FRANKENSTEIN

1. FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley

2. FRANKENSTEIN AS A GOTHIC NOVEL • IMPENDING DISASTER • FALLEN WORLD, FALLEN MAN • GOTHIC PROTAGONIST • BLEAK SETTINGS

3. FRANKENSTEIN AS A GOTHIC NOVEL “Frankenstein certainly qualifies for the genre, since both antagonists in the book are ‘inescapably’ doomed to pursue each other to death: Frankenstein in order to expiate the guilt arising out of his presumptuous ‘act of creation’, the Creature to avenge his absolute rejection by all” (p 36)

4. FRANKENSTEIN AS A ROMANTIC NOVEL ROMATICISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL • Personal growth is enabled by closeness to nature • Romantics believed in ‘self consciousness’, which must be passed through in order for the individual to transcend • Frankenstein and the creature do not transcend, both are consumed by egotism

5. FRANKENSTEIN AS A ROMANTIC NOVEL (cont’d) • ROMANTICISM AND NATURE “Romanticism is a literary genre preferring grandeur, picturesqueness, passion and extraordinary beauty” (Wagner, p 28)

6. STRUCTURE • EPISTOLARY NOVEL An epistolary novel is a novel in which a character (or characters) tells the story through letters (epistles) sent to a friend, relative, etc. In Frankenstein, Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister to bring her up to date on his expedition in the Arctic. After his ship takes Victor Frankenstein aboard, he listens to Frankenstein’s story and writes it down in letter form. 

7. STRUCTURE (cont’d) THREE LAYERS • Robert Walton’s letters • Victor’s story (told to Walton) • The creature’s story (at the centre of Frankenstein’s narrative)

8. KEY CONCEPTS • DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE • SUBLIME NATURE • MONSTROSITY • SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY • GENDER

9. DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE • PROMETHEUS • WALTON • VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

10. PROMETHEUS: • Formed humans out of clay • Stole fire from the gods • Was punished by Zeus

11. PROMETHEUS (cont’d) • Prometheus saw himself as a benefactor and saviour of humanity • Prometheus defied the gods and was punished • Prometheus also prompted Zeus to give the world Pandora, who unleashed all evils known to man • ‘Modern Prometheus’ suggests that science is creative. However, consequences are real, not abstract

12. WALTON • Seeks knowledge of “the country of eternal light” (p 59) • Disregards the danger of his voyage • Becomes obsessed with his quest • Is, like Frankenstein and the creature, a lone figure

13. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN • Seeks to bestow “animation on lifeless matter” (96) • See himself as a benefactor of humanity: “A new species would bless me as its creator and source” (p 97) • Usurps the role of Heaven in creation • The product of his quest is destructive • His act of hubris is punished

14. DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE • “I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.” • “The great unexplored ocean of truth” • “...what glory would attend the discovery if I should banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” (Chapter 2)

15. SUBLIME NATURE • Spiritual renewal • Spiritual, emotional and imaginative transcendence (it is Nature that inspires Frankenstein) • Arctic desert as symbolic backdrop

16. SUBLIME NATURE (cont’d) • “...all around was calm, and the snowy mountains, ‘the places of nature’, were not changed. By degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me” (p117) • “Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature” It has the power of “elevating his soul from the earth” (Letter 4, p 74)

17. MONSTROSITY • The creature has “yellow skin”, a “shrivelled conmplexion and straight black lips” and a “gigantic stature” • The unnatural nature of his creation adds to his monstrosity • Monstrosity results in fear, abandonment and violence • Frankenstein becomes increasingly monstrous as the novel progresses

18. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY • Industrial Revolution • Responsibility and consequences • Technology asserts influence over Nature

19. GENDER • The female is the contrary of the male • Man represents form [Heaven], woman represents matter [Earth] • Man is active, woman is passive • The female is a deformed male • Man has seed, woman has no seed; she is little more than an incubator • Male is the prime type creation, woman is a deviation/derivative

20. GENDER (cont’d) • Woman has a lesser rational faculty than man • Man has more rational control over his soul than woman does • Man’s wisdom allows him to make rational deductions; woman’s reason is enough for her to accept true opinions • Woman has a lesser measure of virtue than man • Man naturally rules, woman obeys • Man is naturally superior, woman inferior • A virtuous man speaks publicly, a virtuous woman keeps silent • SOURCE: http://www.journals.uts.edu/component/content/article/82-perottet-claude/237-gender-in-western-philosophy-and-unification-thought.html?directory=82

21. GENDER (cont’d) • Frankenstein subverts the natural order • He appropriates the role of women in reproduction • He not only competes with God, but with women • The women in Frankenstein are destroyed by the creature (and his creator)

22. GENDER (cont’d) • “[T]he all embracing ‘Nature’, which 18th century Europe had so revered, gets disturbed and plundered” (p 35) • “It is Frankenstein’s desire to ‘penetrate the secrets of nature’... through the appliance of the new masculinist-made God, Science.” The sexual metaphor is no accident – Frankenstein has violated the natural order.

23. SOURCES • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A Perspective by Monika Wagner • SparkNoteshttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/ • CliffsNoteshttp://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Frankenstein-About-Frankenstein.id-112,pageNum-8.html • Study Guide http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Frankenstein.html