How does Mary Shelley create a mood and atmosphere in

Chapter 5 and why is this chapter important to the Novel as

a whole?

“Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus” is the full title of Mary Shelley’s novel
“Frankenstein”. It is about Victor Frankenstein a trainee doctor who believes man shouldn’t
have to die, and succeeds in bringing a corpse back to life, but his creation goes against him
through the course of the book. This strikes a resemblance to the Greek myth of
Prometheus, a titan who liked mankind and so stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man, when
Zeus found out as punishment Prometheus was bound to rock and a great eagle ate his liver
every day for eternity. They are similar as Prometheus and Frankenstein both stole godly
knowledge and then they were both punished greatly for the rest of their lives.

At the beginning of Chapter 5 it tells you about the setting and atmosphere, using
detailed descriptions of the room where the pivotal part of the story happens. The chapter’s
main premise is that of the monster’s creation and how it turns against Frankenstein, this is
chilling as after the creation of the monster it disappears which causes Frankenstein to be
constantly looking over his shoulder which adds elements of a horror-thriller to the story
which also adds an air of uncertainty and brings the reader to the edge of their seat waiting
for something to happen as the chapter plays on this giving us a sense of impending danger.

Mary Shelley uses the first paragraph to describe the setting of finalization of
Frankenstein’s ambitions and work . Mary Shelley creates an eerie atmosphere by using
lighting effects such as “Candle nearly burnt out ... half-extinguished light” so as it is night
and the room is dark this would add an eerie and maybe otherworldly glow, and with the
light being “half-extinguished” it means you wouldn’t be able to see everything clearly,
meaning there would be an element of the unknown which adds fear and helps to build up
the atmosphere for when the monster comes to life. The eeriness Mary Shelley creates is a
convention of Gothic Horror, which is the main convention of the book.

Mary Shelley uses her description of Frankenstein’s Monster to help create mood
and atmosphere in Chapter 5. She begins by using the word “catastrophe” when
Frankenstein is commenting on his creation which shows he realises that what he has done
is wrong, but he is too late to reverse it now, it could also be taken as a foreboding
comment on what happens in the latter half of the novel and how the monster ends up
killing everyone close and dear to Frankenstein. She then uses the word “wretch” which is a
foul name used to describe something unpleasant. Some of Frankenstein’s next comments
are “I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! – Great God” which shows that even
he sees that he creation is one of ugliness and revulsion, even though he tried to make it
beautiful, this adds to the words “wretch” as it is used to describe something unpleasant
and the monster is unpleasant to look at, and the word “catastrophe” as it is a catastrophe
that Frankenstein tried to make the monster beautiful but it is now ugly. Mary Shelley tries
to make the monster sound sickly and unnatural, “His yellow skin scarcely covered the work
of muscles and arteries”, by saying yellow skin it makes it sound sickly as your skin turns
yellow in cases such as kidney failure where your body is filled with poisons and toxins
because your kidneys aren’t getting rid of them, also yellow skin is an unnatural colour and
dead bodies skin turn yellow as well which shows the horrific origin of this creature as it is
made of dead bodies. She then describes its more luxurious features and qualities, “his hair
was of a lustrous black” and “his teeth of a pearly whiteness” these features we see as
beautiful, and so show how Frankenstein strived to make something of beauty, but then
they are used by Mary Shelley to provide an even more stark contrast compared to the
imperfections of the monster. Mary Shelley even writes about the contrasts in
Frankenstein’s comments on the monster “but these luxuries only formed a more horrid
contrast”, so this shows Frankenstein realises all the mistakes and wrong actions he has
made. Mary Shelley finally writes about the monster’s “shrivelled complexion” which is also
an unpleasant thing, and the world ‘shrivelled’ makes it sound like the skin is either very
wrinkly which makes it seem old which then may add another sense of fear to the creature,
as naturally we fear death and this creature may represent what death is too us, a horrible
disgusting catastrophe. Or “shrivelled” could be taken as that it has ‘shrivelled’ and shrunk
so it is too small which would explain the fact that it “scarcely covered the work of muscles”.

