It's All in the Forecast

"My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope, and anticipations of joy." pg 81

Mary Shelley spends a lot of time explaining the forecast. In fact, the original first words of the story where describing a dark, stormy, rainy night. Flashes of lightning not so accidentally ignite the scene that witnesses the spark of life that similarly ignites the creation with life for the first time. Shelley is also always very specific about what season it is. She marks time by the seasons, not the years, especially when accounting Victor's recovery. She even uses the seasons to describe how the characters grown. Victor and Frankenstein both go through a hard time in winter, but then start to perk up around spring. Shelley uses the weather as a sort of guide or foreshadowing that sets the mood of the action. The current weather conditions, or even just the time of year can be a clue to what is going on with the characters or what will happen next.