mortals to explain to the mortal,
what is the meaning of life on earth. Obviously, it was to prepare yourself, through a clean and humane
life, for the bright life beyond. At the creation of the mystical atmosphere of the interior, stained glass was
used. In general, space, light, sculpture and painting worked to create this great and complex artwork that
was the Gothic cathedral.

In the architecture and medieval art, gothic was the period characterized on building skyscrapers.
To define the Gothic style, the characteristic elements are: the vault on the ogives (and not the
semicircular arcs), the firing arc (supporting the lateral pressure of the walls outside the edifice) and a
completely new ornamentation type, which no longer submits to a Traditions of value to dogma, but
inspired by the direct observation of nature. The importance of the bent arch as a fundamental defining
element has long exaggerated. In fact, if the systematic use of the fringed arch instead of the full center
really came into the definition of the Gothic architecture, instead the ogiva itself was in use from around
1100 - so about half a century before the beginning Gothic, and even entered as an element of many
Romanic architecture schools (from Burgundy, Proventa, Perigord).

10
 8

The gothic towers, more elegant and bold than the Romanesque, are the kinds of lanterns ̶ placed
in the center of the edifice and through the windows at the base, enhancing the illumination of the interior
̶ and the bells. The square (or more rarely octagonal) tower ends usually with a flesh, the pointed end, in
the form of a pyramid or cone, made of stone or roof covered with tiles, serving as a tower roof. The
impression of verticality and the strong elongation of a Gothic building are especially created by the
height of the flea.

The Gothic church has a more artistic place than that of a Romanic edifice, being the most elegant
part of the edifice, but also the most delicate problems of the constructor, both because of its exceptional
dimensions and from the need to connect with towers and portals that are integrated. The Gothic windows
depict painted scenes from the Bible and, filtering light, the most unexpected hues are obtained inside,
which creates an overwhelming atmosphere for the believer. All the great Gothic cathedrals are decorated
with admirable stained glass. Another decorative element is the column head, which is decorated with
human and animal figures.
The secular Gothic architecture can be identified in the palaces, the public edifices specific to the
twelve and fourteen centuries.

8
http://avonturguide.blogspot.ro/2013/11/wisata-akhir-tahun.html

11
 The Gothic cathedrals through their splendid towers and harbors already make a special
impression on the outside, but they impress more strongly through their interior through the non-material
air space in which the look does not hit massive shapes.
Of course, in the case of the Gothic, there are a number of regional features: in England the
churches are distinguished by the thickness and the polychrome of the walls, by the abundance of the
decorative elements, the care in the "perpendicular" decoration and "perpendicular" style covers the entire
ceiling. Hallenkirche (the "church hall") - with ships of equal height.

In Italy, churches do not differ greatly between the central and lateral boats, and the horizontal
motifs that reduce the verticality of the building are frequent.

In Romania, the Gothic art took place in Transylvania in the 13th-14th centuries and is found in
the Church of St. Bartholomew and the Black Church in Brasov, in St. Michael's Cathedral in Cluj, the
Bran Castle, the Corvin Castle, etc. Elements specific to the Gothic cities are also remarkable in the
civilian architecture of the Transylvanian cities of Brasov, Sibiu, Sighisoara, by grouping the
neighborhoods, by arranging public markets, streets, etc.

9
Canterbury Cathedral, England, https://jennymerr.wordpress.com/

12
Gothic Sculpture

The Gothic sculpture appeared in France in 1144 with the renovation of the abbey Saint-Denis at
the suggestion of Abate Suger and spread throughout Europe, becoming an international style in the
eighteenth century that replaced the romantic style, gaining more autonomy in relation to the architecture,
but remaining, however, subordinate.
Gradually, the fantastic themes disappear, respectively the expressionist deformation of the
plastic figures, which are closer to the natural ones.

Gothic sculpture consists, in the first place, in the abandonment of fantastic forms (monsters,
fantastic animals), and the lines of expression of the figures become more linear, more harmonious at the
same time expressing the sense. We can see how complete sculpture emancipation occurs comparing the
statues of the Chartres cathedral statue and those on the facades of the cathedrals of Reims and Amiens,
where the statue masters tended to humanize the characters, presenting them sometimes (Virgo and
Elisabeth from the Reims Cathedral). In this context, the Virgo of Reims is one of the noblest works of
Gothic plastics. The master managed to harmonize the classic, Greek ideal of the female beauty with a
medieval representation of humility and majesty. Also, if the figures in Chartres are still long and rigid, in
Reims and Amiens, the statues not only break out of the architectural background but take the form of
rondes-bosses with their own personality.

