Answer TWO of the following...
Q1: Most first-time
readers of Frankenstein are surprised to find that the novel begins with
a frame narrative: that of Walton, the arctic explorer, who is writing home to
his sister, Mrs. Saville. What purpose does this frame serve, especially since
it could have all been narrated from Victor’s point of view? Also, why might
Walton be a specifically Romantic character in his own right? Consider lines
such as, “I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose
eyes would reply to mine.”
Q2: How is Victor
something of a Romantic poet (esp. like Coleridge and Wordsworth) even though
he dabbles in occult sciences rather than verse? How does he embody some of the
innocence vs. experience struggles we witnessed in The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner and Ode: Intimations of Immortality? You might consider the
passage where he writes, “It was a most beautiful season...but my eyes were
insensible to the charms of nature.”
Q3: Somewhat related to
Q2, what role does the sublime play in the work? Why does Shelley open her
story in the North Pole, and why is Victor raised in the Alps (where she first conceived of the work, and where the Shelleys had
their honeymoon)? In other words, why are the descriptions of Nature in this
book not mere decoration, but part of the actual story of the work?
Q4: Recalling his early education, Victor remarks, “And thus for a time I was occupied by exploded systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand contradictory theories, and floundering desperately in a very slough of multifarious knowledge...” Why is Victor attracted to old, arcane alchemists and philosophers who have long-since been debunked? What is his attraction to the writings of Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Magnus, men who are almost more magicians than true scientists?
Q4: Recalling his early education, Victor remarks, “And thus for a time I was occupied by exploded systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand contradictory theories, and floundering desperately in a very slough of multifarious knowledge...” Why is Victor attracted to old, arcane alchemists and philosophers who have long-since been debunked? What is his attraction to the writings of Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Magnus, men who are almost more magicians than true scientists?
2.) Victors ideas make him closely related to that of a Romantic poet - he doesn't just want to study one aspect of science and leave out the supernatural because others have deemed it invalid - he wants to know all of it. He consumes himself with ideas that are somewhat morbid and dark, and he then wants to create a reality from these things. Victor also sees what there is to be adored in nature, and finds himself taken away by the experiences he has with nature (up until he beholds the "wretch"). He uses his love of nature and all forms of science to embark on a quest of becoming a godlike figure himself and create animated creatures (I love that he states he wants to animate them instead of "bringing them to life," because it shows that he understands the difference out of the dead.
ReplyDelete4.) Victors fascination is first seen when he starts talking about the philosopher's stone. Not only does he enjoy the aspects of supernatural - he isn't frightened by them either He talks briefly about the stone being able to bring about immortality and turn any normal substance into gold or silver, which seems to spark his interest in creating human life. Also, I'm pretty sure that a philosopher's stone is made from the sacrifice of human life, so his endeavor to create something that is the literal opposite of a philosopher's stone shows his true interest in the endeavors of the alchemists and philosophers that others tended to look down upon. He does not seem to particularly feel they have been "debunked," but wants to show some logic in their method of thinking, even if it is the creation of human life.
Great responses; as you suggest, he merely wants to animate the dead, not necessarily bring back the 'spirit' of the original being. This suggests, too, that he is giving the dead body some part of "his" life--as if HE is animating it. Which makes it even more clear why the Creature reflects his own darkness and goes after his own treasures. As the dream suggests, the act of creation made him look deep into himself, dragging out the dark, slumbering emotions he suppressed. The Creature seems to outwardly reflect this, though inwardly, he took the more innocence, child-like qualities of Victor (something else he had long since abandoned).
DeleteAshley Bean
ReplyDelete1. For me, a frame narrative brings the story into focus, like a camera lens. It’s one of my favorite forms of prose, so perhaps I’m biased, but I really think it sets the mood. Walton serves as a contrast to Victor. If we had no frame, we wouldn’t have the mysterious introduction to Victor, who is only known as “the stranger” for quite some time. Bit by bit, Victor’s story reveals pieces of what he’s like as a person, bits that add to the mystery in a way. How did this studious young boy become a haunted man near death in the arctic? The frame narrative shows the aftermath of the story to be, very similar to Wuthering Heights.
4. I think his fascination emphasizes his boyish innocence. Even as a child, Victor is desperate for knowledge, and he doesn’t know or understand how to distinguish “real, worthy” knowledge from pure nonsense, as others call it. Although he realizes their out of date information, he still holds onto those scientists because they laid the foundation for all modern science, as his teacher points out. Victor hopes to do something of worth with his life, and even if he fails, his failures may help lay the foundation for great science in the future.
Great responses--and yes, she's on the same wavelength as Emily Bronte. The frame narrative not only sets the mood but makes us accept the story without question. If helps us glide over some inconsistencies and really become lost in the narrative. It also sets up certain echoes which are developed in Victor's own story.
