Tension In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Firstly, Shelley‘s varied sentences make the extract more interesting. They make the basic form of the paragraphs flow with energy that spikes up at certain points to cause tension. An example of this is in the first paragraph, where she uses three different length sentences, the last one climaxing to when the creature comes alive. ‘The rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open’. By separating the word ‘when’ with commas, Shelley makes the setting tense because the pause warns the reader that something is about to happen. A further example of Shelley’s use of sentence structure would be in the third paragraph,

One case of this, is her vivid sensory description ‘I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed’ causes the reader to feel the fear of the creature that her character is feeling. Shelley’s striking descriptions also feature throughout the extract and they help to portray how nightmarish the monster is. An example would be, ‘his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips’. The sentence illustrates a clear picture of the creatures face in your head, and by using the word ‘shrivelled’ makes it all the more gruesome. Another linguistic device that Mary Shelley used was personification: ‘by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch’. In this sentence, the moon is described as ‘forcing its way through the window shutters’ which adds extra tension to the setting, because usually the moon is seen as a romantic icon, however, here it is being used to show anger. Moreover, it could be reflecting on what the character believes the monster would so to