Return to site

Susan Hill's Women in Black and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein :: English Literature

broken image

Susan Hill's 'Women in Black' and 'Mary Shelly's 'Frankenstein'The word gothic means 18th Century literature referring to afrightening manner of content being used.I have chosen two gothic novels to indicate the typical features of agothic novel. One is Susan Hill's 'Women in Black' and 'Mary Shelly's'Frankenstein'.These two gothic novels concentrate on the two major worries withinsociety when these books were published.Frankenstein concentrates on the pre-curser on science fiction. Thispre-curser in Frankenstein is man's objective to play god.Frankenstein was written in a period of time when science waselevating but society in general was afraid to accept a progress beingmade by man they preferred progresses justified by God. Mary Shellycould relate to her novel of 'Frankenstein' to the period of time whenit was written because the many people living in the 18th century whenshe was alive, were driven by religion not by science and newrevelations being made by man were considered to be playing god. InMary Shelly's Frankenstein she states in the introduction of the bookthat, during the time period when Frankenstein was written themajority of published novels were not gripping or new and her novelwould make an unusual change to which society can relate to.The Women in black concentrates on the grief when losing a youngchild. This was published in 2000 and it is relatable towards today'ssociety because a lot parents today can relate to having children andknow how protective they are towards their own children.Personally since I do not have children of my own I found it difficultto relate with the grief the characters posses and from that mygeneral interest in the story began to sway.The typical feature a gothic novel possesses is setting the scene. Thesecond chapter of The Women in Black concentrates on the surroundings,the author portrays the weather on a Monday afternoon in November as alightning heart of change, never seeming to come fully light and alsoraw to and a yellow fog, a filthy fog, evil smelling fog, a fog thatchoked and blinded, smeared and stained. Susan Hill instantaneouslycreates a felling of ill being and fear. The novel begins in Novemberwhich is a symbolism of death, creating negative atmosphere to beginthe novel with. In comparison with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein this isvery similar. When the creature Frankenstein is created, the Authorportrays the weather and time of day as a, dreary night of November.Also instantaneously Mary shelly has created a felling of feardescribing the event to occur again in the month of November and also