A substantial contribution to Gothic sculpture was brought by Germany. Although the first
models are inspired by the Cathedrals of Chartres, Reims and Paris, later they show their own tendencies
characterized by emphasizing the individual character of the characters, searching for a most expressive
expression. The first representations are those in the Magdeburg Cathedral, with the elegant symbolic
statues, followed by the famous sculptural cycles of Bamberg and Nauburg: the first with the statues of
Mary and St. Catherine of exceptional plasticity, or the 'Bareback of the Bamberg'; the second cathedral
being represented by the statues of the Hermann and Reghindis pairs, and in particular Ekkehard and Uta,
one of the finest, most beautiful and enigmatic lay female representations.

13
 10

England retained its independence also in the case of sculpture. Although the column statues on
the facade of the Wells Cathedral can be seen as similar to the Parisian statues, at the same time, the
defining features of the English Gothic sculpture are: the inclination towards the flat relief and the two-
dimensional solution. The feature is also the focus on the funeral statue, in a more realistic rendering of
the figure. The exception is the statue of Prince-Black made with almost photographic accuracy.

11

10
http://www.vojska-bezgresne.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ist-apparation-without-frame.jpg
11
http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/brock/53.jpg

14
 From the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Spain will create one of the most remarkable works
of Gothic sculpture in the West through the sculptures of the gigantic rethangs of Taragona and Palma de
Mallorca. Characteristic are the almost exclusive preference for religious themes, the exacerbation of
individualism, and indifference to idealism.

The Italic peninsula, though displaying the same lack of enthusiasm as in the case of architecture,
manages to give European culture a triad of artists who will mark their entire Gothic statue: Nicola Pisano
- creator of the Piazza Baptistery pulp, Giovanno Pisano - to inspire Both in the late Antiquity sculpture
and in the French Gothic, will create the amazing Worship of Pastors, a work that, besides the realism of
representation, releases a warm humanity. Arnolfo di Cambio, Principal Architect of the Domes of Sienna
and Pisa, the author of the Pistoia and Pisa Amphibians and Madonna with the Infant, is considered to be
the greatest master of the Italian Gothic.

12

12
http://www.italianrenaissance.org/wp-content/uploads/Nicola-Pisano-Pisa-Pulpit-3.jpg

15
 13

Gothic Painting

The fifteenth century is the century of maceration of the princely courts, which become
international art centers; European art regains such a unity, it is marked by the desire to display luxury
and extravagant forms.

The painting will remain subordinate to architecture until the 15th century. Considering that the
Gothic architecture reduced the flat surfaces of the walls, painting will be completely eliminated, and its
place is taken by stained glass. However, original paintings will be made by Simone Martini, Matteo
Givanni da Viterbo, Cinabue, Cavalini and especially Giotto in Bondone (with that magnificent set of
frescoes from Capella Scrovegni in Padua), which represent so many stages in Gothic painting From the
theme of 'Grotesque Dance' (the theme of the great epidemic of plague) to Giotto 'Madonna with the Baby
on Throne', a continuous and harmonious evolution. Stained glass' the most extraordinary creation of the
Middle Ages '108, besides the educational function (by playing sacred characters or biblical scenes), will
have an extraordinary aesthetic value through the explosion of colors and lights, emphasizing once again,
if necessary, the presence of The Divine Light.

13
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Firenze_-_Museo_Opera_del_Duomo
%2C_madonna_dagli_occhi_di_vetro.jpg

16
 The painting has a very important place in Italian art. The Art of Frescoes remains essential in the
interior decoration of religious buildings, as the walls can not be pierced by large openings that are
covered with stained glass. In addition, the Byzantine tradition, very present in the 13th century, makes
the current practice of painting on wooden panels. At the end of the 13th century, painters such as
Cimabue in Florence, or Duccio in Siena, introduced the first naturalistic accents in the rigor and
frontality of Byzantine painting. But the one who revolutionizes painting is Giotto. His research goes in
the direction of depth of space, volume reproduction, and characters character interpretation, composition
and form simplification. His art inaugurates the Pre-Renaissance. The Florentine School is in line with
Giotto's precepts. As far as Siena's school is concerned, it is of great importance, dominated by the
personality of the painter Simone Martini. Its style is marked by the elegant spirit of the Gothic,
representing fine and serpentine bodies, with a special attention given to color blossoms. Simone Martini
ends his life at the court of the Pope in Avignon, becoming a great artistic center; He is the initiator of the
first school in Avignon, which, dominated by Italian painters, reproduces the grace of the school in Siena.

