Frankenstein

1
Frankenstein
2
Which Frankenstein are we studying?

• Frankenstein, the novel, by Mary Shelley.
• Frankenstein, the play, by Phillip
  Pullman.Frankoworm, the childrens book.

3
The Source -

• Mary Shelley wrote the novel, Frankenstein in
  1818.
• Phillip Pullman adapted the novel into a play in
  1990.
• Both texts were written in different times and
  different contexts.

4
Who is Mary Shelley?

• Born in 1797 to William Godwin and Mary
  Wollstonecraft.
• Her mother Mary Wollstonecraft was a writer but
  died when Mary was very young.
• She was an avid reader and scholar and knew
  through her father some of the most important men
  of the time (William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
  Coleridge)
• Married (scandal!) Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816
  and listened intently to his intellectual
  conversations with others

5
Mary Shelley

• On a visit in Switzerland, with her husband, PBS,
  to Lord Byron, she was challenged to write a
  story. She had heard Byron and Shelley discussing
  the nature of the principle of life and whether
  there was any chance of its ever being
  discovered. From this conversation, she had the
  waking dream which eventually became the novel
  Frankenstein.

6
CONTEXT- What is the social, historical and
cultural context in which Shelley was
writing Frankenstein?

• No text is written without a PURPOSE or a
  CONTEXT!
• Mary Shelley grew up in the Romantic era which
  began in the late 1700s.
• Her purpose of writing Frankenstein was to
  challenge the beliefs of the Age of Enlightenment
  which preceded the Romantic Age.

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Age of Enlightenment 1650- 1790vs Romantics
1790- 1850

• The Romantics revolted against the Age of
  Enlightenment around the 1790s and led to the
  French Revolution.
• The Age of Enlightenment was an elitist cultural
  movement which believed in three things
• Reason is the source of all knowledge.
• Scientific experimentation is the key to human
  progress.
• Intellectual inquiry without belief in religious
  truth.
• Isaac Newton, John Locke were the intellectuals
  belonging to this Age.

8
The Romantics

• The Romantics asserted their belief in FREEDOM,
  LIBERTY AND EQUALITY and rebelled against the
  tyranny of the rich over the poor.
• They rebelled against the supremacy of REASON and
  returned to celebrate PASSION.
• They revived a fascination and respect of NATURE
  with a desire to IMAGINATIVELY TRANSFORM IT.

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• Mary Shelleys Frankenstein deals with these
  issues and tackles questions such as
• What is the moral responsibility of man towards
  nature as he investigates it scientifically?
• Can we know everything through reason?
• What is the difference between human potential
  and human limitation? What happens if we start to
  play God?

10
Elements found in Frankenstein

• Science fiction
• Gothic elements
• Romantic fascination with nature and creation.

11
Major Characters-

• Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist.
• He is the product of an idealistic Enlightenment
  education fueled by possibilities of science and
  a desire for acclaim becomes obsessed with
  creating life from spare body parts.

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Major Characters

• The Creature - never named is Victors (alter
  ego) Creature rationally analyzes the society
  that rejects him sympathetic character, admires
  people and wants to be a part of human society
  only results in violence when he is repeatedly
  rejected

13
Major Characters

• Henry Clerval Victors childhood friend true
  romantic, wants to leave mark on the world, but
  never loses sight of the moral relations of
  things
• Elizabeth adopted as an infant by Victors
  family.
• Robert Walton Arctic explorer whos obsessed
  with gaining knowledge and fame rescues Victor
  in the Arctic tells the story.

14
What is the difference between a play and
a novel?

• Use Inspiration to brainstorm some of the
  elements of drama that are similar or different
  to a novel.

15
Style Gothic Novel

• Frankenstein is generally categorized as a Gothic
  novel, a genre of fiction that uses gloomy
  settings and supernatural events to create and
  atmosphere of mystery and terror.
• Shelley adds to her development of the plot the
  use of psychological realism, delving into the
  psyches of the characters in and attempt to
  explain why they react as they do and what drives
  them to make their decisions.

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Themes

• Consequences of irresponsibility in the pursuit
  of knowledge
• Consequences of pride
• Consequences of societys rejection of someone
  who is unattractive
• Destructive power of revenge
• Parent-child conflicts
• Sympathy

17
Other Literary Elements

• Irony 2 major ironies
• Creature is more sympathetic, more imaginative
  and more responsible to fellow creatures
• Creature has many pleasing qualities but is an
  outcast because hes not physically attractive

18
Symbols

• White/light knowledge
• Water knowledge
• Ice danger
• Lightning natures power
• Nature acceptance, nuturing, calm
• Mountains sublime in nature

19
Antithesis-Contrasts of ideas, characters,
themes, settings or moods

• Masculine/feminine
• Beautiful/ugly
• Good/bad
• Light/dark
• Heat/cold

• Victor/creation
• Passion/reason
• Natural/unnatural
• Known/unknown
• Civilized/savage

20
Allusion

• Paradise Lost by John Milton story of mans
  fall from innocence to painful knowledge Victor
  can be compared to Adam, Satan, and Eve
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor
  Coleridge, like narrator, tells story as a
  warning and a confession