Unraveling the Roots of Victor Frankenstein's Downfall

1. In order to get credit for today’s class, you need to complete the following work by Friday, February 14 at midnight. (Details for steps 2-4 appear in the slides.) 1. Read these slides. Contribute to the Pilot discussion topic “Robert Walton Beware.” 2. 3. Contribute to the Google Doc “Roots of Victor Frankenstein's Problems’” 4. Contribute to the Pilot discussion topic “What Have I Done?” and comment on at least one other student’s contribution. Note: Do not feel like you have to overdo it on contributions. You can write as much as you like, but 1-3 sentences is a fine amount. Provided you have read the assigned pages first, work should take about 55 minutes (regular class time); if you find that it takes much longer, please let me know.

2. Frankenstein and the human Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818, revised in 1831) has been called the first science fiction novel. Written at a moment of both wide technological advancement and a growing belief that Reason might help humans build a perfect society, the novel takes up problems of science’s unpredictable effects as well as the problems and possibilities of human education.

3. Shelley references the problems and possibilities of science through the words she gives Victor Frankenstein’s professor: "But these [modern] philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens: they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows" (49). One important invention of the era was the steam engine, which arguably began the Industrial Age.

4. Robert Walton’s quest I never saw a more interesting creature: [Victor Frankenstein’s] eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness […] he is generally melancholy and despairing; and sometimes he gnashes his teeth, as if impatient of the weight of woes that oppresses him (27). The letters from Robert Walton form a framing narrative to the novel itself. Victor Frankenstein tells his story to Walton, in order that Walton will learn something from it. “at length [Victor Frankenstein] spoke, in broken accents:—"Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drank also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me,—let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!” (29) Frankenstein has clearly experienced something awful; the novel will consist of telling us about his horror. If we read carefully, we will later notice lots of common threads between Walton’s story and Frankenstein’s story.

5. Robert Walton’s quest Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing a perpetual splendour. There […]snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe (15). We should ask, then, if Victor Frankenstein is trying to warm Walton that Walton is on a potentially perilous path, what is it about Walton that is potentially dangerous? I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. […] you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind to the last generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at present so many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine” (16) In the discussion topic Robert Walton Beware, comment on the potential pitfalls in Walton’s plan, attitude, or circumstances (he mentions having no friends—i.e. no one with whom to discuss his plans) My life might have been passed in ease and luxury, but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path (17) “I am practically industrious—painstaking;—a workman to execute with perseverance and labor:—but besides this, there is a love for the marvelous, a belief in the marvelous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore” (22). We may, of course, be sympathetic to Walton’s dreams of glory; but the text asks us to think about the potential drawbacks of these dreams

6. The Roots of Victor’s Downfall On pages 52-53, we learn that Victor has been gathering bodies from graveyards and experimenting with them; eventually he learns to give these dead bodies life (“I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” [53]). This is the BIG MOMENT in the novel, the instant when everything goes wrong for Victor. This is what he is trying to warn Walton about. The chapters up until this point detail Victor’s childhood, and Shelley drops hints indicating what brought him to this moment: he is fascinated by Nature’s secrets, drawn to danger, he tends to be isolated, he is affected by the loss of his mother, he happens upon strange books that multiple people tell him not to read (but remember, he’s an adolescent).

7. The Roots of Victor’s Downfall Find the passage assigned to you in the following Google Doc. Read the passage and its surrounding material. What seems to be the potential problem here, which might lead to Victor’s fatal decision? Student Passage Number Davis, Crystal 13 Fee, Kendall 12 Write your observation beneath the passage. Mark your observation with your first name and last initial, in the following manner: [Andrew S.]. If you are not comfortable using a version of your real name on a public site, you can use an abbreviation or code name; just let me know what name you will be using. Jaber, Sereen 14 Jerman, Clara 2 Manning, Rachel S. 3 McLemore, Charlee' L. 6 Nickell, Caleb 15 Nolen, Darby J. 10 Rediess, Kayla 16 Smith, Tyrie 8 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NPKytuo42CB- KxXoyqnNjjbwEl4ByVobmFur5KMSjEY/edit?usp=sharing Stinson, Kyrah L. 1 Sullivan, Aidan 4 Truong, Steven 9 Willis, Mason 11 Wolfe, CJ 7 Zacharias, Jessica A. 5

8. Victor succeeds at everything he dreamed of doing…but is immediately horrified. One critic (Patricia Comitini) observes of the novel: “Frankenstein resists the most fundamental myths of the Enlightenment, the notion that scientific and economic progress will continually improve the condition of humankind, the idea that once the barriers to knowledge are pushed aside, the conditions for perpetual peace and a universal harmony will have been established” (307). Shelley’s moment was filled with scientific discoveries: gravity, magnetism, electricity were all identified in the 1700s; inventions such as the steam engine (the origin of modern internal combustion engines, among others) would go on to have massive effects on humanity in the coming centuries. Comitini (and others) suggest that Shelley was warning her readers of the potential problems of science—especially science conducted in isolation, without regards to consequences. Comitini, Patricia. “The Limits of Discourse and the Ideology of Form in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.” Keats-Shelley Journal, vol. 55, 2006, pp. 179–198.

9. Victor succeeds at everything he dreamed of doing…but is immediately horrified. “now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (58). “But I was in reality very ill; and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life. The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was for ever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him” (63). Victor experiences the opposite of what he hoped to experience: the triumph and joy of discovering something new and adding to what Waldman calls “the solid advantage of mankind” (50). In the discussion topic What Have I Done? 1. Comment on what feelings Victor seems to experience and why you think he experiences them. 2. Respond to at least one other student's comment.