DeleteQ2. Victor wants to know more then the average man. Making him like a romantic. They want to see more into the world, or should I say they want to truly see the world. Victor wanting to know about life itself shows that he wants to know about the dark side of humanity. Something only a God should be allowed to know. Before he went to college he was pure and innocent. He didn’t know about the human body, only a little bit about alchemy. Although he sees life around him, he only sees what makes that life. He doesn’t see the being anymore.
ReplyDeleteQ4. We all want to believe in fairy tales and stories of old. Even when they are disproven over time, to some extent we still believe them. I think Victor’s in child is wanting and grasping these old “tales” and wants to prove them to be right. Even if it’s to prove them wrong. His attraction to those who use “magic” and alchemy only proves he wants to learn more of the sublime (the unknown). I get the sense that he doesn’t want to know what everyone else knows because he already knows it. He has always been attracted to knowledge and learning. So if he can learn and prove something new, then he might be considered the biggest genius/god of the earth.
Great responses; yes, we see his innocence spent to learn the secrets of the dead. If he is no longer able to see or appreciate Nature, we know that his experiment will either be a failure or a completely twisted creation. Not surprisingly, what he has long suppressed comes out in form of the Creature--and it frightens him, because he never truly looked at himself (the Creature, like Nature itself, becomes a mirror of his self).
Deleteq1. I was actually a little confused in the beginning. I was sitting on the couch and after a few pages I asked my boyfriend, who claims to have read the book in high school, "I always thought the scientist's name was Frankenstein but this guy's name is Walton...?" (To which he gave a vague answer that makes me think he either didn't actually read it or he just didn't pay attention to it in school). It's pretty obvious that this dude wants some close companionship, and from the talk in class Monday about the men and the bromances that were around Mary when she was inspired to write this book, I'm not putting it past Walton to be in search of an intimate companionship while on the voyage.
ReplyDeleteq2. Well we can't avoid the fact that he literally mentions the "Ancient Mariner" in the second letter. He writes to his sister that he won't be killing an albatross and as I read that part I wondered if he meant that in reference to Coleridge's poem and was quickly assured that's exactly what he meant. That's really interesting to me because Mary has designed a fictional character who happened to have read a work by one of the men who were in and out of her childhood home. She tied her youth and experience in with this character. By giving him this reference, Mary seems to already depict a man fascinated with romantic things in life. Also, he seems so uninterested with the most basic things. Choosing a friend for example: it couldn't be the merchants or seamen or even the lieutenant because they weren't educated enough for ole Walton. Who would he talk to about all the the "educated person" things he'd have to say?
Great points--he's already a Romantic, already ready to follow the Mariner around the world. This echoes in a way Anne's fear for Captain Benwick in Persuasion: another sailor, he is reading Romantic poetry about lost love when he is heartbroken. Anne fears it will unsettle his mind and force him to do something rash--like his Romantic heroes.
Delete2. I think Victor is very Romantic because he is so interested in things that are bigger than him. He is obsessed in the idea of life and death. He constantly wonders why we can bring life, but cannot bring death. His thoughts in science are also very old. He still believes in alchemy and all those great things. He does not take much to the ways of the new sciences. This can cause his judgment to be compromised. He is innocent to the things that people are telling him. He even says that if his dad had told him the reason why the old sciences are ridiculous he may have put the books down and stopped wondering. He looks for reasoning beyond what people say. He becomes obsessed with this passion of proving the old sciences and their worth. That is what results in his obsession with life and death.
ReplyDelete3. The sublime plays a huge role within this story. I definitely think the North Pole is the begging stages of this story because it gives you that feeling of wonderment. Nobody has explored the North Pole so we have no idea what is going on there. It also makes us question why they find Victor there and what his backstory is because nobody just goes to the North Pole for a vacation. As for why Victor is raised in the Alps I’m not quite sure. We can assume that him being a tiny creature among all the bears and other wildlife as well as huge mountains creates things feeling of the sublime. The biggest part I think the sublime plays is during the life and death. Death is scary and life is so curious. People did not know all the crazy things that had to come together to create a life; so it was very sublime thinking of what these bring.
Yes, this is a death-haunted work, which uses the sublime as a backdrop. Opening in a place that is literally death to most humans is the greatest metaphor of all. Both Victor and Walton are trying to cheat death and discover immortal secrets, yet both are turning a blind eye to life, which in this book, only leads to more death. Maybe a critique of Shelley's of her husband and the Romantic poets who want to storm heaven but have no time for the women in their lives (or their children)?
DeleteQ1: The frame narrative serves to set up the story as an actual possibility, and therefore adds to the horror element. The idea of old, "found" letters is interesting. The use of letters reminds me of how "Dracula" begins. The romantic character of R. Walton is going to be especially invested in Frankenstein's story, and explains why he writes to his sister in such detail.