Mary Shelley uses pathetic fallacy in the early part of Chapter 5. At the beginning of
Chapter 5 Mary Shelley says “a dreary night” which makes us think of a grim, slow, and
dismal night, ‘dreary’ conjures the thoughts of grey clouds and almost horror style night.
She then says that “the rain pattered dismally”, the word dismally means in a gloomy or
bleak manner, which creates the idea of sadness, and even so far as to there being no hope.
“Rain pattered” adds to this effect as rain often connected to sorrow, which is a convention
of gothic horror, and the fact that you could hear it meant that the setting was very quiet
which gives it an eerie feeling, or it was very heavy which would give a sense of foreboding.
Although it is most likely the first as Mary Shelley uses the word “pattered” this makes it
sound as though it was a drizzle or a light shower of rain. After the events of the previous
night have passed Mary Shelley straight away comments on how the morning is “dismal and
wet”, the word ‘dismal’ makes it sound unhappy and sad, by using the word ‘wet’ it also
makes it sound unpleasant as well. Then later in the paragraph the weather changes to
more of a storm “drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky”, the
word ‘drenched’ shows that it is a heavy downpour of rain, then by saying the sky is ‘black’ it
shows that the clouds are black which adds more affirmation that it is a storm, and she uses
the word ‘comfortless’ which makes it sound worse as if it doesn’t offer comfort, it would
offer fear. The sentence may also be taken as describing the latter part of the novel as rain is
often connected with sorrow, and since it says Frankenstein is drenched with it, it could
mean he feels or will feel a lot of sorrow, as he does, and ‘black’ could be connected to bad
things as black is used to represent negative emotions such as sorrow, and is also a symbolic
colour of death, as a lot of people do die after the monster is created, and through the latter
of the novel Frankenstein finds no comfort just turmoil, so the future from this point in the
book would be said to be the sky and it is comfortless, as no good things from this point
happen to Frankenstein.

At the beginning of Chapter 5 Victor Frankenstein is apprehensive, “an anxiety that

almost amounted to agony” this is just before the creation of the monster and he is saying
he is so anxious about his plans coming to fruition, he then says how he is so anxious that he
is almost in physical pain. When Frankenstein finds out that his friend Clerval has come to
visit him he is extremely joyous, “Nothing could equal my delight on seeing Clerval” he is
saying that after what had happened the night before there is nothing else that could
amount to the joy he felt at seeing his old friend. Frankenstein isn’t just saying that he is
happy to see his friend but he is over-joyous, Mary Shelley shows his emotions by the strong
emotional words she uses, ‘equal’ is a key word as how it is used means anything else
wouldn’t be as good, and then she uses the word ‘delight’ so he’s not just happy but
delighted, which seems a much stronger word. Clerval’s reaction Frankenstein then
shows how scared he is of what he has actually created “I did not dare return to my
apartment” he is saying that he not only does he not want to go back be he doesn’t ever
dare which shows that he wouldn’t even think of it which adds a measure of just how deeply
scared he is.

In paragraph 3 of Chapter 5, Mary Shelley writes about a dream Frankenstein has.

Mary Shelley uses the dream to hint at what happens in the latter half of the novel, “I saw
Elizabeth ... I embraced her; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid
with the hue of death; ... and I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother ... and I saw the
grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel.”, Elizabeth is Frankenstein’s fiancé, and the
dream is basically saying that after Frankenstein meets Elizabeth again she will die and that
it will be like when his mother died. Mary Shelley uses very strong emotional words to build
up the intensity of this part of the chapter, such as “I embraced her” she uses ‘embraced’ as
it shows he just didn’t greet her or hug her but he embraces her showing how much he feels
for Elizabeth and how much he has missed her. Then using the word ‘imprinted’ it would be
like are modern used word planted showing that he kissed her deeply, show again how
much he loves and has missed her.

We learn a lot about Frankenstein’s character in Chapter 5. We learn that he is

dedicated, as he spends two years of his life working on his experiment even though what
he is doing is illegal, which also shows he doesn’t think of the consequences as his work is
illegal. It also shows he doesn’t think of the consequences as he doesn’t think of what may
happen if his experiment goes wrong, or what will happen if he succeeds. His dedication can
also show how obsessive he is of his work as he worked non-stop for two years with nearly
no rest or food, which shows that he is very obsessive. Frankenstein also seems quite brash
as he rushes into creating the monster with only thoughts of succeeding and not thinking of
the many implications that may arise from his work.

The very point of this chapter is to show how Frankenstein’s experiment goes wrong
as this is the plot of the latter half of the novel. The main event of this chapter allows you to
divide the book into two halves, where your views may change in this chapter, such as who
you sympathise with. Through the first half of the novel you sympathise with Frankenstein
as the book focuses on many of the tragic events in his life that have led up to him creating
the monster. Then after the chapter you may feel sympathy towards the monster and a hate
towards Frankenstein.

Father/Son responsibility

Mary Shelley creates an eerie atmosphere in her novel “Frankenstein: or, The
Modern Prometheus” by using pathetic fallacy and strong emotional words to help set
scenes and portray her characters, also the methods she uses and the atmosphere she
creates are conventions of Gothic Horror which many people agree the genre of the book is.
“Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus” is still relevant today as it still shows that man
should not try to play god, yet as we go further into the future we are trying more and more
to play god. It also plays on are prejudices as even though the monster looks horrid, it only
acted horrid because of the way people treated it, and people treated it that way because
they made assumptions on the way it looked, and that they were scared of it. They may
have been scared because of a fear of the unknown which many people have, as many
people are scared of the dark because they can’t see and because they can’t see they don’t
know what’s there and therefore are afraid. So “Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus”
still has much relevance today as it has many lessons that we should learn from which are
key things in society.