Around the year 1400, the painting of Sevalet develops (a wooden support on which the painting
is placed to be painted, the easel painting refers to self-contained paintings of relatively narrow
dimensions, made on a easel). An elegant style, called the "International Gothic," is proposed throughout
Europe, and it proposes a chivalrous, chivalrous ideal, favoring vivid colors, golden polish, and delicate
silhouette characters.

17
 14

14
https://ro.pinterest.com/valeriefontanez/dark/?lp=true

18
CHAPTER II

Mary Shelley

Early Life

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She was the
daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft—
the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which she never really knew because she
died when she was only ten days old. Her father William Godwin was the one that cared for Shelley and
her older half-sister Fanny Imlay who was Wollstonecraft's daughter after having a passionate affair with
a soldier turned diplomat, Gilbert Imlay.

Charlotte Gordon describes Shelley as an exemplary child and very ambitious: "Steeped as she
was in her mother's ideas, and raised by a father who never got over his loss, Mary Shelley yearned to live
according to her mother's principles, to fulfill her mother's aspirations, and to reclaim Wollstonecraft from
the shadows of history, becoming, if not Wollstonecraft herself, then her ideal daughter." 15

15
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, Charlotte
Gordon

19
 16

Everything changed after Godwin's marriage to Mary Jane Clairmont in 1801, who claimes to be
a widow but had two children with different men. Clairmont brought her own two children into the union,
and she and Godwin later had a son together. Shelley never got along with her stepmother. Her
stepmother decided that her stepsister Jane (later Claire) should be sent away to school, but she saw no
need to educate Shelley.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was the author that wrote the gothic novel “Frankenstein”. She was
a writer, dramatist, biographer, travel writer, but most importantly an English novelist which loved to
write about all kinds of stories that she knew they would capture the attention of the readers.

Her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley was a romantic poet and philosopher that had her help in all
that he wrote by editing and promoting all of his work.
Her father was William Godwin known as the political philosopher, and her mother was the
philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

16
http://www.gettyimages.com/license/2641749

20
Chapter III

3.1 Frankenstein - The modern Prometheus

The gothic literature is the type of literature that combines horror and romantic elements.

The hideous progeny of Gothic literature has spawned a textual equivalent of the race of devils that Victor
Frankenstein feared 'might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror'.

1 Resistance to such a Gothic invasion has been mounted by a phalanx of critics in a two-pronged attack.
Disarming the Gothic text by analysing it is a variant on Wordsworth's 'We murder to Dissect? Which is particularly
apposite when Frankenstein is being considered?

Like Victor, who destroys the female he is creating as a mate for his creature, the literary critic dismembers
and fragments the whole into customised parts. From there, follow classification and sub-division of text, author,
concept, many of which are re-entered and cross-referenced under different categories such as national or regional
divisions.

This combination of analysis and classification underscores Gothic literature in its broad xv xvi
Introduction contours as well as in its idiosyncrasies. Such tactics are surety against the danger of us failing to see
the Gothic castle for the gargoyles.

This book is more than an inventory of the sinister, the fantastical, and the eerie, it is a passport to what
Terry Castle calls the 'hag-ridden realm of [the] unconscious'.3 Duly labelled and arranged under headings ranging
from 'The Sublime' to the 'Rosicrucian', the compendium is divided into entries that are predominantly mainstream
and those that are primarily peripheral.

The bifurcation of Gothic writing which tends to default along the gendered lines of female 'Terror' and
male 'Horror' is included, for example, in the main section. In the second half, entries on dread-related areas such as
'The Uncanny' and 'The Grotesque' are suggestive of how 'Gothic' should not be traduced. At once an umbrella term
that has traditionally covered a multitude of the fictional sinned against and sinning, the nuances of what we
understand by it as a site of difference within a panoply of family resemblances, is represented in this collection.

