Gothic Frankenstein

For our first class we were given the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to read over and study. I had never read it before and was excited to finally have an excuse to pick it up (and of course I rented the Bernie Wrightson illustrated version from the library.) Bernie Wrightson is an amazing illustrator, and he produced some truly Gothic scenes for this novel that brought a fresh take to the now famous Frankenstein's monster that is more closely associated to Shelley's original piece.

Wrightson, Frankenstein (2008) 

This was my favorite of the pieces by Bernie, a two-page spread showing a confrontation between Victor and the monster. The drama conveyed in this scene captures, to a high degree of accuracy, the level of discomfort and paranoia I felt as a reader (a level of discomfort any horror genre fan should be accustomed to.) It's tight, it's cramped, the lighting is very high-key and the viewer feels about as trapped as Frankenstein himself.

Of course, to illustrate something as grandeur as this, you need the story to be well thought out and presented by the author. Mary Shelley's style of writing captivated me. The letters in the beginning of the novel were a surprise, seeing as I had figured, through the lens of today's over-saturated media of the characters, that the story would be completely different. I decided, as I read, to think about the differences that 200 years of evolution have brought to this story. Perhaps my biggest shock of all was the pivotal "resurrection scene" that I am so familiar with, and how it was only about one paragraph in the novel. I had expected a myriad of beakers shaking and rattling against the rain storm as lightning struck the monster from the top of a high tower, but instead found that the Gothic nature of the story doesn't really hinder on that scene, but rather on the repercussions of it.

Shelley's strong suit is definitely creating a sense of off-putting, low-key paranoia. I found the Gothic aspects of this novel everywhere; from the setting (remote, unknown and altogether unpredictable) to the mysterious tampering with abstract forces (specifically death).