Frankenstein

English 12 Acc.Dilback

Dark Romanticism: AKA Gothic

Gothic Elements

• Imagination leading to the unknown (dark regions of the mind where the fantastic, demonic, and insane reside)

• Individual = potential evil (Poe)• The Darkness of the

Supernatural• Focus on nature (stems from

romanticism)• Haunted or creepy settings• Gloomy and dreary mood

Elem. of Gothic Novel• Setting in a Castle• Atmosphere=mystery and suspense• Ancient prophecy• Omens, portents, visions• Supernatural/Inexplicable events• High, even overwrought emotion• Women in distress• Women threatened by a powerful,

impulsive, tyrannical male• Metonymy of gloom and horror• Vocab. of gothic (mystery, fear,

terror, sorrow, surprise, haste, anger, largeness)

• Nature

Background

• Written at the age of 18• Mary Shelley and her

husband, famous poet, Percy Shelley spent summer 1826 in Geneva, Switzerland

• Friends/neighbors with Lord Byron, visiting during fierce storm

• Passed time by telling ghost stories, Mary Shelley initially unable to think of anything

• Mary Shelley has a dream which inspires her tale

• In dream, she sees a “student of [the] unhallowed arts” kneeling beside a hideous corpse and, with help of a powerful machine, bringing the horrible creature to life

• Begins writing feverishly to tell her ghost story

• Published one year later

Background Cont.

• Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

• Linked to the Greek myth of the char., Prometheus, who was punished by Zeus for stealing fire from Mt. Olympus and giving it to humankind.

• As punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock and each night renewed the liver that a vulture ate during the day

• Used her story to reexamine the idea of Prometheus as a heroic rebel by considering the dangers of unchecked ambition

• Victor Frankenstein’s fate was to be offered as a warning to those who glorified science and its demystifying, rational powers.

Source: A Guide to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Opening Letters

• Begins as a “frame story” (a tale within a tale)/Egg Illustration

• English Explorer and seafarer, Robert Walton, sets out on a voyage to the North Pole

• He has a burning passion to do something no man has ever done before—travel to the North Pole.

• He writes a series of letters to his sister, Margaret Saville, telling her of his preparations for the departure and his mental well-being, and lack thereof due to loneliness.

• Longs to find a friend with whom to share his dreams (not like that he could find in his shipmates).

• 3rd letter tells that his ship has set sail, and he is confident that his dream will be achieved.

• We will now begin reading with the 4th Letter.