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It is no surprise that this phenomenon shows up in her novel and that it symbolized evil. Lightening has been a dramatic voice from heaven in many works and the romantic poets thought it to be a revelation signaling dramatic change. Clubbe thinks every appearance of thunderstorms in Frankenstein have inner significance, and, for Shelley, it signifies what cannot be know, the secrets of the universe. That lightening could both create and destroy life is the central theme surrounding the novel, and that it, and all things in creation, can be used for either good or for evil.
This novel is almost Gothic, which was what followed the romantic period, and the description of stormy weather often set the dark, morose mood. Shelley uses thunderstorms to signal doom in three important spots in the novel, first in chapter two when Victor discovers he wants to study science, next in chapter 7 when Victor sees the monster, and last in chapter 23, when the monster takes his revenge on Victor by killing Elizabeth, his new bride, because Victor destroyed the mate he promised to the monster.
Nature is the main force in this novel, the nature of man, the nature of the cosmos and the nature of good and evil. Shelley uses nature as the background, against which Frankenstein, his monster and man himself is very small. Nature sometimes restores Victor, only to bring on fear and loathing once more during the storms and the grayness of rain. Following the death of Justine we see good weather for a while, and Victor feels happy for a short time before succumbing once more to melancholy. Even the monster is affected by the beauty of nature until his human qualities are totally destroyed when he tries to rescue a drowning woman and is shot.
Renfroe suggests that Victor subverts nature replacing...
(Renfroe, Alice 1994) Renfroe cites Mellor's Romanticism and Gender (Mellor, Ann K. 1992) to support her view that scenic description and Victor's reaction was because he felt that nature personified his mother and that it cared for him like a mother. This is in strong contrast to the scenes with violent weather.
Shelley also uses cold to set the mood, going from descriptions of cold rain to the cold of the Polar Regions. Unless he is near a fire Victor never seems to be warm. It is always either a dismal rain, a frozen panorama of mountains or the cleansing cold of the north. This is the final cleansing element for both Frankenstein and his nameless monster as they seem to die in the icy Polar Regions. (We a re not really sure about the monster.)It is their final and release from pain and despair. Victor can finally rest and his creature is freed from his need for revenge.
References
Allingham, Philip V. 2002. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818) -- A Summary of Modern Criticism. Contributing Editor, Victorian Web; Faculty of Education, Lakehead University (Canada)
http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/mshelley/pva229.html
Clubbe, John. 1991. "The Tempest-toss'd Summer of 1816: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." Byron Journal 19 (1991): 26-40.
Mellor, Anne K. 1992. Romanticism and Gender, Routledge UK
Renfroe, Alicia 1994. Defining Romanticism: The Implications of Nature Personified as Female in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. University of Tennessee. http://prometheus.cc.emory.edu/panels/2D/A.Renfroe.html
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