Motive of writing Frankenstein was based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's betting between her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and their friends; Lord Byron and John William Polidori have a competition to see who could write the best horror story to pass the time. After thinking of day, Mary conceived the idea of a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made.
The Gothic novel refers to stories that combine elements of horror and romanticism. The Gothic novel often deals with supernatural events, or events occurring in nature that cannot be easily explained. Like for example, Victor Frankenstein creates the creature with a dead body and he plays like a god in effects. And also, Mary Shelley never fully explains where the creature’s parts come from or the science Victor uses to bring the creature to life in this novel. This setting would have seemed very mysterious and ghostly during the time when the science didn't develop enough.
The setting is also one important element that uplifted the atmosphere. The main setting of the Frankenstein is Switzerland and Germany, and the arctic is the place where Captain Walton documents introductory frame narrative at the beginning of the story. These places have a something common of strange places. They may cause a panic easily rather than somewhere that is familiar. And what's more, the forest where the creature murders people and the dark streets where Victor researches a dead body to create the creature also highlights the dark settings of the gothic novel.
