Catastrophe
A catastrophe is a disaster or failure.
Frankenstein seems to be full of catastrophes. William dies, Justine dies, Henry dies, Elizabeth dies, Victor's dad dies, and then Victor himself. Each death is more and more catastrophic, adding suspense to the story. In the failure sense, when Victor went out to see to dump the pieces of his second creation and the waves started to get rough, that was definitely a failure. Later when he was in jail for the crime he didn't commit and fainted and fell ill after seeing Henry's body was kind of a disaster. |
Here's a paper about catastrophes in Frankenstein.