Frankenstein

1
Frankenstein

• Introduction
• Letters and Chaps 1 and 2
• Narrative Frames and Family Relations

2
Outline

• Introduction Frankenstein -- Background and
  Major Themes
• The Letters
• Chaps 1 and 2
• Notes
• References

3
Background

• Mary Shelley
• Her mother (Mary Wollstonecraft) dies of
  miscarriage her own experience of child birth
  and infant death
• The novel comes out of Byrons suggestion of a
  ghost story contest (pp. 8-9)

4
Background A Period of Revolutionary Fervor and
Scientific Invention

• Contemporary Science Invention and the Origin of
  Species
• Dr. Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles
  Darwin) invents a speaking machine and a
  horizontal windmill, etc.
• the generation of life (1) life evolved from a
  single common ancestor (2) animation (text p.9)
• French Revolution
• (Monster revolution) Beautiful, energetic and
  also destructive
• Ingolstadt considered the origin of French
  Revolution

5
Major Themes

• Scientific Invention and its Possible Problemsor
  Scientist as God Relations between Creator and
  Creature (Father and Son, or Double? "unwanted
  pregnancy")
• Romantic Hero solitary and idealistic
  over-reacher, finding solace in nature, seeking
  to explore and transcend human boundaries (like
  Dr. Faust) (Three types Promethean hero, Byronic
  hero, Gothic hero-villain source see p. vi for
  meanings of Prometheus.)
• Definition of Humanity (appearance vs. nobility
  of the mind) Responsibility and Guilt
• The Roles of Women and Nature
• The novel as a "Female Gothic Shelley "brought
  birth to fiction not as realism but as gothic
  fantasy, and thus contributed to Romanticism a
  myth of genuine originality." (E. Mooer)

6
Letters and Chaps 1 2

• Major Issue (1)
• Frame Narratives Walton // Frankenstein
• What does Robert Walton desire and want?
• How is he similar to but different from
  Frankenstein in his pursuit?

7
Robert Walton and his Letters

• Walton
• His desire for exploring the Pole (pp. 15-17) and
  his want (19) and understanding of his lieutenant
  (pp. 20-21).
• Writes to his sister as much as possible (at
  every stop St. Petersburg, Archangel, and then
  at North Pole) (e.g. 22)
• Brings Frankenstein back to life "'You have
  benevolently restored me to life'" (25-27)

8
Waltons Desire for the Unknown Geographical
Boundaries

• Inspired by poets and his reading 16-17, 21
• 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.(16)
• Desires for glory and the marvelous (21-22),
  conquering nature

9
Walton? Frankenstein

• First saw the monster p. 24
• Frankenstein
• wretched, fatigued and suffering.
• restored him to animation by rubbing him with
  brandy From this time a new spirit of life
  animated the decaying frame of the stranger.
• Walton p. 25 interested in F as a creature
  (wildness and madness benevolence and
  melancholy)
• P. 27 I begin to love him as a brother, and his
• constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy
  and compassion.
• On friendship 28 Honoring Fs double existence 29

10
Walton and Frankenstein

• Is Walton a double of Frankenstein? A better
  version? Or a less heroic one?

11
Chaps 1 2

• Major Issue (2)
• Friendship and Family Relations (among Parents
  and Children, and Siblings)
• Fs Father (Alphonse) and Beaufault Fathers
  trying to help
• Father and his attachment to Catherine Beaufort
  pp. 32-33
• Fs childhood in Geneva. 33-34 heavenly bliss
• Elizabeth 34 angelic, a present for Victor
• Chap 2 the contrast among Elizabeth, Henry
  Clerval and F.pp. 36-37, 38
• Fs Pursuit of knowledge

12
Friendship and Family Relations

• F. born to parents who are humanitarian and loyal
  to their friends ? nobility of the mind and his
  childhood education (33, )
• Parallel between Catherine and Elizabeth (later)
• Elizabeth natural beauty and goodness (pp. 36,
  38)
• The contrast between Clerval and F that of
  Romantic poet and scientist (37)
• All of these serving as a foil to the tragedies
  about to happen.

13
Fs Pursuit of Knowledge

• The course of his interest as that of fate
• for the birth of that passion which afterwards
  ruled my destiny I find it arise, like a mountain
  river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources
  but,swelling as it proceeded, it became the
  torrent which, in its course, has swept away all
  my hopes and joys. (38)
• Natural Philosophy the genius that has
  regulated his fate (38)
• (pp. 39) The contrast between occultism and
  alchemy (represented by Cornelius
  Agrippa,Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus) on the
  one hand, and modern science (represented by
  mathematics and the study of electricity)
• (p. 41) a brief turn to modern science ? defeated
  by Destiny (Destiny was too potent, and her
  immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible
  destruction. 42)

14
Notes (2) Mer de Glace, a glacier above Chamonix

15
Note (2) Ingolstadt, Germany

• Where Frankenstein studiesthe birthplace of the
  Illuminati, a secret society that introduced
  revolutionary ideas believed by many to have
  helped foment the revolution in France.

16
References

• Reading http//www.gutenberg.org/files/20038/2003
  8-index.html