I.A.Richard’s View On The Language Of Poetry

I.A.Richard’s view on the language of poetry

Name:  Pritiba B. Gohil

Roll No. :  21

Course No. 7: Literary Theory & Criticism: The 20th Western & Indian Poetics – 2

Topic:  I.A.Richard’s view on the language of poetry

M.A. English Semester - 2

Batch: 2014 - 2016

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Submitted  to :

Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad,

Head of the Department,

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

INTRODUCTION:-

As we all know that this work Figurative Language is done by gem writer I.A.Richard. So, before we discuss about figurative language of poetry let’s know about I.A.Richard. Richards is recognized for his perceptive theories of poetic language which maintained the importance of poetry, while reflecting the scientific approach of the modern age. His differentiation of language use—referential for scientific discourse and emotive for poetry—originated from his early pronouncement that poetry could offer only "pseudo-statements." This controversial issue prompted much discussion of the problem of belief and value in poetry as Richards analyzed it in Coleridge on Imagination. Richards also delineated four areas of meaning to be disentangled by the responsible critic: a poem's sense, its feeling, its tone, and its intention.

Richards's reputation as the forerunner of New Criticism derives from two of his earliest books. Principles of Literary Criticism, published in 1924, was his attempt to establish a criticism based upon scientific method. Of particular interest to Richards was the relatively new discipline of psychology, which he hoped would eventually justify his theory of value that the best art satisfies the greatest number of "appetencies." In Practical Criticism, published in 1929, Richards applied his theories to the study of literature. The method he introduced, asking students to comment on poems without benefit of background information, was for a time a widely accepted exercise in evaluating literature. Richards was especially concerned with the reader's reaction to the poem; he believed that only close analysis would reveal the complexity of great art and he warned against sentimentality and stock responses.

According to I.A.Richards language can be used in two ways, i.e. the scientific use and the emotive one. It’s only in recent years that serious attention is given to the language as a science. In the scientific use of language, we are usually matters of fact. All the activities covered by this use require undistorted references and absence of fiction.

I.A.Richards was an orthodox advocate of a close textual and verbal study and analysis of a work of art. According to Richards there are three objectives to write ‘The Practical Criticism.’

To introduce a new kind of documentation:

This documentation is to be introduced to those who are interested in the contemporary state of culture whether as critics, philosophers, as teachers, as psychologists, or merely as curious persons.

To provide new technique:

New technique is to be provided for those who wish to discover for themselves what they think and feel about poetry and why they should like or dislike it.

To prepare the way for educational methods:

Educational methods are to be preparing more efficient than those we use now in developing discrimination and the power to understand what we here and read.

In his methodology, a lot of importance is given to the “words”. According to him the poet writes to communicate, and language is the means of that communication. Language is made of words and hence a study of words is all important if the meaning of work of art is understood. Words carry four kinds of meaning: Sense, tone, feeling and intention

To his language of poetry is purely emotive, in its original primitive state. This language affects feelings. Hence we must avoid intuitive and over-literal reading of poems. Words in poetry have an emotive value, and the figurative language used by poets conveys those emotions effectively and forcefully. His approach towards criticism is pragmatic and empirical. I.A.Richards by his, own work could make literary criticism factual, scientific and complete. It no longer remains a matter of the application of set rules or more ‘intention’ or ‘impressions.’ His factual and scientific method of critical analysis, interpretation and evolutions has exercised considerable influence on the New Critics everywhere.

Richards constructs this theory on the base of like or dislike of reader and he uses two approaches for this theory.

v Pragmatic: Basically pragmatic means to deal with cause but Richards uses it in different way. He concedes it as knowledge.

v Empirical: This theory basically follows practicality. So this approach is based on practical observation and experiments. It is not based on theoretical things but practicality is base of this theory and approach.

The Importance of Words:

A study of his Practical Criticism together with his work ‘The Meaning of Meaning’ reveals his interest in verbal and textual analysis. According to him a poets writes to communicate, and language is the means of that communication. Language consist words so study of words is significant to understand the meaning. The meaning depends on

Sense: By sense it meant something that is communicated by the plain literal meanings of the words.

Feeling: Refers to emotions, emotional attitudes, desire, will, pleasure, UN pleasure and the rest. Words express feelings.

