Frankenstein - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

About This Presentation
Title:

Frankenstein

Description:

Introduction: Frankenstein -- Background and Major Themes. The Letters. Chaps 1 and 2 ... studies;the birthplace of the Illuminati, a secret society that introduced ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:3364
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 17
Provided by: Kate9
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: 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
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com