Before class on Monday, Feb. 22, post a comment to this blog post of at least 250 words (feel free to exceed this word count but always aim for at least meeting it) that includes a summary of this reading and a summary of your lecture notes from class.
Remember to check out the Wikipedia entry for Frankenstein for additional background information and links to other resources focusing on the novel if you would like to learn more about it.
Be prepared to discuss H.G. Wells’ “The Star” in The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction on Monday. There will be lecture on proto-SF that follows after Frankenstein.
If you miss a class, be sure to talk with other classmates about borrowing/sharing your lecture notes. If you want to discuss readings or lecture with me, feel free to stop by during my office hours on Monday and Tuesday between 4:00-5:00PM, or by appointment in Namm 520.
Mike Paar
After Class Summery
2/17/16
The third and final part of Frankenstein begins with Victors travels to England with the task of creating a mate for the monster hanging over him. Clerval accompanies him on the trip in which they make several stops visiting schools and towns throughout the countryside as they move north. As they travel, Victor worries for the safety of his family unsure of the monster’s intentions while he is away. As the two reach Scotland, Victor separates himself from Clerval so that he might work in solitude.
Isolating himself in a tiny village island off the coast of Scotland, Victor precedes to go about creating a new monster. In a brief respite from his work, he contemplates the ramifications that might arise from creating a second creature. Unsure if the two creatures will truly be compatible or even if the female monster might even have honorable intentions, Victor decides to destroy his work denying the monster its mate. The monster seeing this, threatens Victor by claiming that he will see Victor “On his wedding night.” The monster then runs off to then kill Clerval dumping his body on the coast of Ireland and framing Victor for the murder.
Several months past as Victor sits in a jail cell with a fever, sickened by guilt and worry. Eventually he is found innocent of the murder and returns home with his father. Knowing that the monster will fulfill his threats against him, Victor decides that he will go ahead and marry Elizabeth, possibly in an attempt to draw the monster out in final confrontation. Instead of attacking Victor, the monster instead murders Elizabeth in a separate room. The news of Elizabeth’s murder puts Victor’s father into shock which then ultimately kills him.
The rage of losing all close to him (except his last brother which we heard nothing of his fate) sends Victor in a cross-continental race to catch and destroy the monster. The monster, easily staying ahead, beckons Victor to keep up by leaving notes and taunts Victor to continue his chase. Finally they both reach the north sea and continue onto the ice and into the arctic where Victor eventually makes his way onto Walton’s vessel, currently stuck in the ice.
Walton continues his letters to his sister after Victor finishes up his story. Finally the ice trapping the ship breaks and they decide to return to England, but after deciding, Victor dies aboard the ship. The monster boards the ship to confront the body of his hated creator and proceeds to briefly tell Walton his side of the story. He then relays his intent to run off into the arctic where he intends to build a pyre and set fire to himself, relieving him of this world. He jumps off the ship into the darkness ending the story.
The Lecture today largely focused on what it was that made this story a Science Fiction story. Mostly due to the nature of the three main characters, Victor, Walton and the Monster. All three focused on different areas of study that were largely coming to light at the time of the books writing, such as magnetism, biology, chemistry and the scientific method. But also relation was made to more classical literature due to the hubris of Victor throughout the story. A theme that was common, mainly in greek and roman mythology such as the writings of Homer, Sophocles and the story of Prometheus as the book takes its sub-title from.
Tommy Lin
After Class Summary 3
Volume 3 begins with Victor back in Geneva trying to figure out how he will create a second creature as a companion for his first creature. Victor tells his father that he wants to go to London and promises to marry Elizabeth when he comes back to Geneva. He brings Henry Clerval along his journey. They go to Oxford and their friend tells them to go to Scotland. Victor and Henry splits up. Victor settles in an uninhabited island in Orkney Island chain, where he decides to finish his work in isolation. He starts gathering information and still feels sad about the thought of what he needs to do again, but for the creature this time. Victor is starting to create a female creature. The first creature has been following Victor and Henry and goes near Victor’s workplace in Scotland to see his progress. Victor destroys the second creature half-way and tells the first creature that he won’t finish his mate. The creature threatens him saying that it will see him at his wedding night and disappears. Victor arrives to shore and gets accused of murder of his friend Henry Clerval. Victor becomes ill and is in prison. Mr. Kirwin defends Victor at his trial. Alphonse came to take Victor home. 10 days after returning to Geneva, he marries Elizabeth. Victor worried about the creature’s threat. The creature strangles Elizabeth. Alphonse learns about Elizabeth’s death and dies from grief. Victor is off to seek revenge. Victor’s search ends him up in the north of the Arctic Circle. This is when Victor meets Walton and tells Walton to kill the creature if he does not succeed. The narration returns to Walton. Walton is sad that he found a friend that is near death and that his mission to discover an Arctic passage has failed. There was almost a mutiny, the crew wants to turn back, Walton eventually agrees. The monster breaks into the cabin of the ship, where Victor’s body was, and he began to tell Walton his side of the story. The creature comes to the realization that man will never accept it, so he decides to remain in the north until he dies.
