Monday September 27th 2010:
Monster comes from the latin monstrum, meaning “warning, potent, omen” to warn. Monster, warning not to play with life.
Monster: originated as a 14th centuy medical term, generally used to refer to individuals w/birth defects.
The modern Prometheus
Lesser God—gives fire to mankind—they start fighting—Prometheus chained to a rock
Fire=technology
Wednesday 29th 2010
The murder of William
It is interesting to note that the first murder that occurs in the book is the murder of a child. William was 7 years old. The fact that he was merely a child is particularly distressing and awful. The reason for the killing of William is a form of revenge from Victor’s monster. William tries to fight against the monster, but the monster, who is very strong and colossal in size, kills William and strangles him to death. The creature is not fully being in control of his body yet, he is still in the learning process.
“I’ll call my dad Frankenstein”
--parallel to Of Mice and Men when Lenny kills the girl and the animals.
Jealousy, fury or simply a delicate emotional structure provoked the monster to kill William. The creature took revenge of a child who has a father. Victor never expressed any love or any father figure role towards his creation which generated a terrible consequence on the monster.
Was William’s killing an accident, premeditated or does the monster have full intentions of taking revenge and murdering an innocent child ?
He feels a sense of triumph and accomplishment.
The monster is tormented by the lack of no paternal figure in his life. He wants to take revenge on his creator. The monster is imprinted with sadness and feeling of revenge. It was fate that he ran into William, Victor’s brother. Induce harm on Victor, take revenge.
“ ‘Frankenstein ! You belong to my enemy—to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge: you shall be my first victim.” And “I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, ‘I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.” P. 122 Also note the foreshadowing, impending doom on Victor, the monster does not feel completely satiated and wants to destroy his maker.
The monster initially thinks about making William his friend, he says, “I do not intend to hurt you; listen to me.” However William is terrified and then the horror scene.
Killing of William is the first murder, then singles out and kills everyone that Victor loved. One can take note of the complex motivations and reactions on the part of the monster.
Frankenstein has a logical reason to take revenge. The most logical thing to do is kill the people that Victor loves.
Victor’s reaction to the monster’s killing: why doesn’t he step in to save Justine from death row?
p. 70: we are surprised Victor doesn’t take action. He professes himself as the true murderer, “But I, the true murder…Anguish and despair had penetrated into the core of my heart; I bore a hell within me which nothing could extinguish.”
“hell within me” echo of Paradise Lost. Satan is refered to having hell inside him, internal condition. “Myself am hell” internalizing an incredible gift, does feel that he shares culpability, the complexity of his reaction from the beginning. Brought a wretch upon humanity.
Chapter 10:
Descriptive language, Romanticism: specific movement in history. Mary Shelley married to the most famous. Frankenstein is considered a Romantic novel. Particular relationship with nature, connection with the self and nature.
A part of a poem called “mutability” from Percy shelly.
Before Victor’s first encounter with the monster.
Describes it as very majestic, grander, can’t ignore the nature around him. Its amazing, but can be awful too. Its so powerful.
The sublime: 18th and 19th century of the idea of the sublime. Different from ‘the beautiful’. It is a form of intense beauty. You have to be in an emotional state, in presence of the powerful beauty of nature. Experience the sublime. The sublime is a place where you feel slightly threatened by what you’re feeling.
Victor sees the majestic beauty and is in awe, however it does take him out of himself for a bit, find a relief, but also something very unusual by what he sees, witnesses the power of nature.
Periodic sentences. 19th century prose that goes on and on. Style of her writing shows the overwhelming quality to nature. Thick/rich description. Purple prose, Packed with images. Packing in the descriptive language Building up to the moment where he encounters the creature. Digression with the poem.
Message of the poem: refers to Victor, a dream has a power to poison sleep, haunted in his mind, “Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow” referring to his monster, the incident that can be forgotten, for a while but will reappear to haunt him. Can’t predict what will happen. –Near the glaciers speaking can provoke death on you: “the slightest sound, such as even speaking in a loud voice, produces a concussion of air sufficient to draw destruction upon the head of the speaker.” P.79 Even the smallest idea can eventually become something that can kill you. An idea can take hold of your mind, like a parasite taking hold of a host, and proliferate, engulf one with dark ideas and eventually determine one’s fate, for better or worse.
The sublime: describe an aesthetic pleasure.
[nature, art]
Awareness of colossal size, and its effects upon the receiver.
Beauty from utility—idea of aesthetic.
Shelly uses the term to describe the conception of beauty by the individual.
p. 80/81/82/83: intense with emotion
2 important quotations : “there can be no community between you and me; we are enemies”
Refers to the image of the creator, the church has been created to connect human with god, no sign from god to show his existence, Victor is the creator of his monster, and refuses to have any relationship or association.
--Community : common. Emphasizing on no common qualities or virtues between Victor and his creation.
The reader has pity for the monster: he is lonely.
“I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity” if someone would have loved him, been his friend or companion, things would have turned out differently. Immediately after the moment of creation, Victor did not even give the monster a chance.
Friend/Fiend. One letter apart. The sense that these 2 characters are connected, maybe even through emotions, even though there is a sharp division between them .
Victor is intense with rage, wants to battle, but the monster was created physically greater.