 Tone: Tone here means the writer’s attitude towards his audience. The writer chooses his words and arranges them keeping in mind the taste of his readers. Feeling is only state of mind.

Intention: Intention is author’s conscious or unconscious aim. It is the effect that one tries to produce. Also intention controls the emphasis, shapes the arrangement or draws attention to something of importance. Richards says that

Words in poetry have an emotive value and the figurative language used by poets conveys those emotions effectively and forcefully. Words have different meanings in different contexts. Words are symbols or signs and they deliver their full meaning only in a particular context sense and feeling have a mutual dependence.

“The sound of a word has much to do with the feeling it evokes.”

“The feelings already occupying the mind limit the possibilities of the new word.”

Importance of Rhythm and Meter:

Rhythm and Meter and integral and important parts of any poem because they determine the meaning of the words used by the poets. Rhythm, meter and meaning cannot be separated; they form together a single system.

Richards finds two kinds of belief and disbelief
i) Intellectual belief
ii) Emotional belief

The Nature of Poetic Truth:

The ‘poetic truth’ is much, different form the ‘scientific truth’. In the principle of literary criticism he writes “It is evident that the bulk of poetry consists of statement which only the very foolish would think of attempting to verify. They are not the kind of things which can be verified. If we recall what was said in chapter 16 as to the natural generality of verge of reference, we shall see another reason why references as they occur in poetry are rarely susceptible to scientific truth or falsity. Only references which are brought in to certain highly complex and very special combinations, so as to correspond to the ways in which things actually hang together, can be either true or false and most references in poetry are not knit together in this way. But even when they are on examination, frankle false, this is no defect. Indeed, the obviousness of the falsity forces the reader to reactions which are incongruent or disturbing to the poem. An equal paint more often misunderstood, their truth when they are true, is no merit.” Metaphorical language is important purpose of communication.

The enthusiasm for science is an apartment in Principles of Literary is never carried out in a rigorous programme of research. In 1992, Practical Criticism followed: arguably a kind of reality statement after the illusions of principles. Practical Criticism was no doubt a pedagogic necessity, the consequence of Richards’s work as a lecture in English literature. With the influx of students just back from the war, Richards had to direct his lectures to an audience with quite different expectations from those of pre-war students. The legacy of this pedagogical practice is the central and persistent place in Anglo-American criticism which is accorded to interpretation and to close reading, whether the objects are poems, Hollywood films, or historical documents. This is despite the fact that Richards himself practiced little extended close reading. Significantly, when Basil Willey credits Richards with founding the modern school of New- Criticism, it is Practical Criticism, and not Principles, that he mentions. Part 3 of Practical Criticism, ‘Analysis’, begins with chapter ‘The Four Kinds of Meaning’, which pronounces that: the original difficulty of all reading, the problem of making out the meaning, is our obvious starting-point. The answers to those apparently simple questions: ‘What is a meaning?’ ‘What are we doing when we Endeavour to make it out?’ ‘What is it we are making out?’ are the master-keys to all the problems of criticism. If we can make use of them the locked chambers and corridors of the theory of poetry open to us, and a new and impressive order, is discovered even in the most erratic twists of the protocols.

Is it the return of the repressed in the form of Moore’s ‘What do you mean by that?’ is this what is behind Richards’s wish to eliminate the question, ‘Is the passage good or bad poetry?’ , and to invite answers only to the question, ‘What does it mean?’ at the outset of Practical Criticism? Commentators have pointed to the underplaying of meaning in poetry in the early work, inherent in the division between symbolic and evocative language for scientific and poetic use respectively.

Source of Misunderstanding in Poetry:

According to I.A.Richards there are four sources of misunderstanding of poetry. It is difficult to diagnose with accuracy and definiteness, the source of some particular mistake or misunderstanding. First, there might be a misunderstanding of the sense of poetry. It arises from inattention, or sheer, cardessness. I.A.Richards warns readers- In most poetry the sense is as important as anything  else; it is quite as a subtle, and as dependent on the syntax, as in prose, it is the poet’s chief instrument to other aims when it is not itself his aim. His control of thoughts is ordinarily his chief means to the control of our feelings, and in the immense majority of instances we miss nearly everything of value if we misread his sense.