In the lecture, we learned more about the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Shelley used a narrative frame to tell the story of Frankenstein. In June of 1816, considered the year without summer, Mary Shelley is with her soon-to-be husband Percy Bush Shelley. Mary Shelley refers to Dr. Darwin as Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather. Luigi Galvani known for biological galvanism. Frankenstein novel is the first novel to choose between alchemy and science, the irrational and the rational. Element of extrapolation is key in science fiction. Science saturation that Mary Shelley included in the novel are: Novel demonstrates choice made between pre-science and science, plot hinges on bio-chemistry, anatomy, and galvanism. The 3 main characters, Walton, Victor, and the Creature are all considered scientists in the novel. Empiricists believes that when we were born, we had tabula rasa, a blank slate, to which we have the capacity to learn. Empiricists were opposed by rationalist, who believed that we all had certain knowledge built-in at birth. Language restricts possibility of knowing. The Frankenstein novel overall is about hubris, hubris is presumption, transgression, behavior perceived as arrogant, disrespectful, also pride and excessive self-confidence. Presumption is arrogant toward gods. If you demonstrate hubris, you will be punished by the god Nemesis, the inescapable. Victor has exhibited hubris and the creature is considered his Nemesis. The Frankenstein novel is a critique of Age of Enlightenment. There were at least 3 doppelgangers in the story, Victor and Creature, Walton and Victor, and Victor and Clerval.
The last remaining chapters of the story of Frankenstein and his monster in the letters starts off after Victor has just agreed to do the request of the monster that he wants a female companion; a female version of himself that he can call his wife so he will leave Victor in peace and his family will come no harm. Victor isn’t too sure that this will end great, he fears that if there are two of them then the world will be in chaos, fear, and destruction because of these monsters and it will be all his fault as the creator of both. In creation of the second monster and the Victor goes off to study back in Geneva, as Victor begins to study how he will create a second monster; he needs to know the what’s new changes in the scientific community are happening so he goes on a tour of London with his best friend from childhood, Henry to seeks the philosophers who have the latest scientific information but then part ways towards Scotland victor then starts his work on the bride of Frankenstein’s creature by first going to a poor, relatively uninhabited island in the Orkney Island chain to do his work . Afterwards near completion of the second monster Victor can’t stand it after seeing the creature spy on him one night; he freaks out; can’t be held responsible for two devil creatures it must not happen ever, Victor destroys the work of creating the 2nd monster into the sea; as this happens the 1st creature threating’s Victor that he will be there on his wedding night. Upon the wedding night Victor is determined to protect him and Elizabeth but no use the creature kills Elizabeth though Victor shoots the creature it didn’t do any good, Elizabeth was dead and also the rest of the Frankenstein family. Victor then sets off for months on a mission to hunt and kill the creature once and for all until he meets up with Robert Walton and his ship who helps him track him down. The pursue of the creature becomes too much though for Victor that he later on dies. After wards Walton meets the creature face to face in his cabin to talk about his side of the story of what happened and it ends there.
In Frankenstein we see there are many elements here the first is Huberis the presumptuous recognize as overconfident and disrespectful towards immortality plays into Victor’s character trait he thought of all scientists that he can exceed in the impossible and where others might have failed to do in the past will reanimating a corpse and bringing to life. But it is that overconfidence and that not understanding well of what terrible outcomes can occur leads to his downfall by his Nemesis the, creature that he made aka Frankenstein’s monster threw out the whole story. The second element is the Age of Enlightenment the knowledge from science can have positive and negative effects Victor creates something to be positive and beautiful but soon after the creature is seen as a negative outcome into Victor’s life. The many doppelgangers of Victor in the story like Victor and the monster are mirror images of each other; the monster’s appearances is a showing the ugliness of Victor, while Victor himself to the monster is the beauty; the face towns folk won’t run from terror, he’s a friend, boyfriend, brother, and son. Victor and Walton both are interested in discovery, adventure, and seeking more new knowledge. Lastly Victor and Clerval both want to be famous for what works or jobs they will have in the near future though for victor is creating new life aka the creature and Clerval is all about being a adventurous benefactor. Overall Frankenstein is a dark but tells us as readers just because we can do something that others failed to do doesn’t mean we should do it; we must know the pros and cons of what we are trying to do long term and short term.
