Author: Mary Shelley
Date Published: 1831
Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797 in London, England to two educated parents who wrote for a living. Her mother wrote feminist books as her father published books. This influenced her love of writing and encouraged her career as a writer. She married Percy Shelley. When they were bored during the summer, they decided to write horror stories to pass the time. She wrote a couple pages of Frankenstein and then stopped. Percy Shelley encouraged her to write more of Frankenstein and she did, which became a successful scary story. Frankenstein has components that are similar to the things in her life, such as the deaths of her three children, her mother, and her husband, and the suicides of Percy’s former wife and Mary’s half-sister. The traveling she did with her family also influenced her descriptions of the intricate settings in the book. Like other authors, her ideas came from her personal life.
Main characters:
Victor Frankenstein is the most significant and complex character in this book; he has love for his family and friends but he cowardly and selfishly lets them take the dire consequences for the monster he created. Before he created the horrible monster, he was an ambitious college student, just pondering about the world of science, but his childish curiosity led him to an afflictive consequence. After he created the monster, he endured alternating moods of contentedness and depression which filled him with the need to express the intricate beauty he sees in nature, compared to the horrible, inhuman monster he created; he became caring and heedful, but contrastingly, he also became bitter and revengeful.
The monster created by the hands of Victor Frankenstein was like a new born child the day he was constructed; he knew of nothing and learned through observation and experimenting. He perceived humans as good, in ways that they are family oriented, but also bad in ways that they rejected things that are different from them. This negative perception of humans led the monster to be barbaric, revengeful, and bitter, though he still had the heart of a human, caring yet self centered of his own needs.
Elizabeth Frankenstein, Victor's adopted sister, represents a beneficial and calm half of Victor's character. Her quiet, yet powerful contenance permeates Victor's life, providing it with light and direction. As Victor's partner, she becomes Victor's second half, his half that reminds Victor of his humanity. Her death marks the final and ultimate blow to Victor, a blow that Victor cannot withstand. Upon her death, Victor's relentless journey for revenge begins.
Minor Characters:
Justine Moritz exemplifies a part of the ramifications of Frankensteins actions. Her innocent persecution represents a collective theme that pervades the entire novel. In addition to every other character, she was persecuted unfairly and her innocent blood shed. Her death occurs near the beginning of the novel, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of Frankenstein's despair. Her death is one of the first, but not last, innocent bystanders that suffers from the consequences of Frankenstein's actions.
Robert Walton, the "writer" of the novel, although uninvolved in the plotline, serves as a looking glass into Frankenstein's life. His bystander perspective parallels the perspective of the reader, which also changes as the novel progresses. As Walton first witnesses Frankenstein's creature, his response varies from the typical response of others - a result of his prior knowledge of Frankenstein's account. Although wary of the creature's past misdeeds, Walton, similar to the reader, sympathizes with the creature.
Settings:
Frankenstein's Home is where Frankenstein feels the most at home with the great lake and the vast valleys. Located at Geneva, Switzerland, the house he grew up in attained the memories of his first and last love, Elizabeth. It also has the memories of the first place the monster had killed his family member and his acquaintance, leaving the location bittersweet.
The monster's "house" was the first place he perceived humans to be good. Though the monster did not live in the house, he watched the family as their caring hearts helped their poor family endeavor their situation; the house was full of hurt and love, therefore hanging sympathy in their presence. The days after the monster's revealing to the family, the house became empty and feared by everyone but to the monster, the place became bittersweet with the hurtful resentment of the family towards him.
Plot Outline
The novel can be divided into three sections: the creation, the evolution of evil, and the judgement.
Within the first several chaptes of the novel, the reader witnesses the creature's creation, and the abomination in which Frankenstein stains his hands. In these chapters, Frankenstein gruellingly works towards the monster's creation, driven by an unhealth thirst for knowledge. At the end of this section, Frankenstein reels in the sin he has commited. Through fear, Victor abandons the monster, which becomes central to the moster's characterization. Here we begin to see the consequences of the creature's abandonment, beginning with Justine Moritz's and William Frankenstein's death.
Frankenstein's creature narrates the second section of the novel. Through his lens, the reader observes Frankenstein's toils, and his first encounters with both the beauty and ugliness of human nature. His abondonment serves as a chief force that drives the creature's spirit of revenge. In his desparate loneliness, the monster long's for a mate, a request he makes of Frankenstein. His actions and emotions develop like a child, human emotions that are contained within a monstrous body. This section completes the previously incomplete plotline of the story.