An over literal-reading is as great a source of misunderstanding in poetry as careless, ‘intuitive’ reading. Careless, intuitive reading and prosaic “over-literal” reading are the simple-grades, the justing rocks. Defective scholarship is a third source of misunderstanding in poetry. The reader may fail to understand the sense of the poet, because he is ignorant of poet’s sense. A far more serious cause of misunderstanding is the failure to realize that the poetic use of words is different from their use in prose. Complaints may rest upon an assumption about language that can be fatal to poetry. Literary is one serious obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the poetic words. According to Richards-‘poetry is different from prose and needs a different attitude for right understanding.’

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:

A Simile is a FIGURE OF THOUGHT:-

A simile is a figure of thought in which one kind of thing is compared to a markedly different object, concept, or experience; the comparison is made explicit by the word “like” or “as”; “jen’s room is like a pig sty.” The simile can be carried further and specify some feature of the comparison: “jen’s room is as dirty as a sty.” In either case, the effect is that the subject and the analogy are pictured in quick sequence, side by side.

Similes occur in both poetry and prose, and they may be short and simple or long and extended. They provide an important indication of an author or speaker’s TONE; that is implied attitude towards the subject. As with a METAPHORE, the means is to use a comparison that reflects some key quality of the literal subject. For, use a comparison that reflects some key quality of the literal subject. For example, the tone of simile may be exalted, as in Robert Burns’ lyrical tribute: “O, May luve’s like a red, red rose.” Here, the image evoked is of a fresh, vibrant, and lovely object of adoration.

 The Value of Figurative Language:

The use of figurative language can create problems. It is difficult to turn poetry into logical respectable prose. Only through accuracy and precision is combined with recognition of the liberties which are proper for a poet, and the power and value of figurative language.

The use of figurative language can create problems. It is difficult to turn poetry into logical respectable prose. Only through accuracy and precision is combined with a recognition of the liberties is combined with a recognition of the liberties which are proper for a poet, and precision is combined with a recognition  of the liberties which are a recognition of the liberties which are proper for a poet, and the power and value of figurative language.

A Health, a ringing health, unto the king, of all our hearts today! But what proud song, should not followed on the thought, nor do him wrong? ………………….. Away into the sunset-glow.

There are various comments on the above piece of the hyperbole of sea-harp. The only concrete simile in the octave is the likening of the sea to a harp-surely a little extravagant.

There is no doubt that the similarity between the sound of a harp and the sea but in poetry such things do happen. It is clear that the effect proposed by the poets is, “an exhilarating awakening of wonder and a fusion of the sea, lightning and spring, those three ‘most moving manifestations of Nature.’

Mixed Metaphors :-

Mixtures in metaphors work well if in the mixture the different parts or elements do not cancel each other out. The mixture must not be of the fire and water like. ‘Woven’ does not mix well with sea and lightening and so here the mixed metaphor is a serious fault.

Figurative Language:

The poet is rather negligent in the choice of means he has employed to attain his end. The enjoyment and understanding of the best poetry requires a sensitiveness and discrimination with words, a nicely, imaginativeness and deftness in taking their sense which will prevent the poem in question, in its original form receiving the approval of the most attentive readers.

The Value of Personification:

Personification comes naturally to us. Personification may not express sense but it expresses the feelings of the poet towards what he is speaking about personification enables the poet to clear and comprehend the difficult work. Personification should not be over-elaborated. There are degrees of personification. If it is over-elaborated it becomes over-burdened.

Comparative Criticism:

Richards warns his readers against the dangers of over simple forms of ‘comparative criticism’. A critic has compared the poet and Shelley is clear in the conception. One thing should be noted that ‘end’ and ‘means’ both differ. As two poets are often closely paralleled in their intents, divergence in their methods does not prove one poem better than the other, ‘Comparative Criticism’ has value under conditions and circumstances.

“When after five years of ‘antics’ chiefly concerned with the cloud- shadows, he turns to the cloud itself in its afternoon dissolution, he cuts the personification down, mixing his metaphors to reflect its incoherence, and finally, ‘O frail steel issue of the sun,’ depersonifying it altogether in mockery of its total loss of character. This recognition that the personification was originally an extra vantage makes the poem definitely one of fancy rather than imagination to use the Wordsworthian division but it rather increases than diminishes the descriptive effects gained by the device. And its peculiar felicity in exactly expressing a certain shade of feeling towards the cloud deserves to be remarked.”