The last reading of Frankenstein was really intense, everything would’ve been fine for Victor if he would’ve created the female monster. In chapter 20, everything for the monster is going as he wanted, as he glare through the window with a smile on his face watching Victor creating his love one. As Victor is finishing the female monster, he started to worried about what might happen if he had created her. Victor feared the two monster might have children and creating “a race of devils…on the earth”. So Victor destroys his work in progress enraging the monster and promise to take revenge on Victor during his wedding night.
As Victor returns back to Henry, Victor found out that Henry is murdered possibly by the monster judging from the bruise marks. In chapter 23 when Victor can think nothing but the monster’s arrival. He looked around the house looking for the monster and suddenly he heard Elizabeth’s scream realizing that he wasn’t the target. The death of Elizabeth cause much grief to the whole family, Victor’s father dies a few days later due to such tragedy on a joyous day. Victor, his whole family destroyed, vow to destroy the monster himself, he met a person Walton who will help Victor to destroy the monster while Victor passed away. The creature knowing that Victor has passed away, he wept over his dead body and regretting a being of evil. The creature departed into the darkness.
The final act of Frankenstein begins with a worried victor contemplating whether or not it was wise to agree with the monsters request. At the site of his uneasiness his father asks if it is his marriage to Elizabeth that has him in such a state, to which victor responds that she is his only source of happiness. They then travel to England along with victors friend Henry who wishes to accompany them to continue his studies. After growing impatient victor leaves Henry with an acquaintance of his to begin working on the bride for his monster. After imagining the terrors that the union of these monsters could bring upon the world victor destroys his creation and his angered monster swears vengeance on his creator and that he will see him on his wedding night. His friend Henry is then killed by the monster and victor is accused but is found to be innocent. On his wedding night the monster fulfills his promise but it wasn’t victor that he was after but Elizabeth. His father dies after from the shock of this tragedy. With nothing left to live for he swears revenge on the monster. The death of Elizabeth felt rather anti climactic for a story that was full of drama and kind of rushed. The story ends with a dead victor and his weeping monster over him. It was interesting reading a story within a story within a story, as discussed in the class this story was told in a narrative frame format that follows this way of story telling. It was also interesting to see how the main characters shared similar traits and could be identified as doppelgangers of each other. The origins of the story itself was discussed and how an image in a dream Mary Shelley had one night led to this stories creation.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelly the story begins with Captain Walton trying to find himself, but on his journey to the North Pole he finds Victor Frankenstein stranded. After Victor was rescued from the sea, he began his story by speaking about his family, education and the failure of his creation. After Victor created the monster that was responsible for his brother death, he felt compelled to destroy it but upon his return he find the creature was gone and he set out to find him. While looking at the mountain, Victor come face to face with his creation and the monster began to tell Victor his story on how he learned language, emotion and to question his surrounding. Once the creature told Victor his story he requested a mate but Victor did not feel comfortable to create a mate for this creature but promise one for him, even though he promise the creature a mate the creature never fully trusted Victor and when into the woods. Victor set out to find the creature to killed him but failed and died trying to find him but the Monsters find Victor and become remorseful for the way he treated his creator, and begin to tell his side of the story to Captain Walton.
In the class discussion we realized that’s the creature and Victor play a doppelganger since they both were reflection of each other. Secondly, we find out that’s all three character were scientists in their own way. Walton was into magnetism and astronomy while victor was into chemistry and anatomy and finally the monster worked on hypothesis. He used inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning to find himself. Finally Mary Shelly made an extrapolation of what she knew about science at that time and what would be the future of science in her novel.
Today in class we discuss some background on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. The story was originally published anonymously with a preface from Percy Shelley. June 1816 is known as the “Year Without a Summer”, in which the temperature in Europe was abnormally lower. Lord Byron, Claire Clermont, John Polidori, Mary and Percy Shelley were all together in a house by Lake Geneva and to pass the time they told each other ghost stories and this is when Mary Shelley first got the idea for Frankenstein – the image of victor standing over his creation. The science available at the time was very limited or just not understood and Mary Shelley tried to infer what technology might be in the future. In the story there is a decision made about alchemy and science. Alchemy was an old way of thinking and science was the new way of seeing things. In the story the main character makes a decision on either alchemy or science, ultimately the character chooses science. A main point of the story is all of these, at the time, new sciences – biochemistry, anatomy galvanism etc. The main characters – Walton, Victor and the monster are all rational beings that experiment and are driven by their curiosity.