The third section describes the final and ultimate consequences of Victor's foolish actions. Upon destroying the creature's "to be" wife, Victor accepts his fate, and the death of his loved ones follow.vThroughout the novel, the accumulation of events leads to Victor's ultimate destruction - Henry and Elizabeth are brutally murdered, and all of his loved ones fall to the creature's hands as well. Victor's unfruitful revenge comes to then represent the inability to reverse the consequences of one's actions. Robert Wallace closes this section and comes into encounter with the creature - an encounter that supplements the "reality" of the novel.
Motifs
A motif in Frankenstein is the allusion of a creator. Frankenstein is a creator which is connected to the vision of God. God is seen to be the only to be able to create, but when Frankenstein creates life, the life he creates is wretched and not accepted into society.
Another motif is happiness and depression. Happiness appears when Frankenstein is with his loved ones or when the monster is with his caring and hardworking family. Depression is seen when Frankenstein encounters the monster or the work of the monster or when the monster encounters unacceptance. Happiness and depression is very distinct in the book, with the descriptions of joy and the beauty of a scenary. The tone and the feeling of the descriptive words show the contrasting distinction between the two.
The motif of curiosity reappears throughout the novel in which becomes Victor's destruction. Victor's insatiable curiosity continues to burgeon throughout the beginning of the novel. As he continues to construct the creature, Shelley portrays the negative aspects of unchecked curiosity.
Style and Effect
Significantly influenced by writiers of the Romanic Era, Shelly's novel incorporates the imaginative aura of Romantic writing. Written as an account from and objective Robert Wallace, Shelley allows the reader to obtain an unblemished perspective of Victor's journey. Towards the center of the novel, the point of view shifts from creator to creature, expanding the scope of the reader's understanding of the plot. Shelley's writing also incorporates a form of duality, a battle between "good" and "evil" as embodied by his friends - the good- and the creature - the evil.
Theme:
The main theme in the book has to do with the controversy of cloning (What are the negatives and positives of cloning?).
Discussions on Novel
The main element of the discussion relates to the controversey of cloning. Should Victor Frankenstein take responsibility of his creation by taking care of the monster's needs or by trying to kill him? Does Frankenstein have the right to create even though he is not God? Because Frankenstein had created something so distorted and hideous, this brought up the issue of acceptance. The monster was not accepted by humans because of his appearance even though his heart was full of love and care. It is human nature to deny things of nature that are different, such as racism.
Unanswered Questions
What are some other opinions on what Frankenstein should have done with the creature?
Does extreme hideousness actually lead people to become violent and judgemental?
What really inspired Frankenstein to make another human being out of non living human beings?
Do you feel more sympathy for Frankenstein or the monster and why?
Should the monster have the right to live?
Quotations
"At such moments vengeance, that burned within me, died in my heart, and I pursued my path towards the destruction of of the daemon more as a take enjoined by heaven, as the mechanical impulse of some power of which I was unconsciou, than as the ardent desire of my soul." (202)
"Nothing is more painful to the human mind, than, after the feelings have been workd up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows, and deprives the soul both of hope and fear." (88)
"A flash of lightening illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had give life." (75)
"Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!" (145)
Overall Themes and Mini Outlines
1989: In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O'Connor has written, "I am pleased to make a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see." Write an essay in which you "make a good case for distortion," as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are "distorted" and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary.
I. Intro - Mary Shelley, romantic era
II. First Paragraph - Distortion, "bestowing life upon lifeless matter" -> absurdity creates doubt of the novel's reality
III. Second Paragraph - purpose of "imaginative work" -> to contemplate the effects of the impossible to convey a message
IV. Third Paragraph - absurdity of the creature, vague nature of his creation -> add to the mystery of developing science
V. Conclusion - necessity of absurdity to represent another meaning
2003: According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
I. Intro - tragic heroes, a definition. Intro of Victor's character
II. First Paragraph - Victor's actions, his character, selfishness of his actions -> sin of creation/abandonment of creation
III. Second Paragraph - Ramifications of Victor's actions, how it affects other characters -> Elizabeth, Henry, Justine, William
IV. Third Paragraph - Why are the deaths of certain character's significant? -> the consequences of actions
V. Conclusion - the result of sin/ramifications of sin -> possibly directed towards the era of rapidly developing science
-Frankenstein
by Mary ShelleyBackground Information:
Author: Mary Shelley
Date Published: 1831
Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797 in London, England to two educated parents who wrote for a living. Her mother wrote feminist books as her father published books. This influenced her love of writing and encouraged her career as a writer. She married Percy Shelley. When they were bored during the summer, they decided to write horror stories to pass the time. She wrote a couple pages of Frankenstein and then stopped. Percy Shelley encouraged her to write more of Frankenstein and she did, which became a successful scary story. Frankenstein has components that are similar to the things in her life, such as the deaths of her three children, her mother, and her husband, and the suicides of Percy’s former wife and Mary’s half-sister. The traveling she did with her family also influenced her descriptions of the intricate settings in the book. Like other authors, her ideas came from her personal life.
