Weather In Frankenstein

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"It's More Than Just Rain or Snow"
While reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor has proved to be a useful tool in analyzing Frankenstein. By design, each chapter of Foster's book reveals a new way to "read between the lines" and gain deeper insight into the workings and complexities of literature. In this essay, I use chapter nine, "It's More Than Rain or Snow" from Foster's book to show the significance of the weather in Frankenstein.
In the story, the weather acts as a plot device through being the cause of various chains of events and foreshadowing. There are numerous examples of the weather changing the plans of characters, such as the ice surrounding Robert Walton's boat, however, …show more content…
When I say indicator of importance, I mean that the weather reflects how important occurring events are. Particularly, the more detail and description in the text, the more important are the events occurring. For example, "It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature." (Shelley 33). Despite being engrossed in creating the monster, Victor was able to recall how beautiful the summer had been, which reflected that the string of events was, as expected, important. Similarly, on page forty nine, Victor takes not of the stormy weather as he ventures to Geneva in the wake of William's murder and marvels at the lightning. "During this short voyage I saw the lightning playing on the summit of Mont Blanc in the most beautiful figures. The storm appeared to approach rapidly; and, on landing, I ascended a low hill that I might observe its progress. It advanced; the heavens were clouded, and I soon felt the rain coming slowly in large drops, but its violence quickly increased." (Shelley 49). The storm clearly foreshadowed yet another unpleasant event, but the detail also reflects its importance. The fact that Victor could clearly recall the weather down to the intensity of the raindrops reflects that the following events are vitally important to the course of the story. Which it was, for this is where Victor encounters the monster for the first time after creating him and formulates the belief that his own creation had murdered William because he was lingering around the area where William had been
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