For the class we finished reading Frankenstein. We pick up after the meeting between Victor and the Monster, with victor having agreed to create a mate for the monster. In order to improve on his method Victor begins learn any and all of the new sciences. Victor uses a vacation/trip to London, England as a cover for his activities. Henry would accompany Victor on his trip from Germany through France and into London. Henry enjoys the trip while Victor seems miserable. They visit may location but Victor is only interested in learning new sciences. Eventually the pair will split and Victor will settle himself on a small island to begin gathering materials for his work. Henry, the entire trip does not know what Victor is up to. Victor wonders what will become of the second monster, she could potentially be worse than his first monster causing all sorts of havoc. In a fit of rage destroys what he has created of the second monster. The monster has been trailing Victor and wanted to see his mate, when he what victor has done he threatens him by telling Victor that he will be at his wedding. Victor receives a proposal from Henry to return; he quickly disposes of the body parts and dismantles his lab. As he leaves the island a storm occurs but he makes it to shore. The locals are hostile towards him and immediate he is arrested for murder. Henry has been murdered and witnesses say a large figure had dumped the body in water and it is suspicious that Victor would be out at sea. The magistrate Mr. Kirwin is able to prove Victors innocent on the account that Victor was at a different time when the event had occur. Alphonse, Victor’s father, picks up his son and takes him home. When Victor returns home he promises to Elizabeth that he will marry her in 10 days’ time. During their honeymoon the monster strangles Elizabeth. Alphonse would later die of a broken heart. Victor is consumed by anger, rage and revenge that the only thing he wants to do know is kill the monster. the two of them go on a cat and mouse case all throughout Europe and eventually into Russia where Walton found Victor in the beginning of the book. A dying Victor asks Walton to kill the monster if he doesn’t. Walton does encounter the monster, they have a brief conversation and the monster leaves. after a near mutiny onboard his ship Walton decides to stop the trip.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley from chapter 19 to 24 and Walton Continuation it’s about Victor was making another female monster for the first monster but one day somehow he thought that what if this creation wouldn’t be the way he wanted and make more destruction to his family and city. Perhaps they both get married and they might evil son or daughter which could bring death on the earth. After that, he decided not to create another monster but he promised to the monster that he going make another for him so now monster got angry with him and departed from by saying that he would see him in his wedding with Elizabeth. Victor throw out all the stuffs in ocean and decided to go home but when he was in ship wind change and ended up with landing some other town but town magistrate sent to jail because they found in ocean. Victor got sick and after two months his father came to visit him and got him out of jail. Then, they both were going home in Geneva to get married. But Victor was still taking about the monster because he said will come in his wedding so he did came to wedding and killed Elizabeth. After, Victor was locking for the monster everywhere and ended up meeting with Walton but after couples weeks he died in boat and monster meet Walton. Monster told him history but he was sad and he disappears in dark and never come back.
In today’s lecture we talked about how Mary Shelley comes up with this type of writing. She stared writing when she is 18. When she traveled Europe in 1814 the story most take places there because her, her husband, and her sisters was having competition that whoever can tell a ghost story she will win so everybody was telling their ghost story. Finally Mary was telling her but she was dreaming that one scientist create something and that story became this noble.
Victor now has a decision to make, option 1: don’t create a companion for the creature and suffer his destruction or option 2: create the companion and know that there are two creatures that he has created. While making this decision he travels with Clerval through London and Austria. On his travels the creature shows himself and demands for an answer. Victor decides at that point to not create the companion. The creature is infuriated by his decision then vows to make Victor’s life miserable. The creature states that he will see him on his wedding day then vanishes. Victor contemplates his decision then reconsiders creating a companion. He parts from Clerval and is isolated on an island where he creates the companion for the creature. On his return to the main island, he was framed for the murder of Clerval. He is put in jail where he is acquitted of all charges because the magistrate believed that he was innocent. Victor became very ill therefore his father visited him. He convinced him to return to Geneva, so Victor could marry Elizabeth. Victor went on to Geneva where for a while he forgot about the creature’s vow. Closer to the wedding night Victor believes that the creature will kill him. On his wedding night, Victor leaves the bedroom awaiting the creature to tell him that he had complied with his demands. Instead Victor hears some wrestling in his bedroom therefore rushes to the bedroom to find Elizabeth dead. Victor then grabs his gun and runs after the creature. The creature escapes but is only a day out therefore Victor follows his trail and has been in pursuit for a while. This has lead him to the ship of Captain Walton. Victor convinces the Captain to make his vengeance his. The Captain and his crew follow the creature to the inner most parts of the North Pole. Crewmembers begin to die and Victor becomes very ill. Right before Victor dies the creature comes on board the ship. The Captain does not seek to harm the creature but hears his story.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley life from 1797-1851, from her father William Godwin a minister turn atheist and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was a feminist and lead the vindication for women. Her mother died giving birth to Mary Shelley. She left behind her writings on the various subjects that Mary Shelley would later write about. The novel was written from a dream Mary Shelley had of the eye opening. It makes an extrapolation from what is going in her time to what may happen in the future. Science saturated novel was the first novel to introduce the choice of pre-science and science (New science of anatomy biology and galvanism).
