Category: Blog: Frankenstein (excerpt)

It is evident that the Monster’s way of self-education is admirable. By watching the cottage-dwellers from a distance and examining their actions and their behaviors, the Monster slowly develops his own habits. Unfortunately, due to his appearance, the Monster is aware that will not be accepted by the cottage people, “Increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was. I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when I beheld my person reflected in water or my shadow in the moonshine, even as that frail image and that inconstant shade (Shelley 9)”.  This is seen when Felix, Safie, and Agatha return back to their home, come to realize there was a giant monstrous being conversing with their father. Despite the Monster’s acquired knowledge and respect for the cottage-dwellers, the cottage people do not accept him as a human being. This goes back to Steven’s point about how Gothic “represents” the revolutionary ideas and emotions of the 18th century, while also trying to “contain” those ideas and emotions within a “conservative structure”. This is because Gothic was seen as the foreign and unordinary. Gothic demonstrated themes of horror, fear, the extreme, and the dark. According to the cottagers actions, the Monster was depicted just like that. Additionally, his actions are  presented as a horrific product of “revolutionary” activity (i.e. Dr. Frankenstein’s experiment), despite his good intentions. It his physical appearance that sets him back.

When shelly writes How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

In the “uncanny” Freud suggests the idea of arousing horror and fear yet familiarizing all aspects of the known. When presented with the familiar we should not show fear. In other words experiences, faces, places or things  we’ve seen before will likely draw minimal reaction or emotions because they are  known to us. This monster Frankenstein had created bore familiar features of a human but still presented a contributing horror. The projection of self has been overcome by fear. There’s unfounding horror is the human like features of the creature vs the unknown. Frankenstein is a scientist, a logical thinker he knows the structure and make up of human body. Yet the monster Frankenstein created looked like him but still wasn’t him and that frightened him, this projection of self had been overcome by fear. Such facial and structural details was so overwhelming he began to question himself as to the actual creature he had created. This must be a fragment of his imagination. Obviously Frankenstein knows what he’s created  he will soon come to the realization of his creation.

Felix’s encounter with the monster

As I came back home from my walk with Safie and Agartha. I was shocked by hearing my father scream out. “Great God!” I hear from inside the cottage. I quickly hurried with swiftness to take care of what could have possibly been an emergency to take care of my blind father. I burst through the door to see this huge and disgusting monster grab my father’s arm. In pure horror, I can’t believe my eyes seeing this creature and how it looks. I turn to see that Safie has gone and Agartha also tremble to see this creature. As quickly as I had to make my move and try to save my father.  I grabbed whatever I had and quickly attacked this beast before my father would get injured. I tackled this great monster to the ground with force and started to beat him with a stick. I looked at him with a fury of protecting my family. He didn’t look normal to me, he had weird features that I’ve never seen. But I continued to attack this monster before I realized my attacks looked like it didn’t affect him but until he left the cottage in fear. My encounter with this beast was the most horrifying experience that I’ve never felt. I try to talk with my father and my sister Agartha to see if both were alright.

So the context of this paragraph is the idea of Felix being a man of the house. He is taking care of his father and his sister. But after coming from a walk with his love Safie and his sister Agartha, he hears his father exclaim out something, he’s quick to his aid and not understanding what’s going on. He acts upon saving his father from an intruder that he isn’t exactly sure what is. He saves his father and sister after he has the monster leave the cottage and to reconcile with his father and sister.

Each of the prompts should be answered by at least 1 member of blog group 2. Please confer amongst yourselves as to who will write which prompt (use the discussion forums). Responses should be at least 250 words and posted by 11 am the day of class.

CONNECT: This week, you read Freud’s essay on the Uncanny alongside this excerpt. Focusing on Chapter 5, select 1 passage that invites comparison to Freud’s theorizing about the uncanny as “that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us.” Connect Freud’s theory of the uncanny to Dr. Frankenstein’s narration: how might the chapter illustrate Freud’s thesis?

CLUE: Steven writes that Gothic “represents” the revolutionary ideas + emotions of the 18th century, while also trying to “contain” those ideas + emotions within a “conservative structure” (17). There is thus an ambivalence within Gothic literature towards political radicalism.

Analyze the Monster’s self-education and interaction with cottage-dwellers in ch. 15-16. To what extent does his narration provide a clue as to Shelley’s political intentions?  Is the Monster a sympathetic figure for an oppressed underclass? Or are his actions presented as a horrific product of “revolutionary” activity (i.e. Dr. Frankenstein’s experiment)?

CREATE: Stevens writes that the Gothic’s supernatural content provoked controversy. Some experienced it as a positive reawakening of spiritual sensibility; others denounced it as a perversion of Christianity; and still others derided it for encouraging belief in superstition.

Create a paragraph from Felix, Safie’s, or Agatha’s perspective describing their reaction to seeing the Monster. Based on what you know of them, do you think they see him as a demon? Are they moved to call for divine aid? Is there a chance they recognize him as an experiment gone wrong? After your creative paragraph, include 1-2 sentences explaining its content.