One interesting element to all the places where Victor
Frankenstein travels is the frigidity of these places and the whiteness of the settings
with the ice and the snow-covered mountains. Thus, the gothic element for Shelley,
unlike the typical dark castles and primieval forests is somewhat like that of the evil
in Herman Melville's Moby Dick in which whiteness, the lack of color, indicates a
spiritual absence and a preternatural, foreboding
presence.
Here are some
settings:
- The Swiss Alps (He mentions looking at
Mont Blanc in the distance; Mt. Blanc is in
France) - Ingolstadt, Bavaria (Germany) on the Danube
River - London
- Scotland
- near
the North Pole - Strasburgh, France (where Victor waits for
Clerval in Chapter 18) - Rotterdam. Netherlands [the
largest European port] - Manheim, Germany (Victor and
Clerval travel down the Rhine) - Oxford,
England - Orkney, Islands off the coast of
Scotland - Evian,
France
Victor returns with Elizabeth to Geneva,
Switzerland, and they stop one night in Evian and then from their boats they see Mont
Saleve and Montalegre, and, at a distance Mount Blanc. After the wedding, they plan to
stay at Villa Lavenza on the shores of Lake Como, Italy, so they stay near the
Alps.
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