Is ‘Frankenstein’ Anything More Than A Horror Story?

Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is a novel, which contains many aspects and themes. Although Shelley originally wrote it as part of a ‘ghost story’ competition amongst friends, it is more complex and deals with greater issues than those of a short and fictional ghost story. However, as we see by the prefix, Shelley’s first ambition is to horrify the reader. She wanted to “awaken thrilling horror – one to make the reader dread to look …

…chills the blood, but it is the psychological horror, which leaves us scarred, and it is in the psychological horror we associate with our own lives and reality. Although there are many faults in ‘Frankenstein’, the fact that it is still such a popular novel shows it is not merely a horror story. It dives deeper than that into questions of morality, egotism and human selfishness, which are a much bigger horror story in themselves.