Lecture Notes

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 fathers 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 Percys 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.