Analysis of the poem with the help of “figurative language of poetry”  by I.A.Richard

Joy and woe are woven fine

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so,
We were made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.

-  by William Blake

In this poem poet William Black uses some figures of language like Paradox, personification, exaggeration or Hyperbole. So let’s discuss it.

1.       Paradox : - Joy and woe. We know that Joy means Happiness and woe means sadness and this both are together in very first line of this poem. So, we can say that here poet used paradox in first line of this poem. 

2.    Personification:- clothing for the soul divine Personification gives human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or ideas. And here poet says that clothing for the soul divine. We all know that soul can’t  wear  clothes but here poet used personification in this line.

3.    Personification :-  Runs a joy it is also personification because we all know that joy can’t run.

So, we can say that here poet William Black uses so many figures of language for his poem

‘ Joy and woe are woven fine’.

Conclusion:

Briefly, a proper understanding of figurative language needs closer study. Its literal meaning must be traced. Its literal meaning cannot be found in any imaginative appreciation of it. There should be a judicious balance between literalism and imaginative freedom. One should comprehend the meaning of poetry properly and then come to the judgment whether it has any fault or not.

I.A.Richards says :-

 “The chemist must not require that the poet writes like a chemist, not the moralist, not the man of affairs, nor the logician, nor the professor, that he writes as they would. The whole trouble of literalism is that the readers forget that the aim of the poems comes first and is the sole justification of its means. We may quarrel, frequently we must, with aim of the poem, but we have first to ascertain what it is. We cannot legitimately judge its means by external standards which may have no relevance to its success in doing what it set out to do.”

( Words :-3,048 )

Frankenstein as a Gothic Scientific Fiction

              Frankenstein as a Gothic 

Scientific Fiction

Name:  Pritiba B. Gohil

Roll No. :  21

Course No. 5: The Romantic Literature

Topic: Frankenstein as a Gothic Scientific Fiction.

M.A. English Semester - 2

Batch: 2014 - 2016

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Submitted  to:

Heenaba Zala

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

INTRODUCTION:- 

As we all know that  Frankenstein is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” 

― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel  and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. Now after this we have question that what is  Gothic novel . So here is the answer of this question.

What is Gothic science FICTION:-

Gothic science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction  that, as the name suggests, also involves gothic conventions. The connection between Gothic and Science Fiction is far from being a new discovery. There is however something to be said about returning to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to fully appreciate the complexity of this genesis, this beginning of a genre loosely termed as Gothic Science Fiction. As an established Gothic text Frankenstein is also considered by many as the beginning Science Fiction. Mary Shelley, in Frankenstein redefines and re-establishes, conflates and mutates aspects and expectations of Romanticism as well as the Gothic to create her “hideous progeny”, in much the same way as Victor does in the creation of his monster; through piecing together fragmented and often strangely opposing elements, from the enlightened knowledge of his science and pieces of dead flesh from the graveyard.

Victor Frankenstein continually wants to transcend boundaries and limitation. This is a Romantic drive towards transcendence or “enlightenment” which due to the Gothic nature of Frankenstein is translated as being a transgression. In undermining Victor’s need for transcending human limitations, Mary Shelley continues to highlight the boundaries that Victor can in fact not break through. He is continually confined to his “solitary chamber” and is obsessed with overcoming the boundary between life and death. Victor becomes an archetypal transgressor by perceiving life and death

“as ideal bounds, which I should first break” (p.36).

We can say that this all are genre of this novel like Gothic Fiction, Tragedy or Science Fiction. Lets elaborate this terms in very deeply. 

(1)    Gothic Fiction :-

Dark and stormy night? Horrid monster? Attempt to excite sublime feelings like terror and awe?  This all are some things related with Gothic Literature.

Definition: -

As much as we would love to talk about gloomy '80s bands like Bauhaus and The Cure, the gothic is actually a literary genre that influence like this.

Some examples :-

• Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto was published in 1765 and is sometimes cited as one of the first gothic novels.

• Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho was published in 1794. 

• Jane Austen parodies the gothic genre in her 1818 novel Northanger Abbey.