Main characters:
Victor Frankenstein is the most significant and complex character in this book; he has love for his family and friends but he cowardly and selfishly lets them take the dire consequences for the monster he created. Before he created the horrible monster, he was an ambitious college student, just pondering about the world of science, but his childish curiosity led him to an afflictive consequence. After he created the monster, he endured alternating moods of contentedness and depression which filled him with the need to express the intricate beauty he sees in nature, compared to the horrible, inhuman monster he created; he became caring and heedful, but contrastingly, he also became bitter and revengeful.
The monster created by the hands of Victor Frankenstein was like a new born child the day he was constructed; he knew of nothing and learned through observation and experimenting. He perceived humans as good, in ways that they are family oriented, but also bad in ways that they rejected things that are different from them. This negative perception of humans led the monster to be barbaric, revengeful, and bitter, though he still had the heart of a human, caring yet self centered of his own needs.
Elizabeth Frankenstein, Victor's adopted sister, represents a beneficial and calm half of Victor's character. Her quiet, yet powerful contenance permeates Victor's life, providing it with light and direction. As Victor's partner, she becomes Victor's second half, his half that reminds Victor of his humanity. Her death marks the final and ultimate blow to Victor, a blow that Victor cannot withstand. Upon her death, Victor's relentless journey for revenge begins.
Minor Characters:
Justine Moritz exemplifies a part of the ramifications of Frankensteins actions. Her innocent persecution represents a collective theme that pervades the entire novel. In addition to every other character, she was persecuted unfairly and her innocent blood shed. Her death occurs near the beginning of the novel, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of Frankenstein's despair. Her death is one of the first, but not last, innocent bystanders that suffers from the consequences of Frankenstein's actions.
Robert Walton, the "writer" of the novel, although uninvolved in the plotline, serves as a looking glass into Frankenstein's life. His bystander perspective parallels the perspective of the reader, which also changes as the novel progresses. As Walton first witnesses Frankenstein's creature, his response varies from the typical response of others - a result of his prior knowledge of Frankenstein's account. Although wary of the creature's past misdeeds, Walton, similar to the reader, sympathizes with the creature.
Settings:
Frankenstein's Home is where Frankenstein feels the most at home with the great lake and the vast valleys. Located at Geneva, Switzerland, the house he grew up in attained the memories of his first and last love, Elizabeth. It also has the memories of the first place the monster had killed his family member and his acquaintance, leaving the location bittersweet.
The monster's "house" was the first place he perceived humans to be good. Though the monster did not live in the house, he watched the family as their caring hearts helped their poor family endeavor their situation; the house was full of hurt and love, therefore hanging sympathy in their presence. The days after the monster's revealing to the family, the house became empty and feared by everyone but to the monster, the place became bittersweet with the hurtful resentment of the family towards him.
Plot Outline
The novel can be divided into three sections: the creation, the evolution of evil, and the judgement.
Within the first several chaptes of the novel, the reader witnesses the creature's creation, and the abomination in which Frankenstein stains his hands. In these chapters, Frankenstein gruellingly works towards the monster's creation, driven by an unhealth thirst for knowledge. At the end of this section, Frankenstein reels in the sin he has commited. Through fear, Victor abandons the monster, which becomes central to the moster's characterization. Here we begin to see the consequences of the creature's abandonment, beginning with Justine Moritz's and William Frankenstein's death.
Frankenstein's creature narrates the second section of the novel. Through his lens, the reader observes Frankenstein's toils, and his first encounters with both the beauty and ugliness of human nature. His abondonment serves as a chief force that drives the creature's spirit of revenge. In his desparate loneliness, the monster long's for a mate, a request he makes of Frankenstein. His actions and emotions develop like a child, human emotions that are contained within a monstrous body. This section completes the previously incomplete plotline of the story.
