Assignment
Name- Hareshwari Kapdi
Sem-2
Batch-2019-2020
Roll no- 6
Submitted to- Smt.S.B. Gardi Department of English MKBU
Paper no-The Romantic Literature
Course- M.A. English
Topic-Discuss about Frankenstein novel
# Introduction
Though Mary Shelley wrote five more novels before her death in 1851, none succeeded with the public nearly as well as Frankenstein. Only months after it appeared in the spring of 1818, Thomas Peacock could write to Percy Shelley that " It seems to be universally known and read". The theree- volume edition of year was followed in 1823 by a two- volume version, apparently to take advantage of the popularity of stage of adaptations.
" Satan has his companions fellow- devils , to admire and encourage him but I am solitary and detested."
- Mary Shelly
At the centre of Frankenstein is the Monster's own story. The "horrid thing" of Mary Shelley's dream, the "filthy mass that moved and talked, " has all the deliciously frightening appeal of the decaying creatures of horror tales.
# Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley about Frankenstein
The early nineteenth century was not good time to be a female writer- particularly if one was audacious enough to be a female novelist. Contemporary believe held that no one would be willing to read the work of a woman; the fantastic success of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein served to thoroughly disprove this theory.
Frankenstein established Shelley as a woman of letters when such a thing was believed to be a contradiction in terms; only the reputation of Madame Dr Stark surpassed Shelley's in Europe. De Stael, however, was more famous for continuing to publish her works despite the fact that the Emperor Napoleon had explicitly forbade her to do so, rather than for the quality of the works themselves.
Though Frankenstein is now customarily classified as a horror story, it is interesting to note that Shelley's contemporaries regarded it as a serious novel of ideas. It served as an illustration of many of the tenets of William Godwin's philosophy, and did more to promote his ideas than his own work ever did. The novel does not, however, subscribe to all of Godwin's precepts. It stands in explicit opposition to the idea that man can achieve perfection- in fact, it argues that any attempt to attain perfection will ultimately end in ruin.
Frankenstein is part of the Gothic movement in literature, a form that was only just becoming popular in England at the time of its publication, The Gothic mode was a reaction against the humanistic, rationalist literature of The Age of Reason; one might say it was ushered in by the death of Keats, the English author with whom Romanticism is perhaps most closely associated. Frankenstein might be seen as a compromise between the Gothic approach and the Romantic one: it addresses serious philosophical subjects bin a fantastical manner. Though it confronts recognizable human problems, it can hardly be said to take place in a recognizable natural world some critics have suggested that this tension between Gothic and Romantic Literary modes echoes the philosophical tension that existed between herself and her husband, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
# Frankenstein
- Frankenstein, a text that is part Gothic novel and Philosophical it also considered an early example of scientific fiction.
- It narrated the dreadful consequences that arise after a scientist has artificially created a human being.
- The man- made Monster in this novel, inspire a similar creature in numerous American horror films.
# Social/ Historical context:
Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus was written by Mary Shelley; wife of the famous English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; and published in 1818. The book is a foray into the genre of Gothic- horror fiction and one of the first of its kind. It deals with the ethical issues of advancing technology and explores man's relationship with his maker at an allegorical level.
Writing Style:-
The book is written as a series of narrative in the first person; Introduced as a series of letters from an explorer to his sister, then as a recount of Victor Frankenstein's tale. The language is representative of English typical in the 19th century. However it is quite simple and easy to understand and the prose is very free- flowing. The plot is built up masterfully and the two main characters are remarkably well sketched.
#Frankenstein Creation and Monstrosity
Stephen Bann
With essays by Elisabeth Bronfen, crosbie Smith Ludmilla Jordanova, Louis James, Michael Fried, Michael Grant, Jasia Reinhardt, Robert Olorenshaw and Jean- Louis Schefer.
Some of the most significant currents in modern intellectual and Cultural history pass by way of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). By choosing in her book as a guiding theme the idea of the scientist who creates a monster, she both revives for the Romantic period the traditional link between scientific experiment and natural magic, and makes her own contribution to the debate on the difference between ' creation' and ' production' that was flourishing among the natural scientists of her time.
Frankenstein thus signals a remarkable integration of the broad issues of contemporary science and Culture within the form of a popular fiction. In this way, it stands at the head of a productive tendency which is marked, over the coming century, by related works like Bram Stoker's Dracula and and H.G. well's The Island of Doctor Moreau. Common to all these works is a fascination with the ethics of creation, and the phenomenon of monstrosiry, which provokes interesting questions about the place of the monster in visual culture.
# Characters charts:-
# Symbolism in Frankenstein- Chart
# Monster's name in the novel Frankenstein:-
In Frankenstein, the monster does not have a given name. It's creator, Victor Frankenstein, however, does use a number of negative terms to describe the monster throughout the novel, including " ogre," " devil", and "thing".
There is some significance in the fact that the monster is nameless. Firstly, it reinforces the monster's status as Victor's creation . It is his property, the product of his labors while at university, and therefore viewed as a possession, not a human being.
Secondly, not giving the monster a name makes it easier for Victor to flee his monster when he realizes how terrifying and horrible he really finds it. Remember that the monster is incredibly ugly and scary. It is extremely tall, for instance, and has yellow eyes. By not giving this monster a name, Shelley also reinforces the idea that it is neither human nor animal. It is a completely new and separate entity.
- Shelley uses nature as a restorative agent for Victor Frankenstein. While he seems to be overcome with grief by the murders of his friends and family, he repeatedly shuns humanity and seeks nature for health, relaxation and to strengthen his spirits.
# The Power of Nature- Literature and Technology:-
The Power of Nature. Mary Shelley uses Frankenstein and his trials to show how detrimental defying nature can be. Frankenstein compares his drive for success to that of a hurricane. Hurricanes ultimately end in destruction, however, and therefore Shelley uses nature to symbolize destruction.
The natural imagery in " Frankenstein" is comparable to the best in the Romantic literature. Mary Shelley paints Nature and it's divine grandeur with some rare strokes of a masterful hand. She deliberately juxtaposes the exalted vision of Mother Nature with the horrendous spectacle of a man-made monster and his ghastly deeds.
This steep contrast sets reader thinking about the wisdom of departing away from the set norms of Nature. Mary's message to mankind is loud and clear; do not mess with Nature for your own good. Humans should best live like humans. Any attempt to change the status quo can be very expensive and dangerous. If you will preserve Nature, Nature will preserve you.
The message is loud and clear; the untold secrets of Nature are best enjoyed when allowed to remain a secret.
# References:-
- Bann, Stephen, ed. "Frankenstein":Creation and Monstrosity. London: Reaction, 1994.
- Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus : the 1818 Text. Oxford ; New York :Oxford University Press, 1998.
#Conclusion:-
As developed in this essay, the Frankenstein story has three levels of interest. First, it reveals a deeper kind of signification than is at first apparent. The "Other", the outside, the racially foreign, is probably buried within the genre of Gothic horror as a whole. Secondly, while in the novel this embedded message reflects contemporary ambiguity or confusion about the racial Other, it entered popular culture at a time of shifting racial and ethnocentric attitudes, and in this context inevitably lent it's weight to the construction of sensational aspects of " race" in the popular nineteenth-century mind. Finally, the text and it's subsequent development reveal inherent linkages between race and the other evolving concepts of class and gender.
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