What is gothic literature? First and foremost, it's a genre known for its spookiness. Think bats, cobwebbed castles, and nasty old tyrants holding good folks captive in towers. In other words, there's a lot of paranormal activity going down.

Gothic authors are also often really into concepts like the sublime. In literature, the term refers to a kind of out of this world experience that someone has in nature. And in gothic literature, it's closely linked with, well, sheer terror—all because the sublime is so awe-inspiring. Variations on the gothic genre include the Southern gothic, which is kind of like the regular gothic, but set in the American South.

Then there's Gothic-Romanticism, which is technically a subgenre of Romanticism, but we're thinking it goes both ways. Romanticism was a movement that rebelled against the stuffy old Enlightenment by valuing emotions over reason. What emotions does Gothic-Romanticism value over reason? Usually horror, dread, and sheer terror.

(2)    Tragedy :- In very short Everyone dies at the end. Frankenstein shows us a great (or, well, pretty good) guy brought low by his own pride, or hubris. so we can say that  definitely this is a tragedy.

(3)    Science Fiction :- This is where it gets interesting: Frankenstein is often considered the first work of science fiction. What's key is that the science isn't just window-dressing: the whole point of the novel is to explore heavy questions about What It All Means, where "It" can be loosely translated as "science, fate, free will, nature, and humanity."

(4)    Fiction:-  Frankenstein’s fictions peter Haining, editor of the indispensable Frankenstein omnibus has called Frankenstein “the single greatest horror story novel ever written and the most widely influential in its genre”. The first story about a female monster is French author Villiers de Lisle Adam’s “the future Eve”, an 188 novelette not translated into English until fifty years later, in which an American inventor modes on Thomas Edison makes an artificial woman for his friend. Jack London’s early story, “A thousand Deaths” (189), is a gruesome science fiction tale of a scientist who stays at sea on his laboratory ship, repeatedly killing then reviving his son, until the son has enough and kills his father.

What are some characteristics of gothic science fiction?

Gothic literature has certain qualities the influence the story or paper.  It usually has a mystery involved, secrets, curses, murder, and the illusion of ghosts or the supernatural.  The setting often entails components such as castles, mansions, secluded streets, fog, chilly air, and remote areas.  Writers from the Victorian era began to include the dynamic of psychologically confused or torn characters.  Romantic undertones are also present.

In the book "Frankenstein," we have a doctor who is driven by his own desire to succeed at creating the perfect man, free from disease or ill health.  Victor has a love interest that he is engaged to be married.  They love each other but the "secret" threatens to destroy his relationship.  The creature is an emotionally torn being and so is Victor Frankenstein.

The setting places us in a lab and the streets and settings all correlate to make the story dismal and dark.  Once the secret is revealed the events that unfold create a conflict in relationships and death of Victor's wife.

Victor is also representative of the gothic hero.  He is brooding and his vision is of a man torn between his need to create the perfect being, having made a horrid vile creature, and his life ending as a consequence of his choice.

Gothic literature is really the beginning of the horror genre, but it focuses a lot on landscapes. There are a lot of dark places and locations in Gothic novels, think about castle ruins. There is also typically a pinnacle evil; a phantom, monster, or evil person. Second in the science fiction genre. Some traits would be fictitious events based in science occurring, again possibly ghosts (phantoms), monsters, or crazy scientists.

In regards to Frankenstein, there is the strong science element, a monster, death of the innocent, and wild, yet ruined landscapes.

As the name suggests, this is a hybrid of the best/worst of both genres. When I checked this out on the Internet, several sites came up. One common denominator is the grafting on of such literary prototypes as Frankenstein's monster and vampires based on the model of Stoker's Dracula. However more upbeat, modern scenarios appear. Some favourite "problems" deal with mismanaged genetic engineering (particularly cloning), space colonies, computers (particularly artificial intelligence), and ecology.

As a whole, most science fiction stories are cautionary tales; that is to say that they convey a warning about future consequences of technology and scientific "advancement" gone awry. Because of their "gloom and doom" message, science fiction stories are inherently "gothic" anyway; just pour in a little more gore, one of the 'modern problems' mentioned above, a pinch of radioactive waste, and blend.

