Concetti Chiave
- Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" intertwines romance with the ancient dream of artificial life, blending Gothic elements with science, paving the way for science fiction.
- The narrative technique involves multiple non-omniscient narrators, including Walton, Frankenstein, and the monster, emphasizing themes of duality, forbidden knowledge, and social prejudice.
- Frankenstein's creation of the monster from corpse parts highlights themes of isolation and societal rejection, with the creature embodying the outcast's plight.
- The creature's character reflects societal marginalization, lacking identity and acceptance due to its divergence from bourgeois standards and Enlightenment ideals.
- The narrative culminates in the creature's criminal actions and final disappearance, symbolizing profound alienation and the tragic consequences of societal rejection.
What is Mary Shelley and her love story?
Was the daughter of radical philosopher William Godwin. In 1814 Mary and Shelley fell in love and ran off to Europe. Her best work is Frankenstein, published anonymously in 1818.
Frankenstein, or the modern Prometeus is a romantic version of the very ancient dream of the creation of artificial life and can be considered philosophical romance and Gothic tale: it possesses the emotional language and the atmosphere of suspense and danger but it differs from many Gothic novels because it substitutes the supernatural with science. → forerunner of science fiction.
Innovative narrative technique
The main characters are all linked to the theme of the double: Walton and Frankenstein have the same ambition to overcome human limits. Frankenstein and the monster are complementary: they suffered from a sense of isolation. Main Theme: double, forbidden knowledge and social prejudice.
Frankenstein complex narration
Frankenstein is told in the first person by 3 different non-omniscient narrators:
Walton, who writes to her sister Margaret about how he has saved Frankestein. Frankstein himself tells the story of his experiments. Frankstein's narration a report by the monster himself.
Monster's creation
The story is about a scientist named Frankenstein who manages to create a monster by joining parts of different corpses. On a stormy night he manages to get a lot of energy from the lightning and gives life to the creature. After giving it life, he turns out to be disgusted by its monstrosity and abandons it. The monster wants Frankenstein to create a spouse for him, but he refuses having anything to do with it anymore.
The Creature as a projection of the outcast
The genesis of Frankenstein dates back to the Geneva summer of 1816 and was dictated not only by literary competition but also by the novelty of the situation, which was intended to offer a "point of view to the imagination for the delineation of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield."It is, therefore, from a predominantly introspective perspective that the novel should be analyzed. If one wishes to refer to more serious themes, one should not forget Shelley's great work in projecting into her work the thinking of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who, reflecting on slavery, focused on female subjugation.
The Creature, in fact, seems to speak with a male voice, a sign of nineteenth-century patriarchal education, produced, however, by an author who represents the general state of subjugation of women and those who live in the same situation: the least, the alienated, the homeless, the marginalized.
The Creature has no history or name that truly identifies it beyond its status as a monster, a being without a stable place in the cosmic order.
Nothing and no one is ready to welcome it because it does not meet the standardized requirements of the bourgeois class and the Enlightenment social contract: a canonical physicality, lineage, wealth, friends, property.
It is natural, therefore, that anyone who forcibly inserts himself into an environment that does not belong to him risks becoming evil or becoming even more profoundly alienated.
How the creature is expelled
So the monster becomes a real criminal, killing most of Frankenstein’s family and compelling him to chase him.So Frankenstein chases the monster till he arrives to the Arctic Circle and is saved by a mariner, Walton.
Frankenstein is weak, and almost dying, and spends his last words telling the story to Walton.
At the end the monster appears and grieves over the dead body of his creator, then he disappears in the dark.
Domande da interrogazione
- What inspired Mary Shelley to write "Frankenstein"?
The genesis of "Frankenstein" dates back to the Geneva summer of 1816, influenced by literary competition and the novelty of the situation, offering a unique perspective on human passions.
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