I had to write an essay about Frankenstein . I had to talk about chapter five and say what techniques were used and I also had to talk about why it's still relevent and what the novel contributed. Please could you proof read it and help me to improve upon it? Are there any points which I missed out?

Frankenstein Essay

The early 19th century was not a good time to be a female novelist because nobody would be willing to read what a woman had to say, that is, of course, until Mary Shelley came onto the scene.
When Mary Shelley set out to write her debut novel ‘Frankenstein’, she had planned to make the reader’s “blood curdle”, but did she achieve this goal?
The quotation ‘It was a dreary night in November’ sets the scene and gives the reader an image of the setting. This is using pathetic fallacy because typically, bad things happen when the weather is bad. Another example of pathetic fallacy is ‘rain pattered dismally against the panes’. This is reflecting the mood of the story and automatically gives the reader the impression that something bad will happen.
The fact that Frankenstein refers to the body parts, which he will later use to create his monster, as ‘materials’ I find to be very significant because in using that word, it suggests that Frankenstein thinks that him creating a new life is nothing more than a project, or an experiment, rather than how most people would view it: as meddling with the unknown. The thought that anyone could be so intent on doing this, on getting involved in things which they perhaps shouldn’t, would certainly make my ‘blood curdle’ because of how out of control Frankenstein seems and how he doesn’t seem to recognise that what he is doing isn’t normal.
When Frankenstein’s monster comes to life, Mary Shelly describes its eye as being ‘dull’ and ‘yellow’. The second she says this; you can instantly guess that his creation is a monster. Some people say that the eyes are a window to the soul so the monster’s ‘dull yellow eyes’ tell you that the monster’s soul is not pure. When Mary Shelly describes the monster’s eye colour as yellow, I think that she is trying to suggest that it is not a human; it is an animal. You tend to find that animals have yellow eyes whereas it is extremely rare to find a human with yellow eyes. This again leaves the reader with a sense of unease because an animal does not have a conscience or any idea of morals. Animals don’t listen to reason and would have no problem harming a human.
Mary Shelly describes Frankenstein’s monster by saying ‘his hair was lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness’. When talking about a monster, you wouldn’t expect it to be described in this way because this particular description makes it sound attractive which is going against the previous description of the monster being animalistic. I think that Mary Shelly was trying to give the monster a little bit of humanity so that perhaps the reader might pity it as the storyline progresses. It was, after all, Victor Frankenstein’s fault that the monster was even brought into being.
A phrase which might make the reader’s heart quicken is ‘a convulsive motion agitated its limbs’ because it makes you think that the monster is not in control of its actions. This would make it scary because the monster would not be able to control itself and the reader might be scared for the characters in the book. Also the word ‘agitated’ makes the monster sound very disturbed and even discontented.
I think that the very idea of creating a human through scientific methods (instead of thual reproduction) is a ‘mysterious fear’ because you could create whatever you wanted and you could manipulate your create to think and do as you want it to think and do. Even then, there is still the possibility that your creation could rebel and have a mind of its own. What then?
When Frankenstein’s monster is brought into being, he exclaims ‘Beautiful – Great God!’ This is quite an odd thing for him to say because this is suggesting that he believes in a God. In which case, why is he creating a person, something that would undoubtedly go against his religion? Looking at it from another point of view, Mary Shelly’s point of view, if she wrote this, perhaps she believes in a God which to me seems quite odd because she wrote a book which would question religion and what religion claims: that God creates life.
Frankenstein also says ‘I behold the wretch – the miserable monster whom I had created,’ which is again questioning religion because he is saying that he created the monster rather than God. This quotation, and the whole novel too, might have upset many of its readers at the time it was written because the majority of them would have been religious and the idea of creating something in this manner would have gone against what they believed. Plus, the reader of the time would have known far less about science than we do today so they probably would have thought it more scary because they wouldn’t have understood the concepts enough to know that creating something in this manner isn’t really possible. The book might have even of seemed more like witchcraft to them than science.
The biggest mystery of all is what happens after death and it seems as if we will never know the answer, which is possibly why this novel was so popular – the idea of being able to bring somebody back from the dead would interest, repulse and scare readers in equal amounts. I think that everybody is always open to new theories about what happens after you die and the idea that somebody could have figured out this mystery and what they would do with the answer is an entrancing thought and this is one of the reasons why Mary Shelley’s novel was such a success.
I think that this novel contributed to literature greatly because before this novel was written, the mad scientist stereotype didn’t even exist. Females weren’t seen to be as intelligent or as able as men, so the fact that a woman produced this novel would have been an eye opener against sexist prejudices. As I have already said, in the 19th century, if you were a female novelist, there would be little or no chance that your book would be read by males but I think that because of Frankenstein, men’s prejudices towards women were proven totally wrong. How could anybody say that women were incapable of writing a good novel when Mary Shelley had proven that point wrong?
I believe that this novel gives a warning about scientific advancements. At the time that this novel was written, many people were worried about where science was headed, much like people are worried today over issues like stem-cell research and cloning. People were worried that what people were messing about with was going against God and I think that Mary, as a religious person herself, was trying to warn people off meddling with the unknown. Mary Shelley helped women writers and women in other professions gain more credit, which is obviously a positive thing but I don’t think that Frankenstein itself has a positive message; it’s more of a cautioning which is still relevant today.

you haven't really talked about the foreshadowing in chapter 5 and how it reflects back to the protagonist victor and the creature.

ps-thanks 4 giving me ideas for my essay.

*Instead saying she tried to give the monster humanity. Say she tries to give the monster human qualities, this is called personification.

*mary contrasts the creation of 'adam' by god, with the creation of the monster. Because god see his creation as good but frankenstein sees his as bad.
P.S put this in your OWN words

Dont av a clue wot to do on it haha x

Essays should be formal.

Dont include [I] it will down mark you. Well, that's what i got told anywaysssss....

I think at the begining you need to talk about Shelley's upbringing and child hood and events in her child hood that compelled her to write this novel about bringing people back to life. You might want to say about her son being given a character in the book because when he died so did his character, which shows how much the book reflects her own life :D

haha i don't havva clue :D x bu thanks x

hehehehehehe

sorry!

well im trying to write this essay to and so far iv got 3 lines - not going to well !!!! help me

This essay is great, helped me alot even though you werent placing it up here to help people.:)

omfg i int got a clue on the 7 paragraph lol x