The characters perform experiments in their own manner. Captain Walton interested in magnetic, astronomy, new path to America, go were no man has gone before and importantly he was a poet. Victor chooses rationally over irrationally, science over alchemy. People should be able to be reproduced. His ultimate goal is to bring matter to life. He studies chemistry, visits the charnel houses studies anatomy. Interdisciplinary scientist. The creature tests things out, by making a fire, and his approach to the family. Inductive reasoning taking the particular and applying it. Deductive reasoning. How we acquired knowledge, by nature or nurture, imperialists believe in a blank slate but rationalist believe that we have certain knowledge when we were born. The novel has an overall lesson of superiority of immortality. Where Victor believes he is higher than life.
Victor travels to England to fulfill his word to the monster in creating a woman monster for him. Henry Clerval joins Victor in his journey to England, but soon departs so he can be in solitude. Victor begins having doubts about the intentions of the creature. As he creates this new creature for the monster, the monster looks and is pleased, excited that he will now have someone to love and relate to in life. However, Victor begins to have second thoughts, thinking that these monsters may have children and create countless “devis”. As his thoughts blind him, he destroys the woman creature. The monster, infuriated, tells threatens Victor and tells him he will come for him on his wedding day (Victor had decided to marry Elizabeth). Later, the monster kills Henry Clerval, and frames Victor of the murder. Although accused for some time, Victor is found innocent. On his wedding day, Victor hears screaming, and finds that Elizabeth has been killed. Victor puts together that this was the work of the monster, seeing that he was not the intended target after all. This news kills their father; Victor ultimately losing his entire family due to his creation. Victor vows the destroy the creature, and chases him through the ice where he comes across Robert Walton. Victor dies on the ship, where the monster comes and cries over the loss of his creator, and the monster disappears back into the darkness which he came.
I found the ending very ironic. Victor is blinded by his lust for knowledge, adventure, and curiosity, and takes the laws of life into his own hands (playing God). This creation ends up doing nothing but causing destruction for Victor, and bringing negativity to his life. I did find Elizabeth’s death obvious. The chapters in which the focused on her really drew attention to the fact that she was special and beautiful and such. I did find it weird that Victor wanted to marry Elizabeth, being that they technically were brother and sister by name and were raised as such. The most ironic thing about this novel was that he creator was killed by the creation. The very thing Victor gave life to was ultimately what took Victor’s life.
When talking about the class notes, I did find it very amusing that Mary Shelley created the idea from Frankenstein from a dream, and that she told this story while talking to her friends in trying to making ghost stories. Also, what struck me was that she published the book anonymously. I found it very sad that if a woman author had published the book, it wouldn’t have gotten much attention compared to a male author. The phrase “ the author is dead, what matters is what we observe” or something to that extent, I found very important. This phrase can be used for just about anything; writing, books, movies, poetry, horror, etc. The author creates their story, and it is up to us to see what we see in that story; to make our own observations. This time era (Biological Galvanism) I found to be very interesting. The fact that countless experiments were taking place was very interesting to me, such as Luigi Galvani building batteries and putting electricity into the muscles of a dead animal and finding that electricity in the muscles generated movement. We also see in the novel Victor debates and ultimately falls to science when debating Alchemy v.s. Scientific Method. Things were able to be explained rather than assumed that magic was the cause. We see that Victor and Walton are similar- they both strive for knowledge and adventure, but Victor (being the experienced adventurer) tells Walton not to follow his path; that some knowledge was not meant to be found. In terms of doppelgangers, Victor and the creature are the most obvious pair: they both strive to find ways to figure things out (Victor and science, the monster and his experiments in creating fire and shelters).
The final volume of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein begins with Victor constructing a second monster as a female companion to the first monster, on his request. Victor arranges with his father to travel to London and tells his father that his marriage to Elizabeth would occur upon Victor’s return. Henry goes with Victor on this trip to London. Leaving Henry behind, Victor starts work on the new monster. Victor begins to have doubts on this endeavor to construct a second monster. Fearing that the construction of the new monster would become a murder or worst lead to a race of devils, Victor destroys the partially constructed monster. The first monster witness the destruction of the second monster and tells Victor that he would be at Victor’s wedding. Victor is accused of the murder of Henry and is placed in prison. Mr. Kirwin defends Victor as his lawyer and Alphonse takes Victor home. After returning to Geneva Victor marries Elizabeth. However the monster strangles Elizabeth, and Alphonse dies after learning of her death. Victor vows to destroy the monster and begins his hunt. At this point Victor meets Walton and picks up the narration of Walton again. Walton’s crew asks him to return to England, however Victor convinces the crew to continue. The crew once again asks Walton to return, Walton relents. Victor dies, and Walton discovers the monster crying over his dead creator. The monster tells Walton of his story and informs Walton that he is ready to die.
