Frankenstein Introduction

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Frankenstein Introduction

• British Novel to Film
• Fu Jen English Dept
• Dr. M. Connor

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Introduction

• Mary Shelleys 1818 novel Frankenstein is a
  complex blending of many different themes. Most
  people are familiar with the story, at least the
  version that has been passed down to us through
  the cinema versions, but many people are unaware
  of just how very complex it is.

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This weeks material

• Since I am assuming you are in the process of
  reading, I wont be discussing plot or character
  much this week.
• This weeks materials will be devoted more to
  background and introduction.

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Intellectual stimulation

• At the time she was writing it, Shelley was
  intellectually stimulated--reading Romantic
  poetry with her brilliant husband Percy Bysshe
  Shelley and his friends and working through John
  Miltons Paradise Lost among other great works.
• She was 18 years old.

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The Shelleys
Source http//www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/II
A2.jpg
Source www.2idiotsinaboat.com/pilgrim/media/0830.
jpg
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Year of tragedy

• But she was also grieving the loss of her first
  child, a terrible tragedy for any one.
• But there was more to come. Her half-sister
  Fanny Imlay committed suicide in the following
  fall, when she was still writing the novel, as
  would Percys deserted and unhappy wife, Harriet.

7
Lake Geneva

• Mary Shelley was only 18, far from home, on the
  banks of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, during one of
  the worst summers on record.
• It was cold and rainy that summer, and Geneva is
  no place to be under those conditions!

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Life in Geneva

• Ive had the great good luck to live in Geneva
  while teaching this novel, partially set in that
  city. One summer course I spent doing this book
  and the film versions of it was another horrible
  summer--wet, cold and full of thunderstorms
  bouncing off the mountains that encircle Lake
  Geneva--the Alps and the French Juras.

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Oppressive atmosphere

• After reading the book together and watching the
  films, my class and I felt we had some additional
  insights into what went into the book.
• While one of the prettiest places on Earth,
  Geneva in the cold and rain can be quite
  spiritually oppressive.

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Even with electric lights, a Genevan sunset is
lovely. The Juras are in the background.
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The Italian Alps outside of Geneva. These are
the mountains Shelley was thinking of when she
was writing her novel.
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June 16th

• As all the introductions to the novel tell you,
  its inception came on a very special night.
  Thanks to the torrential rains, the Shelleys
  could not return to their own villa, so they had
  to spend the night at their friend Lord Byrons
  villa, Villa Diodoti.
• The house party included Marys stepsister,
  Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John Polidori,
  Byron's physician.

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Source http//www.ualberta.ca/dmiall/Gothic/Diod
ati.jpg
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The night on film

• This house party is immortalized in Ken Russells
  strangely compelling Gothic (1986), which gives a
  fictionalized account of the evening, with
  Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley, Julian Sands
  as Percy Shelley and Gabriel Byrne as Byron.

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A poster for the film Gothic. Its a strange
film, but I recommend it. A little violent,
though. The head on the bottom left of the
poster is Dr. Polidori. To the left are the
Shelleys, and the final picture on the bottom is
Lord Byron. Photo source http//www5.airnet.ne.j
p/ashiato/POLITICS20of20AUTHOR/KEN20RUSSELL/GOT
HIC/GOTHIC.JPEG
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The Evenings Challenge

• After giving themselves a good scare reading a
  collection of German ghost stories, The
  Fantasmagoriana, aloud, they set each other a
  task. Each would write a horror story for the
  entertainment of the rest.
• Shelley wrote a now-forgotten story, Byron wrote
  a story fragment, and Polidori began the "The
  Vampyre", the first modern vampire tale, which he
  later finished and published in 1819.

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What of Mary?

• And poor Mary had a terrible time. She couldnt
  get started. But a few days later, she had what
  she called a waking dream

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I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts
kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I
saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out,
then, on the working of some powerful engine,
show signs of life...His success would terrify
the artist he would rush away...hope that...this
thing...would subside into dead matter...he opens
his eyes behold the horrid thing stands at his
bedside, opening his curtains...
(http//www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/summer.shtm
l)
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She had the beginning

• The next morning Mary realized she had found her
  story and began writing the famous lines that
  open Chapter Four of Frankenstein - "It was on a
  dreary night in November.

Source http//www.olemiss.edu/courses/engl205/fra
nkart7.html
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Intense Reading Program

• Shelley was doing some heady reading that summer.
  In the days before the creation of her story she
  and Percy had been reading and discussing Samuel
  Taylor Coleridges Christabel, Germaine Necker,
  Madame de Stael's De l'Allemagne as well as
  Miltons Paradise Lost.
• All of these influences can be found in the
  novel, but very few people who hear the name
  Frankenstein think of an intellectual novel.

