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We speak student!

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Don't you see, Paul?

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We've discovered the source of life itself!

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And we've used it to restore a creature that was dead.

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[ dramatic musical flourish ]

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Frankenstein a la Shmoop

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Gothic Tones

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What is Gothic?

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Gothic is a genre that is known, basically, for its spookiness.

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We wanna distinguish scary from spooky;

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that's the first thing to do.

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You know, when you read Frankenstein, you're not [ gasps ].

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It's not scary.

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It just kind of gives you the eebie jeebies.

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And that's really what the Gothic is all about.

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Things -- You know, when we picture Gothic,

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we picture castles and cobwebs and kind of that spookiness.

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The genre started with books like

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The Castle of Otranto and Mysteries of Udolpho,

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grew into what Frankenstein is which is this,

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you know, spooky, Gothic, as I said, eeby jeeby-giving book.

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What's particular about Frankenstein

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is that it's not just straight Gothic as, of course, it never is.

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We talked about Enlightenment and Romanticism before.

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And this book is really

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one of the first works of Gothic Romanticism.

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Which means that it is the Gothic.

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it's that kind of, like,

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spooky terror-inducing feelings,

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but the reason that we get that spookiness and that terror

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is to help us understand the human condition.

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And that is where Romanticism comes in.

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When Frankenstein's monster is sitting out in the woods

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spying on the little house and all that's going on in it,

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and we're kind of like [ noise of disgust ].

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Like we kind of get the creeps about it.

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What it's supposed to get us to think about

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is like, "This guy's so lonely.

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This is sad. He's sitting out there watching this family.

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All he wants is to be a part of it."

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And we really feel that kind of emotion

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and that loneliness of the human condition.

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And that's where the Gothic Romanticism comes in.

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It's that, like, terror and creepiness

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that helps us understand his feelings.

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At this point, we've kind of talked about

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how Frankenstein grew out of the Enlightenment.

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It's a work of, you know, Romantic literature

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and it has the Gothic.

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Another thing to chat about --

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And I am not a science fiction guru,

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but Frankenstein 's often thought of as the first work

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ever of science fiction.

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So as we're talking about genres,

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I thought it'd be cool to bring this up

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because it's not just a work of fiction.

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It's a work of fiction that's talking about

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big, heavy questions surrounding science.

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You know, "Should we create life?"

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is kind of a big one.

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And so, you know, as we get into more modern contemporary science fiction,

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it's these -- They're works of fiction

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making us ask questions about

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what's okay and what's not

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in terms of science and technological advancements.

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And that's exactly what Frankenstein was doing.

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So when we think about the genres of Frankenstein,

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yes, we wanna think of it coming out of the Enlightenment

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as a Romantic genre,

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also Gothic, but then we kind of wanna look

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forward to the science fiction genre, as well.

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What is Gothic?

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What is Gothic Romanticism?

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Which genre describes Frankenstein and why?

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[ glass breaks ]

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[ scream ]

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