Gothic & Fictional Horror Background for Frankenstein

1. Gothic & Fictional Horror Background for Frankenstein Lecture Notes

2. Fictional Horror • Fiction = untrue / horror stories • Purpose for the audience: • Scare / horrify / create an unsettling mood, tone, and setting • Often overlaps with science fiction and/or fantasy (ex. Frankenstein – a classic horror science fiction novel) • Modern horror stories found their roots in classic gothic horror stories / novels

3. Gothic Horror • Developed during the 19th and 20th century • Popular to the new middle class people who sought entertainment • Exotic and mythical influences • Combines elements of horror and romance

4. Characteristics of Gothic Horror – now seen in modern horror • Suspense • Fear • Often includes a rational, scientifically minded character that fails to heed warnings • Night / unreassuringly lack of light • Play a big part in adding to the “hellish” imagery • Setting – used to build tension • Ex.) Dracula is set in an old, dark, and remote castle

5. Gothic / Fictional Horror Features • Terror (both psychological and physical) • Mystery • Supernatural / ghosts • Haunting / haunted houses • Gothic architecture (ex. gargoyles) • Castles • Death • Madness

6. Gothic / Fictional Horror Characters • Tyrants • Villains • Bandits • Maniacs • Magicians • Vampires • Werewolves • Monsters • Demons • Ghosts

7. Some Classic Horror Authors • Edgar Allen Poe – short story author • “The Cask of Amontillado” • “The Masque of the Red Death” • “The Raven” • Mary Shelley - Frankenstein • Bram Stoker - Dracula

8. Frankenstein • Author – Mary Shelley (Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) • 1797 – 1851 • Her father was the political philosopher (William Godwin) , and her mother was the philosopher and feminist (Mary Wollstonecraft). • Her mother died when she was 11 days old; therefore, she was raised by her father. Father remarried and provided his daughter with a rich, informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his liberal political theories. • In 1814, she began a relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of her father’s political followers, and a Romantic poet and philosopher. She helped by editing and promoting his works. • They married in 1816, after much traveling, death of their first child (prematurely born), and suicide of Percy’s first wife. • Their next two children died before Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. • In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm.

9. Frankenstein • She came up with the idea for Frankenstein during the year 1816 while spending the summer in Geneva, Switzerland. • She started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. • The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823. • The actual storyline was taken from a dream. Shelley was talking with three writer-colleagues, and they decided they would have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for weeks about what her possible storyline could be, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made. Then, Frankenstein was written. • Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction.