Frankenstein

Frankenstein Assignment

Read Introduction (pages vii-xix)

Read Author's Introduction (pages xxi-xxvi) [|analysis]

[|Letters] Pop Up Notes (10 of them) insight, previous events, coming events, character connections or insights, literary elements, analysis

Magill's biography- Mary Shelley

Author Connections: Victor = Shelley? 1. dead mother 2. siblings 3. Claire=Clerval 4. Elizabeth- dies a virgin 5. William (a child) dies- her son 6. fertility of female monster

frame narrative- functions to confer credibility on otherwise implausible events or to absolve the narrator and/or author from responsibility for them.

Walton & Frankenstein- similarities & differences 1. Similarities 2. Differences

Themes: BEAUTY REVENGE KNOWLEDGE AMBITION SCIENCE PARENT/CHILD RELATIONSHIPS FRIENDSHIP NATURE/NUTURE

Gothicism http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~hamberg/

Frankenstein "The Modern Prometheus" [|Prometheus]

Myth of Prometheus

//Prometheus was a Titan from Greek myth, born from the union of the Titan Iapetus and the Nymph Asia he was one of four children born to the pair. The siblings of Prometheus included Menoetius, Atlas and Epimetheus, all of them Titans. The name Prometheus means foresight, his brother's name Epimetheus means hindsight.// //Their father, Iapetus led the revolt against the Gods, his children Menoetius and Atlas joined with him, while his other two sons, Prometheus and Epimetheus sided with the Gods. Menoetius was killed during the revolt and Atlas was given the weight of the world to bear for his actions during the revolt.// //According to the myths, a horrendous headache overcame Zeus and no healer of the realm was able to help the Lord of the Gods. Prometheus came to him and declared that he knew how to heal Zeus, taking a rock from the ground Prometheus proceeded to hit Zeus in the head with it. From out of Zeus' head popped the Goddess Athena, with her emergence Zeus' headache disappeared.// //Prometheus and Epimetheus journeyed to Earth from Olympus, they ventured to the Greek province of Boitia and made clay figures. Athena took the figures and breathed life into them, the figures that Prometheus had created became Man and honored him. The figures that his brother Epimetheus had created became the beasts, which turned and attacked him.// //Zeus was angered by the brother's actions, he forbade the pair from teaching Man the ways of civilization, Athena chose to cross Zeus and taught Prometheus so that he might teach Man.// //For their actions, Zeus demanded a sacrifice from Man to the Gods to show that they were obedient and worshipful. Man went to Prometheus to inquire which parts belonged to Zeus and the Gods, and which parts belonged to Man. At Prometheus instructions, Man sacrificed an ox and placed the sacrifice into two bags. In the first bag the bones were placed with the fat from the ox placed on top to conceal them. In the second bag the meat was placed with the intestines on top to conceal them as well. Prometheus called for Zeus to choose which portion of the sacrifice he and the other Gods demanded. Zeus chose the bag with the fat on top, giving the Gods the bones of the ox as their sacrifice.// //Zeus was angered by the actions of Man and Prometheus, he forbade the Gods to give fire to Man. Prometheus was upset with Zeus' proclamation and was determined to bring fire to Man, but Zeus had guarded the entrance to Olympus. Athena told Prometheus about an unguarded back entrance to Olympus where he would be able to enter with ease.// //Prometheus snuck into Olympus at night through the back entrance that Athena had told him of. He made his way to the Chariot of the Sun and lit a torch from the fires that burned there. Extinguishing the torch, Prometheus carried the still hot coals down the mountain in a pithy fennel stalk to prevent being seen. Upon reaching the lands of Men, Prometheus gave to them the coals, breaking Zeus' order by giving fire to Man.// //Zeus was extremely angered by Prometheus' actions, he had not wanted fire to be given to Man, Zeus set out to make a trap for Prometheus. Zeus gathered the gifts of the Gods and created Pandora and her box, into the box he placed all the horrors of the world. Pandora was sent to Prometheus//

In Greek mythology, **Prometheus** is a Titan known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals for their use. Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while an eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day. His myth has been treated by a number of ancient sources, in which Prometheus is credited with (or blamed for) playing a pivotal role in the early history of humankind.

