1. Frankenstein

      This is the first gothic story I have begun reading. I am currently halfway through the book, and I have noticed a lot of big words. This gives the story a very sophisticated and "scientific" feel. This is important because it implies that the narrator, Victor Frankenstein, is a very logical and smart man. I always get the feeling that, with smart characters, they can think their way out of most situations. Therefore, when Frankenstein creates and later encounters his monster creation, it scares us, the readers, even more when he describes it as a 'sight tremendous and abhorred' (pg 109) and a 'detested form' (pg 111), giving the idea that even someone as smart as him can't figure out a way to deal with this problem.

      This theme of not being able to cope with a tremendous problem is common throughout the book. From when his mom dies of sickness and when Justine is killed for the murder of his brother, Victor Frankenstein faces a lot of terrible situations that most people only have to deal with once or twice in their lives. But Victor seems to face something bad again and again. And yet, he continues to stay alive, always on the brink of insanity. 

     What I found very interesting about the way this book is written is how relatable the narrator, Victor, seems to become. Since he has a problem that he can't talk about with anyone else in fear that he'll be called crazy, he relies on his writing to talk about what he's going through. And this is something almost everyone has done in their lives. When we have no one to talk about our problems, we sometimes write it out in a journal or in a word document. So when we read about the tortures Victor went through, we feel even more connected with him, because we can relate to the type of circumstance he's in. I imagine Mary Shelley didn't do this subconsciously, because she also used the "written letter" plot device which instantly lets the reader know how the characters think/write. And, using what we talked about it class, it's like the gothic version of the "handheld camera". It's sort of cheap but effective in putting the audience right in the character's mind.