What is Gothic literature? Is it a plot, a trope, a topos, a discourse, a mode of representation, conventions of
characterisation, or a composite of all these aspects? Associated with the traditional Gothic Novel is an ivy-covered

21
haunted ruin, a swooning heroine replete with sensibility, and a tyrannical villain, bequeathed with a lock, a key and
a castle.

Constituting and constitutive of anachronism and counterfeit, the Gothic plot, the proverbial textual folly, is
a mirror diverting us from the Gorgon's gaze, that is, at least once removed from the source of trauma and taboo.
The concoction is a dark yet familiar brew - an uneasy and eerie dialectic between anxiety and desire. A working
definition of 'Gothic' and 'Gothic literature', with its polyvalence and slippage of meaning, may be gleaned from the
entries aggregated here. The Handbook to Gothic Literature is also an index to otherness, for it captures and
catalogues a way of looking at the world that is redolent of something other than itself. More perplexing still is the
way in which, while trying to lock onto the Gothic co-ordinates, one can end up chasing a zero vanishing point,
especially since so much of Gothic writing is preoccupied with gaps. On a pragmatic note, there will inevitably be
gaps of omission particularly as Gothic culture continues to evolve. The idea for The Handbook was inspired by
Frederick S. Frank, whose glossary of Gothic terms in his The First Gothics (1987) it is intended to complement.
Particularly captivating are his beguiling Freudian categories as in the Beckfordian phallic genre of novels
exhibiting 'Toweromania' and 'Turret Gothic', whose gendered counterparts, 'Grotto Gothic' and 'Grottophilia', are
set in womb-like, cavernous environments. As an anatomy of the Gothic world and an unholy Bible of the world's
leading Gothicists, this Handbook purports to be introductory, referential Introduction xvii and innovatory. Popular
representations of the Gothic subsist with high cultural forms. Marginalised Gothicisms, such as 'Welsh Gothic', are
represented alongside canonical Gothic writers like Ann Radcliffe (if such appended designations are not
respectively tautological or oxymoronic). The Gothic writer, to misappropriate Swift in A Tale of a Tub, belongs to
'the Republick of dark Authors' who span the dark side of the solar ray of the Rational Enlightenment to the present
day. Landmark writers that form the main contours of the Gothic landscape make up most entries. An appended list
of further reading, which gives priority to 'Female Gothic' as a distinct category, includes brief bibliographies for six
of the most popular writers: Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and
Angela Carter. Gothic life, like that of a giant poisonous plant with far-reaching tendrils, has found its sustenance by
feeding off the credulities of its readers. This hot-house hybrid is constantly mutating, making new growths out of
old as in its propensity for parody and pastiche. What remains consistent, according to Angela Carter, is the
retention of 'a singular moral function - that of provoking unease'.4 This inflection of Gothic as un-ease or dis-ease
invites comparisons with the pathological. Having taken up residence in its host, the Gothic replicates itself
throughout our culture like a virus. While resistant to the antidote of realism, it persistently conjugates with the dark
side of contemporaneity, at the same time, making a textual negotiation with history. Apart from time there is place.
The diaspora of Gothic writing has led to the emergence of distinct traditions in Australia and Canada and beyond.
Regrettably space does not allow all the countries who have either imported or incubated Gothic cultural
representations to be included here. Pragmatism dictated by undergraduate reading lists has, inevitably, restricted the
entries to English-speaking countries and selected European black spots of the sinister, the uncanny and the terrible,
like France, Germany and Russia. It is to those who have created this Gothic topography, that I am most grateful.
Many contributors are leading Gothicises, who have pushed back the frontiers of our understanding of the

22
mechanisms of fear and the perverse attraction to the creeping horrors of the imagination. William Hughes has been
particularly helpful as a source of reassurance and unfailingly sound advice while Macmillan's Charmian Hearne has
been a most patient and understanding editor. Her fund of wisdom, insight and faith in the project, have shed much-
needed light, particularly when I have felt enmeshed in pockets of Gothic darkness. Neil Cornwell, Norah Crook,
Marion Glastonbury, Naomi Lester, Valery Rose and my family deserve special mention for their support. Finally, I
would like to thank my students for their Gothic enthusiasms and trust xviii Introduction that this book will match
up to their Gothic requirements. Though it may not contain definitive answers to such questions as 'Is Gothic
literature a sub-genre of Romanticism or the other way round?', as an adjunct to Angela Carter's observation that 'we
live in Gothic times? the Handbook goes a long way in showing us where we came from and where we are going.

23