Prometheus brings fire to mankind



Prometheus having his liver eaten by an eagle

Victor & Clerval- similarities & differences Respond to the two discussion questions on this page: 1. Similarities 2. Differences


 * Sublime: **

The sublime can be best distinguished in contradistinction to the beautiful. The beautiful is that in nature which can be admired calmly and appreciated for its surface appearance (color, depth, material, balance). The sublime is that in nature which is so much greater than man that its attraction actually includes a certain degree of fear and trepidation on the part of the beholder, although a fear not so immediate that it traumatizes. The stolen boat episode in Book I of the //Prelude// (starting at line 372) relates Wordsworth's first experience with this terrible, frightening side to Nature's otherwise gentle and calming beauty. Natural landscapes that often evoke the sublime include mountains, chasms, Northern wastelands, massive waterfalls, etc.. Consider, for example, J. M. W. Turner's painting "The Passage of the St. Gothard" (1804) below this text. You might also have a look at Clerval's defense of the beautiful against the sublime in Shelley's //Frankenstein//, pp.182-83. Here's the definition of the sublime in Hugh Holman's //A Handbook to Literature//:

Edmund Burke in 1756 wrote //A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful//. Kant followed Burke's line of thinking in his //Criticique of Judgment// (1790), where he linked beauty with the finite and the sublime with the infinite. Burke's doctrine of the sublime was powerfully influential on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers. He believed that a painful idea creates a sublime passion and thus concentrates the mind on that single facet of experience and produces a momentary suspension of rational activity, uncertainty, and self-consciousness. If the pain producing this effect is imaginary rather than real, a great aesthetic object is achieved. Thus, great mountains, storms at sea, ruined abbeys, crumbling castles, and charnel houses are appropriate subjects to produce the sublime. [|sublime]

MOTIF: NATURE

Texts referenced in novel: [|Rime of the Ancient Mariner]- Coleridge (44) [|Ruins of Empires]- Volney (104) [|Paradise Lost]- Milton (112) [|Sorrows of Werter]- Goethe (112) Plutarch's Lives (112)

Plutarch's best-known work is the //[|Parallel Lives]//, a series of [|biographies] of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common [|moral] virtues and vices. The surviving //Lives// contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek //Life// and one Roman //Life//, as well as four unpaired single //Lives//. As is explained in the opening paragraph of his //Life of Alexander//, Plutarch was not concerned with history so much as the influence of character, good or bad, on the lives and destinies of men. Whereas sometimes he barely touched on epoch-making events, he devoted much space to charming anecdote and incidental triviality, reasoning that this often said far more for his subjects than even their most famous accomplishments. He sought to provide rounded portraits, likening his craft to that of a painter; indeed, he went to tremendous effort (often leading to tenuous comparisons) to draw parallels between physical appearance and [|moral character]. In many ways he must count among the earliest [|moral philosophers].

Female Characters: mother Elizabeth Justine Safie female monster

**Tragedy**- In general, a literary work in which the central character meets an unhappy or disastrous end. Unlike comedy, which often portrays a central character of weak nature, tragedy often involves the problems of a central character of dignified or heroic stature. Through a related series of events, this main character, the tragic hero or heroine, is brought to a final downfall. The causes of the character’s downfall vary. In traditional dramas, the cause is often an error in judgement or a combination of inexplicable outside forces that overwhelm the character. In modern dramas, the causes range from moral or psychological weaknesses to the evils of society. The tragic hero or heroine, though defeated, usually gains a measure of wisdom and/or self-awareness. There may be more than one central character in a tragedy.

**What is a tragic hero?**

The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man, but a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him. His own destruction is for a greater cause or principle.

**Common characteristics of a tragic hero** **According to Aristotle:**

1. Usually of noble birth

2. Hamartia – a.k.a. the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall. (hä- ˌ mär- ˈ tē-ə)

3. **Peripeteia** – a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw (per-ə-pə- ˈ tē-ə)

4. His actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge

5. The audience must feel pity and fear for this character.