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 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.