FRANKENSTEINby Mary Shelley

FRANKENSTEIN AS A GOTHIC NOVEL

IMPENDING DISASTER FALLEN WORLD, FALLEN MAN

GOTHIC PROTAGONIST BLEAK SETTINGS

FRANKENSTEIN AS A GOTHIC NOVEL

“Frankenstein certainly qualifies for the genre, since both antagonists in the book are ‘inescapably’ doomed to pursue each other to death: Frankenstein in order to expiate the guilt arising out of his presumptuous ‘act of creation’, the Creature to avenge his absolute rejection by all” (p 36)

FRANKENSTEIN AS A ROMANTIC NOVEL

ROMATICISM AND THE INDIVIDUAL Personal growth is enabled by

closeness to nature Romantics believed in ‘self

consciousness’, which must be passed through in order for the individual to transcend

Frankenstein and the creature do not transcend, both are consumed by egotism

FRANKENSTEIN AS A ROMANTIC NOVEL (cont’d)

ROMANTICISM AND NATURE

“Romanticism is a literary genre preferring grandeur, picturesqueness, passion and extraordinary beauty” (Wagner, p 28)

STRUCTURE EPISTOLARY NOVEL

An epistolary novel is a novel in which a character (or characters) tells the story through letters (epistles) sent to a friend, relative, etc. In Frankenstein, Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister to bring her up to date on his expedition in the Arctic. After his ship takes Victor Frankenstein aboard, he listens to Frankenstein’s story and writes it down in letter form. 

STRUCTURE (cont’d)THREE LAYERS Robert Walton’s letters Victor’s story (told to Walton)

The creature’s story (at the centre of Frankenstein’s narrative)

KEY CONCEPTS DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE SUBLIME NATURE MONSTROSITY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY GENDER

DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE PROMETHEUS

WALTON

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

PROMETHEUS: Formed humans out of clay

Stole fire from the gods

Was punished by Zeus

PROMETHEUS (cont’d) Prometheus saw himself as a benefactor

and saviour of humanity Prometheus defied the gods and was

punished Prometheus also prompted Zeus to give the

world Pandora, who unleashed all evils known to man

‘Modern Prometheus’ suggests that science is creative. However, consequences are real, not abstract

WALTON Seeks knowledge of “the

country of eternal light” (p 59)

Disregards the danger of his voyage

Becomes obsessed with his quest

Is, like Frankenstein and the creature, a lone figure

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN Seeks to bestow “animation on

lifeless matter” (96) See himself as a benefactor of

humanity: “A new species would bless me as its creator and source” (p 97)

Usurps the role of Heaven in creation The product of his quest is

destructive His act of hubris is punished

DANGEROUS KNOWLEDGE “I have described myself as always

having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.”

“The great unexplored ocean of truth”

“...what glory would attend the discovery if I should banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!” (Chapter 2)

SUBLIME NATURE Spiritual renewal Spiritual, emotional and imaginative transcendence (it is Nature that inspires Frankenstein)

Arctic desert as symbolic backdrop

SUBLIME NATURE (cont’d) “...all around was calm, and the

snowy mountains, ‘the places of nature’, were not changed. By degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me” (p117)

“Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature” It has the power of “elevating his soul from the earth” (Letter 4, p 74)

MONSTROSITY The creature has “yellow skin”, a

“shrivelled conmplexion and straight black lips” and a “gigantic stature”

The unnatural nature of his creation adds to his monstrosity

Monstrosity results in fear, abandonment and violence

Frankenstein becomes increasingly monstrous as the novel progresses

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Industrial Revolution Responsibility and consequences

Technology asserts influence over Nature

GENDER The female is the contrary of the male Man represents form [Heaven], woman

represents matter [Earth] Man is active, woman is passive The female is a deformed male Man has seed, woman has no seed; she is

little more than an incubator Male is the prime type creation, woman is a

deviation/derivative 

GENDER (cont’d) Woman has a lesser rational faculty than man Man has more rational control over his soul than woman does Man’s wisdom allows him to make rational deductions;

woman’s reason is enough for her to accept true opinions Woman has a lesser measure of virtue than man Man naturally rules, woman obeys Man is naturally superior, woman inferior A virtuous man speaks publicly, a virtuous woman keeps silent

SOURCE: http://www.journals.uts.edu/component/content/article/82-perottet-claude/237-gender-in-western-philosophy-and-unification-thought.html?directory=82

GENDER (cont’d) Frankenstein subverts the natural

order He appropriates the role of women in

reproduction He not only competes with God, but

with women The women in Frankenstein are

destroyed by the creature (and his creator)

GENDER (cont’d) “[T]he all embracing ‘Nature’, which

18th century Europe had so revered, gets disturbed and plundered” (p 35)

“It is Frankenstein’s desire to ‘penetrate the secrets of nature’... through the appliance of the new masculinist-made God, Science.” The sexual metaphor is no accident – Frankenstein has violated the natural order.

SOURCES Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A

Perspective by Monika Wagner SparkNotes

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/ CliffsNotes

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Frankenstein-About-Frankenstein.id-112,pageNum-8.html

Study Guide http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Frankenstein.html