Frankenstein as a Gothic Fiction:-

Now let’s take about Frankenstein as a Gothic Fiction. The term ‘Gothic’ is highly amorphous and open to diverse interpretations; it is suggestive of an uncanny atmosphere of wilderness gloom and horror based on the supernatural. The weird and eerie atmosphere of the Gothic fiction was derived from the Gothic architecture: castles, cathedrals, forts and monasteries with labyrinths of dark corridors, cellars and tunnels which evoked the feelings of horror, wildness, suspense and gloom. The haunted castles with secret passages, vaults and dark galleries full of terrible howling wind, which caused thunderous noises of a mysterious nature aroused fear and terror in the minds of the readers as if they were trapped within a graveyard. Belief in the supernatural, the magic and in the existence of spirits and ghosts have always haunted man. In the Introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel, Mary Shelley informs the readers that the novel emerged from the notorious ‘ghost story’ contest in which Mary, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Dr Polidori were involved. It was fine weather at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. It was decided that each one of them should write a ghost story for their mutual amusement. However, she also tells us that it emerged from a long discussion between Percy Shelley and Lord Byron concerning the ‘Principle of life’ which sharpened and gave rise to the mental vision. The scientific experiments made by Darwin on the one hand and by Galvani and Giovanni Adini on the other considerably influenced Mary Shelley. Thus, she had an enormous fund of written materials, including her father’s epoch-making CALEB WILLIAMS which conceives of a Utopia where the presence of women is ruled out and that child would be produced by what he calls ‘social engineering’ and not by sexual intercourse.

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.

Victor Frankenstein is not the only character to strive against and challenge traditional boundaries, however. The Creature that Victor makes is engaged in his own struggle to experience sublime connection with his environment and with other living beings. The Creature makes multiple attempts to connect with other beings, especially before he realizes that he is different from them. Almost all of his efforts are in vain, however. The Creature lacks speech and obvious physical characteristics that would make him more recognizable to human beings. The pain of his multiple rejections leads him to believe that, as explained in one of the important quotes from 
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley :-

“[T]he human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union…. [I]f I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear….” (Shelley 173).

This decision signals the decline of all of the major characters, and foreshadows the novel’s terrible denouement. In a twist on the typical romantic text, which, if it does not end happily, ends on a thoughtful, meditative note, this novel ends with the characters having effected no significant resolution amongst themselves. They have all realized the impossibility of striving against the roles to which they have been assigned in life, and they do not seem to be able to identify any other options for themselves. While this novel is exemplary of the romantic period in that it uses a highly stylized and dramatized frame, more concerned with the realms of the fantastic than those of the real, the fantastic story becomes an allegory for very real emotions and struggles with which romantic writers were deeply preoccupied.

There are many passages which evoke the feelings of fear and terror. Victor collecting bones in the charnel houses and graves and working in his filthy workshop totally cut off from the rest of the habitation. He himself feels horror struck when he looks at his own creation – the yellow skin which scarcely covered the muscles and arteries, watery eyes almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets, shrivelled complexion and black-lips. The gigantic figure he creates horrifies the creator and he rushes out, tries to get sleep finds the monster looking at him; the very sight shocks him and he rushes out to spend the entire night walking about in the courtyard down below. There is then the monster’s attempt to coax the child William to befriend him and strangle him. Though the narratives come from the mouth of the Monster to Victor and Victor to Walton, the effect is truly uncanny and eerie. The same feelings are evoked by the long chase by Victor all through the wilds, hazardous terrains, then getting a sledge, exchanging it with another to pursue the monster as he follows the words carved and engraved on the bark of the trees and on stones, and finally, getting trapped in  the ice. All such descriptions are suggestive of the Gothic.

Frankenstein is by no means the first Gothic novel. Instead, this novel is a compilation of Romantic and Gothic elements combined into a singular work with an unforgettable story. The Gothic novel is unique because by the time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, several novels had appeared using Gothic themes, but the genre had only been around since 1754.

The first Gothic horror novel was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, published in 1754. Perhaps the last type of novel in this mode was Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, published in 1847. In between 1754 and 1847, several other novels appeared using the Gothic horror story as a central story telling device, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1794) by Ann Radcliffe, The Monk (1796) by Matthew G. Lewis, and Melmouth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Maturin.