The lecture spoke of the role hubris and its role in Frankenstein. The hubris character is arrogant, presumptuous, and prideful. Victor as the creator of the monster, plays into this role for he has transgressed into the realm of God. The lecture also spoke of doppelgangers, one example is that of Victor and his monster. Walton being the character that knows both their stories, sees Victor as a tragic figure and the monster as an evil creature. Frankenstein’s evils are reflected by his creation while Frankenstein himself is portrait as the true monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was quite interesting as well as confusing to read. I was not used to the language used in the 19th century. Also the use of letters to tell the story was also adding to the confusion. Today while discussing the origins of the novel, I found it very interesting as to how the novel came to be. The setting of where Victor grew up was the same place as where Mary Shelley and her companions were “trapped” during their vacation, Lake Geneva. I think it was cool how the idea came from a dream and she pursued it to make a story. I love history, and when we started talking about her foreword and how it refers to Dr. Darwin. Not Charles Darwin, but his father, Erasmus Darwin. I thought that little factoid was interesting. Also when we talked about “biological galvinism”. That sounds like technobabble to me. However, the explanation as to what it is involving the bird and the air pump was intriguing. It truly shows the lengths humans go in order to understand the world. Of course, this was before a Code of Ethics was created. I’d assume all of this happened around the Age of Enlightenment which is why we jumped to the subject of the book being a critique of the Age of Enlightenment. I am not sure how this book criticizes the Age of Enlightenment. I similarities between the book and the Age of Enlightenment. I don’t think I am being critical enough to see how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein criticizes the Age of Enlightenment.
During the last part of the book frankenstain by mary shelly victor wasn’t really sure to create the second monster that his creature ask him to do, even thought he had ethical issues with it, he continue with this new creation which was going to be a female, but when he was creating this monster he ask him self what he was doing that he was creating a new monster and this may end really bad. So what he decided to do was destroy this new creation and run away. But nothing ends there the monster promise he will take revenge of him, and told victor he will shall up the day of his wedding. When Victor retorn to marry elizabeth as he had promise he was really scare of what the monster could do during this day. He was making sure he can not have access to the place but he was already inside of it, there is when he kill Elizabeth and victor decides to go away. During this new journey he got ill and he was not in terms of traveling more. There ‘s when Walton ship took him abord and try to cure him. There is when the monster got into the boat as well and try to go throught all the process with victor, he decided to tell his story as he had live to Walton, and it was not easy. Tnere is when vicror die and the monster decide to desapear.
During the lecture we describe victor as a dobble ganger which means he seems him self reflected iin the monster, we went through backgound about the author marry shelly and her story. We try to explain how does the different characters were similR to one and the other, how similar they were and different as well in terms of science.
We find an anxious Victor unwilling to start his new monster project. He has doubts about how it will go and how her personality might turn out. He also realizes in order to create her he’d have to stall his marriage to Elizabeth. However reluctantly he does begin planning his travel to England for parts and research. Clerval wishes to join him in his travels since he is unhappy with his job with his father in Geneva.
They set off to England and soon enough Victor becomes a bit antsy about the project and brings Henry to Scotland where he’s got a friend. He leaves his friend to babysit Henry so he can begin working on the lady fiend.
Victor Sets his lab up and finds he has an audience. The monster is watching him work. Suddenly, while the monster watches him, his doubts return tenfold and he fears she might be worse than this first monster, or dislike the monster, or not really want to “quit the neighborhood of man”, or bear monster children and start an evil race “of devils”. So in a feverish rage he destroys the lady and the monster becomes wildly upset and tells Victor to watch for him at his wedding.
Henry had, beforehand, sent for Victor basically saying he was bored and if they could get a move on. So Victor Dumps the woman in the sea and falls asleep on what I honestly picture to be a small rowboat. When he gets back to shore, he’s rudely accused of murder. Joy. The town leader Kirwin shows him the body, Clerval’s body and Victor freaks out cause that’s what he’s good at and convulses, and gets sent to jail.
Now as readers, we are pulled out of the story by Walton reminding us its a letter. There is some witness story and Then Victor’s father arrives, Victor is acquitted and they return to Geneva. He marries Elizabeth, and under the extremely questionable idea that the monster’s promise is about Victor’s own life being taken, he sends Elizabeth back to the cottage. She screamed and he hesitated found her dead and in typical Victor fashion he fainted.