The third section describes the final and ultimate consequences of Victor's foolish actions. Upon destroying the creature's "to be" wife, Victor accepts his fate, and the death of his loved ones follow.vThroughout the novel, the accumulation of events leads to Victor's ultimate destruction - Henry and Elizabeth are brutally murdered, and all of his loved ones fall to the creature's hands as well. Victor's unfruitful revenge comes to then represent the inability to reverse the consequences of one's actions. Robert Wallace closes this section and comes into encounter with the creature - an encounter that supplements the "reality" of the novel.
Motifs
A motif in Frankenstein is the allusion of a creator. Frankenstein is a creator which is connected to the vision of God. God is seen to be the only to be able to create, but when Frankenstein creates life, the life he creates is wretched and not accepted into society.
Another motif is happiness and depression. Happiness appears when Frankenstein is with his loved ones or when the monster is with his caring and hardworking family. Depression is seen when Frankenstein encounters the monster or the work of the monster or when the monster encounters unacceptance. Happiness and depression is very distinct in the book, with the descriptions of joy and the beauty of a scenary. The tone and the feeling of the descriptive words show the contrasting distinction between the two.
The motif of curiosity reappears throughout the novel in which becomes Victor's destruction. Victor's insatiable curiosity continues to burgeon throughout the beginning of the novel. As he continues to construct the creature, Shelley portrays the negative aspects of unchecked curiosity.
Style and Effect
Significantly influenced by writiers of the Romanic Era, Shelly's novel incorporates the imaginative aura of Romantic writing. Written as an account from and objective Robert Wallace, Shelley allows the reader to obtain an unblemished perspective of Victor's journey. Towards the center of the novel, the point of view shifts from creator to creature, expanding the scope of the reader's understanding of the plot. Shelley's writing also incorporates a form of duality, a battle between "good" and "evil" as embodied by his friends - the good- and the creature - the evil.
Theme:
The main theme in the book has to do with the controversy of cloning (What are the negatives and positives of cloning?).
Discussions on Novel
The main element of the discussion relates to the controversey of cloning. Should Victor Frankenstein take responsibility of his creation by taking care of the monster's needs or by trying to kill him? Does Frankenstein have the right to create even though he is not God? Because Frankenstein had created something so distorted and hideous, this brought up the issue of acceptance. The monster was not accepted by humans because of his appearance even though his heart was full of love and care. It is human nature to deny things of nature that are different, such as racism.
Unanswered Questions
What are some other opinions on what Frankenstein should have done with the creature?
Does extreme hideousness actually lead people to become violent and judgemental?
What really inspired Frankenstein to make another human being out of non living human beings?
Do you feel more sympathy for Frankenstein or the monster and why?
Should the monster have the right to live?
Quotations
"At such moments vengeance, that burned within me, died in my heart, and I pursued my path towards the destruction of of the daemon more as a take enjoined by heaven, as the mechanical impulse of some power of which I was unconsciou, than as the ardent desire of my soul." (202)
"Nothing is more painful to the human mind, than, after the feelings have been workd up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows, and deprives the soul both of hope and fear." (88)
"A flash of lightening illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had give life." (75)
"Oh! my creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!" (145)
Overall Themes and Mini Outlines
1989: In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O'Connor has written, "I am pleased to make a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see." Write an essay in which you "make a good case for distortion," as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are "distorted" and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary.
I. Intro - Mary Shelley, romantic era
II. First Paragraph - Distortion, "bestowing life upon lifeless matter" -> absurdity creates doubt of the novel's reality
III. Second Paragraph - purpose of "imaginative work" -> to contemplate the effects of the impossible to convey a message
IV. Third Paragraph - absurdity of the creature, vague nature of his creation -> add to the mystery of developing science
V. Conclusion - necessity of absurdity to represent another meaning
2003: According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning."
Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
I. Intro - tragic heroes, a definition. Intro of Victor's character
II. First Paragraph - Victor's actions, his character, selfishness of his actions -> sin of creation/abandonment of creation
III. Second Paragraph - Ramifications of Victor's actions, how it affects other characters -> Elizabeth, Henry, Justine, William
IV. Third Paragraph - Why are the deaths of certain character's significant? -> the consequences of actions
V. Conclusion - the result of sin/ramifications of sin -> possibly directed towards the era of rapidly developing science