“Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance or happiness.”  

“The circumstances that gave birth to Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818) read like something from a Gothic story in themselves. Mary’s unconventional life up to the summer of 1816 (when she was still only 18), along with the company in which she found herself in June of that year – and even the unusual weather conditions at the time – all contributed to the book’s genesis. The vital spark that gave the novel life however was Lord Byron’s suggestion one evening at the Villa Diodati, as candlelight flickered within the house and lightning flashed across the surface of the lake outside, that those present should turn their hands to the writing of ghost stories.” 

“The weather in the summer of 1816 was memorable for all the wrong reasons. The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April 1815 sent clouds of volcanic ash billowing into the upper atmosphere.”  

“‘The year without a summer’, as 1816 became known, provided the perfect backdrop to the telling of bleak, macabre and doom-laden Gothic tales.” 

Within the novel of Frankenstein, Shelley writes on the gloomy and dark weather of the year 1816 where the eruption of mount Tambora blocked the sun’s rays from hitting earth’s surface. That was the same year that Victor created the monster, and as the story is told we investigate the gothic imagery that Shelley uses to show us the horrors and dangers that each character encountered throughout their tales.   

Some terms that relate to Gothic could be Allegory which portrays a different hidden meaning that a story originally shows. In the case of Frankenstein and the term Gothic, allegory can relate because the gothic imagery Shelley uses by creating a storm every time Victor encounters his creation, can show a different hidden meaning proving that it was not just the stormy weather that Europe encountered that year, instead it goes deeper and shows us as the reader the feelings that Victor comes across when experiencing the chaos between creator and creation. 

Works Cited: 

Buzwell, Greg. 2014, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati. Accessed 26 Mar. 2018.