He awakens, sees the monster smiling at the window and many people are in the room all horrified at what was going on. Frightened for his father and Ernest he returned home to find them both alive but his father dies within a few days. Now alone, friends and family all gone, Victor swears vengeance and begins hunting the monster. The monster leaves hints for him to follow. Finally returning to chasing him across the ice, he says he got within a mile of him and lost him completely and urges Walton not to believe the monster’s words and simply strike him down. Walton takes over speaking to his sister and The creature does come on board and kill Victor, and goes off to die on his own.
In class we spoke about hubristic behavior which is believing that one is above the gods or excessive self confidence. We also spoke about doppelgangers and how many characters are a mirror image of Victor. We talked about narrative framing and the conditions and inspirations under which this particular story was created. Extrapolation, empiricism and rationalists were also mentioned and finally we spoke about the novel being a critique on the age of enlightenment.
Soshana
Eng 2420
Kevin A. Gaul
02/22/16
After Class Summary
Frankenstein Chapter 18 – 24 & Lecture notes
At this point of the story, Victor Frankenstein has come to a conflicting crossroads, where he has to decide whether to create a female companion for his creation and repeating his mistakes, or refuse to do so, which would lead to his creation to continue to cause misery and harm to Frankenstein and those close to him. To make matters more stressful, his father suggests that he marry Elizabeth. Frankenstein comes to the decision that he would not do so until he grants the request of the monster and creates his female counterpart. He decides to go along with the request and asks his father if he could go on a journey to England before taking Elizabeth’s hand in marriage, to which his father allows.
Frankenstein rendezvous with Henry Clerval, who joins him on this trip at the request of Frankenstein’s father and Elizabeth. Clerval also wants to escape the grasps of his father’s work and seek knowledge. Clerval’s companionship seems to curb Frankenstein’s moody demeanor caused by thinking of the monster and the task he has to do. As they approach Perth, Scotland to meet up with an acquaintance, Frankenstein suggests that he split up with Clerval and continue his journey to another location, and then reunite in a month. Clerval reluctantly complies and Frankenstein travels to a remote location to start on his task for the monster, setting up a laboratory in a small village. As he works on the new creation, fearing that it would turn out worse than his first creation tenfold, he spots his creation in the window. Horrified by the facial expression it was making, he destroys the second monster-in-the-making, resulting in the original monster fleeing the scene.
The monster eventually returns, demanding Frankenstein to complete the task he was ordered to do, Frankenstein refuses to create another monster like the first and release it onto the world. Hearing this, the monster threatens that he will pay for not giving him a companion by visiting him on his wedding night and leaves. Frankenstein packs up his equipment and the remains of his abandoned project and sets sail out to sea. There he dumps the second monster’s remains, but upon returning to shore, is greeted by a group of residents from a nearby town. They apprehend him and take him to the town magistrate, where he is accused of a murder which took place the night before. He is taken to the body and discovers that it is Henry Clerval, which sends him into a psychological tailspin and physical illness.
After rehabilitating for about two months, his father comes to his aide and releases him from prison with a testimony proving that he is innocent from committing the murder. On the way home, Frankenstein receives a letter from Elizabeth, which reminds him that the monster stated that he will be with him on the night of his wedding, making him believe that the monster will come for his life. On the very night of their wedding, Victor searches for the monster, but upon hearing a scream from Elizabeth, realizes that the monster was coming for her life and not his. He discovers the lifeless body of his bride-to-be, and the thought that monster might be heading for his father and Ernest made him travel to Geneva immediately.
He arrives and discovers that both are safe, but his father soon dies regardless. Soon after, he decides to tell the local magistrate of Frankenstein in the hopes that the monster will be searched for and dealt with to prevent other lives from being taken, but no one believes him. Frankenstein then departs to take care of the monster himself. At this point of the story, we return to a letter written by Roger Walton to his sister, signifying that Walton is once again the narrator of the story. He talks about the tale Frankenstein told him leading up to this point of the story and Frankenstein’s sickly death soon after. Walton then states that he would take up the search in his stead. Soon after, in a twist of fate, the monster discovers Walton’s ship and finds his creator’s lifeless body. The monster then weeps at the loss of his master and regrets all his actions before leaving the ship, content with his own inevitable death.
Based on the lecture, Walton continuing his narrative role from where Frankenstein left off really brings home the literary element of Narrative frames that Mary Shelley utilizes in this story. We also discussed the backstory of the novel, like the idea of the novel coming to her in a dream, and that the novel was initially thought to be written by her husband, Percy Shelley, as the works of women were not well received back then, as well as discussing the character traits of the main characters.
In volume three of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor is left with a tough decision, after hearing the events that had transpired in the his creations life and hearing the request of the creature, to create female creature; to be a companion to his creation. Victor through much confliction agrees to the creature’s request, as long as he never shows his face ever again. In order to begin the process Victor must travel to England to acquire information in creating his new creature.