ReplyDeleteQ4:His belief in these old philosophies adds to the supernatural element of the story. It sets up Frankenstein to be a "mad scientist". Victor, despite being very intelligent and a man of science, believes in some dubious and "evil" theories. It shows that be led down the wrong path of playing god. Is Shelley referencing Paracelsus because he invented laudanum, or is that a coincidence? I was just wondering for my own curiosity.
Great responses; letters are a typical Gothic device (and a device of the early novel) that creates a suspension of disbelief. This COULD be real, right? I don't know if Shelley is using Paracelsus for that reason, but rather, he is used with Agrippa, etc., for their connotations with occult 'sciences' which predate the Enlightenment, and were thus looked on as barbaric or "gothic." It works both ways: on the one hand, it shows how erroneous Victor's education is (like Walton's, and in some ways, like Shelley's herself--only what she could pick up herself, without real guidance), but also, it suggests that only such a person could make a great advance since he wasn't trained what not to do or to see.
ReplyDeleteMason Horanzy
ReplyDelete2/23/16
Brit Lit.
Frankenstein Ch 1-4
Q1: I think that the use of the frame narrative does several things. First of all, it simply provides a reason for the recording of Victor's story; second, it creates an initial sense of intrigue for the reader. It makes the reader wonder "Who is this lone man floating on the ice? And who is he chasing?" In my opinion the story would feel as if something were missing if the frame narrative was absent. I feel that the sense of romanticism is provided by the fact that Walton is an Arctic explorer. The exploration of the unknown, especially a place as unknown as the Arctic, provides a sense of sublime. The vastness and desolation of the barren Arctic may only be comparable to the vastness of the open ocean, one of the most sublime settings imaginable.
Q2: Victor becomes so caught up in his studies of the occult sciences that he loses his ability to focus on anything else. He no longer appreciates nature, loses contact with friends and family, and devotes so much time to his studies that at one point he is described as emaciated. The loss of interest in nature is a common theme in romantic writings, notably the poem "Intimations of Immortality" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". In both of these poems, the narrators lose their ability to appreciate the natural world that surrounds them. However, Victor seems to have a reason for his distraction, unlike the Wordsworth in "Intimations of Immortality", who just seems to lose interest due to the loss of childhood.
Great responses--the Romantic connections set the stage, as well as help us 'see' the characters' state of mind. In a way, you could almost argue that Shelley is showing us the danger of taking poetry too literally--you then become as crazy as the Mariner himself! No wonder Anne (in Persuasion) cautioned Captain Benwick not to read so much poetry!
DeleteKarlyn Hedges
ReplyDeleteQ2. Victor is seeking to find something beyond himself and possibly beyond all understanding. His innocence shows up some in that he likes to read about "science" that has been disproved. I also think it is kind of innocent to so easily believe that he can do all these things.
Q4. He is fascinated by them and he wants them to be right. Maybe he even wants to prove them right, or put forth theories similar to theirs that are true. He wants their ideas to be true, because, as a romantic, he likes the idea of being able to transcend the known world.
Yes, he is still innocent at this point, yet the irony is that to do something so "naive," he has to abandon his innocence and become broke and "experienced." The question is, what does he think he will gain by doing it? Why create life in the first place? WHat will it give him--or the world?
DeleteSteven Shelley
ReplyDeleteQ3: The North Pole and the Alps are perfect examples of the sublime because there is nothing there, it is strictly nature. It has not been changed by humans so it is in the original way it has always been. It helps the reader see just the voyage that is going on and how dangerous this is. This also adds to sublime because it makes it even more surreal of the journey.
Q4: This is what he grew up and is interested in. It is something he also truly believes are real. I think he has a very romantic ideal of them that they were the original scientist and everyone’s work is based off of theirs. So in some way he sees them as almost real. Victor in this way reminds me of a confused hipster and I like this view of him.
Interesting...why is he a confused hipster? How might he be misinterpreting the past in the same way some of them do? Why might this book also be, in some ways, about the dangers of reading books too literally?
DeleteQ1: Frame narratives are always useful, because they usually help the author make the story seem more real. I'm not entirely sure, however, Shelley was using it for that reason. Instead, I think the frame narrative plunges us head first into the sublime. We meet a character, Walton, who travels to the North Pole simply because he wants a male friend whose eyes reflect his own. We also begin to wonder why, since Walton chooses to share these intimate thoughts with his sister, her companionship is not enough. Perhaps this is some of Shelly's own social commentary.
ReplyDeleteQ3: I noticed how prevalent natural descriptions were within the first few lines of the novel. Walton speaks of "a cold northern breeze...which braces [his] nerves, and fills [him] with delight" (7). Walton's experience is with the majesty and power of the natural world around him, but it is important to remember the artic poles are no environment for life; in fact, they are nearly devoid of it. In a way, this also frames Victor's experiences quite well. To discover life, he immerses himself in the ultimate of sublime qualities - death. I think the fact that Shelley chose to use the sublime as more than just a setting shows how entranced she was with it in her own life. Death shrouded her life in dark memories, and I think she was probably interested in exploring it from the safe distance of fiction.
