Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

The "dark side" of the human psyche can cover many aspects, and throughout Gothic literature it is expressed largely through sexual desires and the possibility of murder and ending and creating life, with an example being that of 'The Bloody Chamber', these desires are often titillating to the reader or audience, and that's why it is so frequently used in Gothic literature. Mary Shelley immediately portrays these ideas through the main protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, from the start, 'my more than sister', implies a sense of sexual desire to his stepsister. This lust for his sister is further exemplified through the very tender way of describing her as his 'beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures.' The repetition of the possessive pronoun 'my' indicates a sense of ownership, thus Elizabeth is objectified by Frankenstein, which shows how dominating and powerful he wishes to be, and the choice of diction in 'my pleasures' indicate its incestral nature, which can be deemed as exploring the dark side of the human psyche. To argue that in Frankenstein the dark side of the human psyche is not explored, Caroline's death is somewhat "normal", 'She died calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death.' The 'calm' nature of her death implies a sense of respect from Frankenstein, an emotion that would be expected from anyone after the death of their mother, and as the body 'expressed affection' her loving and caring nature shines through, something that is associable with the good side of the human psyche. However, it could be argued that she is the only character who portrays any goodness throughout the novel, and as a result her untimely death is symbolic of how good dies out, so that evil can prevail. An idea that I feel is expressed by Frankenstein saying how 'My mother was dead, but we still had duties...' the bluntness of the statement implies that he is over her death already, and makes him seem insensitive. The use of the word 'but' shows how he disregards his mother's death, which is backed up by the use of the hypertactic sentence structure, showing how he feels that life still goes on, which is quite dark. Frankenstein fails to see anything good in life once the Monster has been created, this is demonstrated through the descri ption of seeing the Monster after running, 'the rain pattered dismally', the use of pathetic fallacy here demonstrates how man wishes to take over nature, an idea which is further expressed through the creation of the Monster. The oxymoronic language in 'pattered dismally' could be seen as a way of demonstrating how the human psyche is neither good nor dark, but instead a mixture of the two, and how one can have confused feelings over something.