On the midst of his departure from his Geneva to England, still feeling guilty of the death of William and Justine, his father noticing his current state assures and confirms with Victor, upon his return he will marry Elizabeth. Victor agrees and head off to England. Victor also agrees to take a tour year tour, alongside his friend Henry, to England.
Henry and Victor travel to England and after Victor acquired the information he need they then traveled to Scotland to meet up with a friend. Victor feeling uneasy about his true task decides to depart from Henry so he can work on the creatures request, knowing that the creature was most likely watching and following him along his travels. Finding an secluded island where he can finish his work, Victor persistently begins the process of creating the creature.
After few month Victor nears the completion of his project, but one day he recollects on his conscious, thinking what would happen if he finished the creation. He begins to think that female creature might not want to seclude herself with the creature or worse they might have children and unleash evil creature upon the earth. While thinking about the outcome of his action the creature appears, to see how the progress is coming. Victor after seeing the creature is overwhelmed by his emotions and he destroys his current creation by ripping it. The creature watching in awe that his only source of happiness and acceptance in world the world was gone, swear that he will make his life of miserable and then disperses.
Over the next few months the creature held on to his promise, killing his best friend Henry and then on his wedding night with Elizabeth killing her as well. His father after losing Elizabeth died too from the lost. Victor feeling mad and angry followed the creature around the world like a cat and mouse game, until he ended up in the hand of Walton.
In the in-class Lecture we discussed many vocabulary term that will be on the exam and that is significant to science fiction. We focused on epistolary novels and how the book used a narrative frame. We talked how the book is considered science fiction, indicating that Walton, Victor and the creature are all scientist in their own rights.
In the third volume of Frankenstein we find victor agreeing with the monster to the monster’s wish of creating a mate. However during the process of creating a second monster Victor battles himself. He can either follow through with the agreement and create a second monster and never see them ever again or live with the guilt that there is some chance that these monster cause havoc on the world. Victor comes to the decision that he cannot create a second monster and decides to destroy her. This occurs while the monster oversees Victor’s progress which causes him to become enraged. The monster seeks revenge on victor indirectly by murdering his bride on their wedding night. With the death of Elizabeth Victor and what family he has left go into a state of grief. This is so intense that Victor’s father dies and Victor’s vows to get his revenge by kill what he created.
During his journey this brings us back to the bringing of the story on h\why he was found by Walton in the earlier chapters. During the story we find that thou the characters are different in appearance the share plenty of traits. For example Victor, Walton and the monster were all seeking some sort of enlightenment. For example Victor and Walton were seeking knowledge with related to their scientific fields of expertise whereas the monster was seeking knowledge in more of a natural way in terms of the interactions and relationships between humans and how to interact with the physical world.
The last part starts off with Victor constipating his wedding, because made a promise to his monster to make a bride for him also. So he asks Alphonse if he could take a two year tour to England to gather the required parts for his new project. The chapter with them traveling to London, when Victor arrived to London he began to think what his new monster would be like, and what would happen if his two monster created a race of evil creatures. So basically after spending months on the creating a mate for his first monster, he destroyed his work, The monster, over watching Victor the whole time, of course then got angry and vowed revenge on Victor. The monster then leaves, within the next couple of month the monster kills Henry, who was Victors best friend , then a few months later, on there wedding night the monster kills Elizabeth. After Victor lost everyone he loved, he spent months tracking the monster, and ended up in the north, where he met Walton, who he told his story to.
John Darius
ENG 2420
Chapter Summary:
Chapters eighteen threw twenty-four were about how Victor Frankenstein was beginning to create a second monster and how he can prevent himself from making the same mistake he made with his first monster. Victor Frankenstein along with his friend Henry Clerval goes off on a London tour. Later on Victor Frankenstein meets philosophers who have some insight into science. Around that time Vicotr ends up leaving Henry behind to work on his second monster. Victor Frankenstein ends up almost finishing his creature, but decides to later destroy the monster, because of how dangerous it could have become Victor Frankenstein’s first creation ends up killing Henry Clerval. Victor Frankenstein later on in the story ends up marrying Elizabeth. Sometime later on Victor decides to go out on his own and destroy the monster before himself or anyone else gets hurt. Vicotr ends up meeting Walton later on and dies. Walton eventually comes in contact with the monster, but the monster promises not to hur Walton and his crew.
The class lecture was about Victor’s last moments on how he can stop his creation, and also how later on we find out Walton is actually writing letters to his sister which was the story he was narrating. We also learn how Mary Shelley ends up coming up with the ideal for her novel Frankenstein. Mary Shelley and a few of her friends were stuck in a area where it was always raining, and in the house they lived in, they decided to Amir ghost stories. Mary wanted people to know through her story, how knowledge from science can have positive and negative effects on society.