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 * Gothic/Science Fiction Novel (Jane Mikus)**

Frankenstein is often referred to as both a gothic novel and "the first science fiction" novel: two extremely different styles of writing that are both present in Mary Shelley's story. A science fiction novel is a genre rooted in scientific facts, valid predictions, and critique of specific scientific thinking. A gothic novel is one that features grotesque settings and is meant to evoke fear in readers. The story most obviously has connections to science fiction as Victor is trained in a lab and has the ability to animate this over-sized and terrifying creature. Although his brain might not be thinking through his actions, he has the scientific ability to successfully complete his goal to make life. The procedure he follows is not listed in the plot, but through the detailed narratives in Shelley's explanations of the creature, it can be assumed that Victor has scientific experience. So, right from the beginning, the novel has the gist of a science fiction horror story. In contrast, the gothic style of Shelley's writing emerges the moment the creature's yellow eyes glare up at his creator as he stiffly learns how to properly move his pieced-together limbs. The creature is completely deformed: surely fear-evoking and grotesque. Those who stumble upon his presence without fully knowing the background of his story have no choice but to run in fear of this monster. The settings, as well as the characters, prove to have gothic undertones as well. The scenes in the forest when Victor glaces at his creation under the stormy and pitch black midnight sky, and the dark rainy nights of the various murder mysteries, can be perceived to have come straight from a nightmare. The doors creak, the wind howls, and the footsteps echo as Victor narrates his story. Mary Shelley fills Frankenstein, both a Science Fiction and Gothic style novel, with tormented spirits that instill emotions of horror and torture, as the reader checks behind her back just in case.

The First Science Fiction story (Christina Paolicelli)
Frankenstein has been called the first tale of science fiction. Science fiction is a tale that takes current scientific fact and imagines things that will come in the future based off these scientific facts. What Mary Shelly does is use the science of the times, Natural philosophy to postulate that in the future human life could be created. Scarily enough this has come to be a reality with the cloning of Dolly and several other animals. Frankenstein raises the question of what would happen if a human could artificially produce another human, and since we could now actually do that it is an important question to think about.