Yes, Shelley felt the presence of the sublime all around her, as well as a sense of being doomed or cursed, I think. This all comes across strongly in the novel; for her, unlike Wordsworth and others, our own Natures can be dark and forbidding places, and tapping into the unknown doesn't always bring back our childhood.
DeleteQ2: We can consider Victor a Romantic poet because of the way he compares himself and all the aspects of his life, (at least in these opening chapters) to nature. For instance, in chapter one, when rambling on about his childhood with Clerval, Victor describes his destiny as, “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” (21). Although he is unlike other romantic poets we have read, such as Keats and Coleridge, he still embodies everything that they had as well, including their obsession with becoming one with nature and using nature metaphors to describe their lives. Also, I think another thing that connects Victor to the greatest Romantic poets, is his desire to understand and create a new life. Poetry is shedding light on life and it’s metaphorical figures, by doing this, in the eyes of the readers, poetry creates new life and helps understand it (sometimes complicate it as well).
ReplyDeleteQ4: It’s important to note his professors words in chapter two, which state, “They (old philosophers) penetrate into the recesses of nature, and shew how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows” (29). I loved this because it sort of connects with Victor’s obsession with them and the sublime in a sense. I think he is so hooked on them because of their ability to continuously try the impossible or the unconceivable, which to him is much more thrilling than learning of the how the world works.
Bria Gambrell
Great responses: Victor is doomed to be a Romantic genius, someone who is pushed to sublime extremes, when other people would simply look away. There is a sense of being 'fated' to do things in this book (not the use of the very word fate) like he had no free will. Is that because he gave into his sublime Nature rather than reason with it?
DeleteElyse Marquardt
ReplyDeleteQ2: Victor is very like a Romantic poet because he finds the sublime in his art. He is looking to the sciences for beauty and he is attempting to get lost in their world because he thinks they are bigger than him. For a time, it works; but when he sees what this "sublime" art has created, he takes it back and realizes that it would have been better to avoid getting lost in such dark arts. This is the example of innocence versus experience. He begins as an innocent, charmed by the promised beauties of the sciences... But then he discovers the hard and cold truth as he becomes acquainted with what these sciences bring to life.
Q3: The sublime plays a huge part of this story. The whole point of the story is to show the readers how powerful/destructive the sublime can be. We begin in the Arctic Circle, where we are overwhelmed by the dangerous beauty of the ice and snow. We then move to the Alps, where the mountains tower above our heads in vast displays of majesty. The monster is huge and sinister. The storms are louder than life, the spring season is more beautiful than we could ever truly see it, and even the tales of Frankenstein's dabbles with death make it sound disgusting and bigger than us. The sublime is practically its own character in this book, making its appearance everywhere we look.
Elyse Marquardt
Yes, the sublime is a character in this book, as we see when Shelley continually echoes her husband's poetry (as well as quotes it outright!) and makes pains to mirror her narrative of Coleridge's Mariner (also quoting that, too). this is a dramatization of many Romantic ideas, yet also bringing a woman's perspective into the very male world of Romantic poetry.
DeleteQ1: It gives us a first look at Victor from someone else’s point of view. While Walton’s view of Frankenstein is pretty biased due to the wonders of instantaneous bromance, the entire situation around how they first meet gives us an idea of our own when it comes to Frankenstein and his sanity. It also allows for a more sublime beginning to the story, where we start off in the dangerous and unexplored ices of the north, where an explorer encounters a (very) strange man pursuing a monster across the ice. Also, by giving us a glimpse at what things are like in the future before we even start the story, Shelley adds a level of suspense to the story. We spend every moment up until that moment going asking how it all came to pass. Did this character die? What happened to him? Why are they doing this?
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of Walton, I have many words but will settle on one: Romantic. I mean Romantic and romantic. He wants to explore the unknown: Romantic. He wants to have a man in his life who he can look in the eye and communicate with: romantic even if (possibly) platonic. His very concept of companionship is a Romantic one.
Q4: Despite the fact that these writings are incredibly out of date, they contain things in them that are legitimately interesting. One of these things is the concept of making something from nothing. More than that: creating Life. The works of all those old alchemists and philosophers challenged the possibilities in a way that science didn’t. There are possibilities explored in these old tomes that few people would poke with a long stick. Victor wanted to challenge the limits of science and saw an opportunity.
Excellent responses: Victor loves the idea of creation without the most essential component: woman. He wants to be God, yet no god on earth can create without sharing the divine spark with a woman companion. He seeks to remove women from the equation entirely--and literally kills them through his Creature later in the book. A coincidence?
Delete