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Separate PPT

• Please see the accompanying power point
  presentation on Miltons Paradise Lost, as I
  think you probably need some background on the
  work.

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Quickly brought to Stage

• The first dramatization of Shelleys novel came
  during her own lifetime. It was a three-act
  opera by R. B. Peake titled Presumption or, The
  Fate of Frankenstein (1823).
• When Mary Shelley attended a performance of the
  play, she commented that she was much amused and
  it appeared to excite a breathless eagerness in
  the audience (quoted in Donald A. Glut, The
  Frankenstein Legend, Scarecrow Press, 1973, p
  32). A second adaptation opened the same year, as
  did a trio of comedic versions. In 1826, new
  versions were staged in London and Paris.

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Film versions

• A quick search for Frankenstein on imdb.com
  brings up 102 hits, not including name matches!
  And that doesnt include films like the recent
  Van Helsing in which Frankensteins monster plays
  a key role in the story.

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The Swiss Alps

• On the next slide is a map taken from my familys
  personal homepages. It shows a trip we took when
  we lived there, but on the left side, you can see
  the Sea of Ice where the Creature and
  Frankenstein meet in book two. Its written in
  German as Eisinmeer.

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Source http//www.fillibabba.com/fun/english/Swit
zerland/index.html
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Romantic novel

• Of course, the novel is the most widely read
  Romantic novel, so quickly some background on the
  Romantics just in case.

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Romantic period

• Usually designated as 1798-1832
• In 1832 The Reform Bill carried in Parliament
  which changed many aspects of Victorian law and
  society as well as the death of Sir Walter Scott.
• Most of the major romantics had died or stopped
  creating by this date.

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Romanticism

• A movement in literature, art, music and
  philosophy. Chiefly a reaction against the Age
  of Enlightenment and the Neoclassical movement
  and their rules about Reason, order, balance,
  rationality and intellect.
• In the pre-romantic period there was an upsurge
  in interest in medieval romances (the term
  romantic in either case has nothing to do with
  love). In medieval romances (ie Tristan and
  Isolde and the Arthur tales), emphasized
  individual heroism and mysterious happenings.
  Think of the search for the Holy Grail or the
  story of the Fisher King
• From Bloomsburys Guide to English Literature.

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Romantics emphasized

• The individual
• The subjective
• The irrational
• The imaginative
• The personal
• The spontaneous
• The emotional
• The visionary
• The transcendental

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Characteristics of Romanticism are

• Deepened appreciation of the beauties of Nature
• A general exaltation of emotion over reason
• An exaltation of the senses over the intellect
• A turning in upon the self and a heightened
  examination of human personality
• A preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and
  the exceptional figure
• A new view of the artist as a supremely
  individual creator, whose creative spirit is more
  important than strict adherence to formal rules
  and traditional procedures
• An emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to
  transcendent experience and spiritual truth
• A consuming interest in folk culture, national
  and ethnic cultural origins and the medieval era
• A predilection for the exotic, the remote, the
  mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous,
  the diseased and even the satanic

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Frankenstein

• Most of these characteristics are central to the
  novel.
• But it transcends Romanticism in some ways.
  Its also considered the first science fiction
  novel.

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Photos

• Geneva is unbelievably beautiful, so Im going to
  add some photos. You can see why it drew so many
  Romantic writers.

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The fountain in the lake wasnt there in
Shelleys time. Its late 19th century. View
from the Old Town.
http//www.geneve-tourisme.ch/?rubrique0000000166
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A view over the Old Town with St. Pierres
Cathedral, which was there in Shelleys day. See
the beautiful mountains in the background.
http//www.geneve-tourisme.ch/?rubrique0000000166
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A street in the Old Town showing the Swiss flag,
the white cross, and the flag of Geneva, which is
just as important to the Genevois. It shows the
Eagle of liberty and the keys to the cathedral.
Some wags say its half a chicken and the keys to
the wine cellar! Genevois enjoy a French love of
food! It may be in Switzerland, but its a
French culture.
Source http//www.geneve-tourisme.ch/?rubrique00
00000166
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La Salève, a mountain outside of Geneva, actually
right over the French border. Frankenstein sees
the Creature climbing up the mountain side. Its
about 680m high. Source http//www.rando-saleve.
net/ (in French, but nice pictures)
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La Salève from Lake Geneva. The Old Town, which
would have been Geneva in Shelleys day, is the
part on the lower right hand side. The part of
the city on the top side of the photo was outside
the city walls, but was developed as well.