Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel

Abstract

Gothic stories have a distinctive feature of presenting suspense and horror elements that make the reader both scared and curious as they read the gothic novel. The Gothic novel does not shy away from the dark side, a battle between good and evil, but the victory is not always clear-cut. This study examines gothic elements in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. The purpose of this study is to analyse the gothic elements in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. This study applies the theory of gothic novel elements from Robert Harris in identifying the gothic elements in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. Descriptive qualitative research is applied in this study. The data are the utterances and quotations that are related to the gothic elements in the novel. The results of this study indicate that there are seven gothic elements found in the novel: setting in a castle or old mansion, an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, omens, portents, visions, supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events, high, even overwrought emotion, women in distress, and the metonymy of gloom and horror.