Frankenstein

by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein: Style 1 key example

Letter 2
Explanation and Analysis:

The novel’s style, typical of Gothic literature, is characterized by elevated, formal, and emotional language. All throughout Frankenstein, characters express intense feelings of fear, love, and hatred. At times the novel’s style is poetic, for example in Letter 2, when Walton describes himself as lonely in a letter to his sister:

You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or amend my plans.