Gothic novels focus on the mysterious and supernatural. In Frankenstein, Shelley uses rather mysterious circumstances to have Victor Frankenstein create the monster: the cloudy circumstances under which Victor gathers body parts for his experiments and the use of little known modern technologies for unnatural purposes. Shelley employs the supernatural elements of raising the dead and macabre research into unexplored fields of science unknown by most readers. She also causes us to question our views on Victor's use of the dead for scientific experimentation. Upon hearing the story for the first time, Lord Byron is said to have run screaming from the room, so the desired effect was achieved by Mary Shelley.

Gothic novels also take place in gloomy places like old buildings (particularly castles or rooms with secret passageways), dungeons, or towers that serve as a backdrop for the mysterious circumstances. A familiar type of Gothic story is, of course, the ghost story. Also, faraway places that seem mysterious to the readers function as part of the Gothic novel's setting. Frankenstein is set in continental Europe, specifically Switzerland and Germany, where many of Shelley's readers had not been. Further, the incorporation of the chase scenes through the Arctic regions takes us even further from England into regions unexplored by most readers. Likewise, Dracula is set in Transylvania, a region in Romania near the Hungarian border. Victor's laboratory is the perfect place to create a new type of human being. Laboratories and scientific experiments were not known to the average reader, thus this was an added element of mystery and gloom.

Just the thought of raising the dead is gruesome enough. Shelley takes full advantage of this literary device to enhance the strange feelings that Frankenstein generates in its readers. The thought of raising the dead would have made the average reader wince in disbelief and terror. Imagining Victor wandering the streets of Ingolstadt or the Orkney Islands after dark on a search for body parts adds to the sense of revulsion purposefully designed to evoke from the reader a feeling of dread for the characters involved in the story.

In the Gothic novel, the characters seem to bridge the mortal world and the supernatural world. Dracula lives as both a normal person and as the undead, moving easily between both worlds to accomplish his aims. Likewise, the Frankenstein monster seems to have some sort of communication between himself and his creator, because the monster appears wherever Victor goes. The monster also moves with amazing superhuman speed with Victor matching him in the chase towards the North Pole. Thus, Mary Shelley combines several ingredients to create a memorable novel in the Gothic tradition.

Gothic novels called Gothic because of typical setting in Gothic castles—and the castles called Gothic due to their German origins appeared in the second half of the eighteenth century, and they have such titles as The Castle of Otranto (1765) and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). It is now easy to see them as a symptom of the change that was sweeping over western civilization. Their heroes are dark, tormented souls, who have committed unspeakable sins, men cut off from the stable values that underlay the Age of Reason. They act out their dramas in dark, mysterious castles that have nothing of the reasonable balance that sane architecture is supposed to have. These castles have secret rooms, hidden passages, lost corridors. The exterior world is not the balanced nature of Alexander Pope—it is nature we see in storms, mountains, moors, forests—a nature that is beyond our reason. In these novels we sense that some great secret is about to be revealed some apocalyptic change about to sweep all before it.

In some ways Gothic horror novels are science fiction in reverse. They focus on the dying of the old without revealing the vision of the future. But the major conventions of SF grow out of these novels, and Gothic traits mark SF to this day. In SF we see Gothic character, Gothic setting, and Gothic plot. Gothic character we see in the tormented heroes of SF, Gothic setting we see in the vast expanses of time and space, and Gothic plot we see in the promise of apocalyptic change.

CONCLUSION:-

As we discus above that this novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a Gothic Scientific Fiction novel in genre. And we prove this thing with the help of this all the things. What makes Frankenstein endure as an exemplary Gothic Scientific Fiction is the fact that it takes on these characteristics and concerns that are so central to romantic writing and challenges the common use and treatment of them.

 By appropriating elements of the romantic and combining them with characteristics that are clearly gothic, Mary Shelley expanded the possibilities of both genres. She permits length self-examination without wallowing and self-preoccupation, and she allows characters to express deep desires, even if those desires are impossible to achieve. To her credit, she avoids over-philosophizing or offering her own interpretation for the reader to adopt.

Instead, she creates a novel that is far more complex and sophisticated than the work of many of her contemporaries by provoking philosophical, ethical and moral questions that the reader is left to answer.

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
― Mary Shelley

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