Shelly distances Victor from God: God can smite whoever He wants, beholds supreme and unparallel power, however Victor who tried to duplicate God’s power has no physical affect or mental affect on his monster. He has no power.
The monster embodies the human race, the more we continue to create new technologies, the stronger the maker, creator, Victor made the creation stronger than man, something he cannot control. He made something more powerful than man.
New technologies: lesser dependence on God, faith, more dependant in man.
Tension between science and religion.
Percy Shelley couldn’t live in England because he was an atheist.
When the monster uses the, thy : more formal expression
The monster is speaking in deliberately in a more formal way, showing deference, shows his knowledge. Pleading with Victor.
“the guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defence before they are condemned” the monster reacts more reasonably than Victor. The monster wants to solve his issues by communication, not resolving to any physical confrontations unlike Victor. The monster seeks to be understood.
The creation reminds us of the marginal people.
The excluded, the outcasts of society—relates to Percy Shelly who was outcast because he was atheist, as well as the monster who feels alienated.
The creature shows human feelings, describes his loneliness. Philosophical depth to the creature’s story.
p.84—Chapter 11
The monster’s story:
The narrative of the monster is impressive.
The monster reveals excellent narrative skills, speaks perfect English, wide range of vocabulary.
He only lived several months, learned the language, very articulate.
Great references—odd for someone who is newborn.
How can he have so much knowledge that he can even make biblical references?
The monster takes care of himself very well, learns quickly the essentials of survival.
Completely self-taught.
He did learn in books, has an amazing memory.
How can he be smart? Compassionate? Why is he not stupid?
He demonstrates super human physical strength as well as an impressive brain capacity.
Learn to express himself in a language.
Nature vs. nurture
When the monster is created, he doesn’t know that he is a monster.
Gets reason for revenge, not inherent in his monstrosity.
His brain has only been functional for several months, he has an impressively developed brain, contrary to a newborn.
Incredible capacities. Highly accelerated.
Frankenstein used an adult brain to create the monster.
The human brain is not geared to be good or bad. Rested upon influences, experiences.
Child like tendencies, but a developed brain.
Plausibility to this book: many things not believable.
Science-fiction: Mary tries to write in a realistic fashion
We buy into enough to feel moved by it, express emotion.
His first encounter with humanity: wakes up and sees Frankenstein. But he wasn’t conscious.
In the passage we studied, his first encounter with humanity: sees the cottage and a man eating his breakfast. He seems to realize that there are other people.
From observation he is able to reproduce. Learns from deduction/observation.
He puts clothes on his back, he is supposed to have no basic knowledge, how does he know to do this?
Speculation on a literary level: reference to Adam and Eve. Before they are innocent and have not fallen, they are nude. Then they recognize shame in nudity so they put clothes on.
You aren’t born with socially acquired skills, maybe Shelley is emphasizing that society constructs and influences a human.
He never knew what he looked like, he observed the humans physical appearances. His body is so inharmonious to what the other humans look like. He finally saw what he looked like.
He doesn’t immediately feel the desire of revenge. He can have feelings, however he doesn’t know how to analyze them or interpret and articulate them into words or thoughts. He is angry at the people that are hurting him, it takes him a while to realize the origin of his pain and hurt.
He has acquired emotion but it takes time to distinguish them.
He feels justified to take revenge on Frankenstein.
p. 89: beginning his observation of the De Lacey family.
Teaches him the emotions of compassion, love, what it’s like to have someone there for comfort, develops some jealousy and hurt because he doesn’t have anyone to share these emotions with.
We have the sense that he’s about to cry—he’ll never have the family tie, even though he’s ugly, he is human. He notices that he can feel the same things that other humans
“If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched.”
18th and 19th century were interested with sympathy
sympathy/empathy
sympathy: “feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune”
- removed, pity, the pity has an aspect of condescension
empathy: “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”
- Shared feeling
This distinction is useful: he is feeling intense emotion watching them feel emotions, and then sees that he does not have what they have--adds to his grief.
He is a sensitive being, intense emotional sensations more sympathy for himself than sympathy for others.
When the monsters observes the De Lacey’s, he has immediate self discoveries
p.94: the reflecting pool
The hatred that he has towards Victor
“despondence and mortification” sadness and humiliation
classical allusion—[Narcist + Echo] doesn’t recongnize himself right away.
sees that he’s profoundly different, he is appalled by his own image. Very painful recognition. He feels empathy.
He feels human but he isn’t.
Idea of Pathos.
Criticism of objective beauty.
Criticizing superficiality of society. He is human on the inside, admirable qualities. Does not meet objective visions of beauty, he is beautiful on the inside.
What does the Monster learn from the De Lacey’s :
- Learns English.
- Learns about history
- Basic human interaction (facial expressions)
- The creature is being acculturated.
- Sense of what is acceptable or not.
Who are the De Lacey’s ?
Upper class family that is depressed by financial issues.
The Monster is offering a critic of society, the way society places so much value on property, materialistic things
The question of class status: he doesn’t have one. Unique social misfit. No class identity. Struggling with identifying where he belongs.
No names. Desperate desire to form relations with humans. Self-pity. Has a right to feel some degree of self-pity, intense pain, feel the pathos of the monster.
Morally unstable, maybe if Victor would have stayed.
Identity is malleable.
