Frankenstein - Topics For Discussion - For Students bn45

LITERATURA INGLESA II: ILUSTRACIÓN, ROMANTICISMO Y ÉPOCA VICTORIANA TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AIMED AT GUIDING THE READING OF MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN Dr. Antonio Ballesteros González Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1st ed. 1818, 2nd ed. 1831) is considered the most relevant paradigm of the initial and original phase of Gothic novels beginning with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) and, arguably, ending up with Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) and/ or James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824). Furthermore, Frankenstein has been termed, properly speaking, ‘the first science-fiction narrative’. The topics that follow are aimed at guiding your reading of Frankenstein. Some of them include key words or brief reflections, provided as clues for your personal or collective analysis, given that they can be openly discussed in the forum of Unit 3 of this subject. Take into that, of course, some topics overlap. Try to substantiate your answers with examples taken from the book. 1. Comment on the mythical background of Frankenstein. Take into consideration that the complete title of the novel is Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Why? Which other classical myths underlie the plot of the book? Why and how has become Frankenstein’s monster (do not mix him up with Victor, his creator!) an icon of popular culture and a modern myth? Think about names like Narcissus or the ‘Ultima Thule’ (a fantastic and idyllic land devoid of ice in the middle of the North Pole). Notice that the myth of Frankenstein is unique in that: a) it presents creation without female or divine intervention; and b) it is not the direct product of folklore or communal rituals. 2. Discuss the narrative structure of Frankenstein. How and by whom is the novel narrated? Whom is the strange plot addressed to? What could this possibly mean? The structure of Mary Shelley’s book is the model for many Victorian and Modernist narratives, mostly containing or dealing with Gothic features (as is the case of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness). Think about the ‘Chinese boxes’ and ‘Russian dolls’. Why does Mary Shelley use this kind of structure? 3. Identify the most relevant Gothic features of Frankenstein. Why was Shelley’s novel considered a horror narrative when it was first published? Do you consider it to be so? Why? 4. Compare and contrast the main and the secondary characters in Frankenstein. How does the novel represent duality in this respect?

5. Discuss the various meanings of monstrosity in the novel. 6. Notice that the monster is never given a name by Victor Frankenstein! He is otherwise termed with degrading epithets like ‘monster’ (27 times), ‘fiend’ (25), ‘daemon’ (18), ‘creature’ (16), ‘wretch’ (15), ‘devil’ (8), ‘being’ (4), ‘vampire’ (1), and ‘ogre’ (1). What are the implications of this fact? 7. Compare and contrast male and female elements in Frankenstein. What are the most significant implications of the text when we read it —as we should— ‘with gender on the agenda’? 8. Examine and discuss the critique of science in Frankenstein. 9. Discuss the role of Nature in Frankenstein. How does landscape help to create a singular atmosphere in the reader’s mind? 10. Is Frankenstein’s monster the epitome of Rousseau’s ‘bon sauvage’? Discuss the behaviour of the creature from a moral point of view. 11. Discuss the social and political implications of Frankenstein. Do not forget the great influence of the French Revolution on Mary Shelley’s novel! 12. Discuss Frankenstein as an intertextual novel, a text that recurrently speaks about other literary works. What do the books that the monster reads contribute to his education and behaviour? Describe the monster’s peculiar educative process. Is he the product of a defective education? Why? the books that the creature finds in the forest and take into consideration that, of course, Mary Shelley does not select them by chance: -The Viscount of Volney’s Ruins (a historical compendium based on a very Romantic theme: that of the decay of past civilizations). -Goethe’s Werther (dealing with the emphasis on private sentiment). -Plutarch’s Lives (a profound examination of public virtue and vice). -Milton’s Paradise Lost (a literary mirror for the monster. You will discover much evidence of this in the text). The creature reads other significant texts: the Abbé Barruel’s The History of Jacobinism (dealing with the political implications of the French Revolution)… and Victor’s journal, where he learns about his own creation. 13. Discuss the philosophical background of the novel’s plot. John Locke (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding) can be of extraordinary importance here.

14. Explain the most relevant symbols in the narrative. For instance, you can pay special attention to the contrast between ice and fire in the book. 15. Compare and contrast Mary Shelley’s narrative with any of the filmed versions of it that you may have seen. How are they similar? How are they different? What do these similarities and differences imply from an ideological viewpoint?

FURTHER READING: BALDICK, Chris (1987). In Frankenstein’s Shadow. Myth, Monstrosity and Nineteenth-Century Writing. Oxford: Clarendon Press. BALLESTEROS GONZÁLEZ, Antonio (1998). Narciso y el doble en la literatura fantástica victoriana. Cuenca: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de CastillaLa Mancha. — y CAPORALE, Silvia (eds.) (1999). “Introducción” a Frankenstein de Mary Shelley. Salamanca: Ediciones Colegio de España (Colección Almar-Anglística). BOTTING, Fred (1991). Making Monstrous: Frankenstein, Criticism, Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press. LEVINE, George & KNOEPFLMACHER, U. (eds.) (1979). The Endurance of Frankenstein. Berkeley: University of California Press. MELLOR, Anne K. (1989). Mary Shelley: Her Life. Her Fiction. Her Monsters. London: Routledge. SUNSTEIN, Emily (1989). Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.