Riassunto esame Cultura e Letteratura Inglese I, prof Polopoli, libro consigliato Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Hartley believed human identity was shaped by the early experiences of the senses;

• Locke affirmed that human nature was not good or evil, but some sort of tabula rasa

• deeply influenced by experience.

Rousseau believed in the natural man corrupted by society.

•

Mary Shelley showed how creation doesn’t stop at the moment of giving life. Victor with

his rejection, in fact, creates the monster, but with his experiments he first produces the

creature. He’s irresponsible when he first leaves the new-born creature and he is still

irresponsible when he abandons the project to create another female creature. This is the

means which bring the death to Clerval and Elizabeth and the final pursuit across the

northern ice.

The final episode of the pursuit reveals a change of balance in the relationships between

Victor and the Creature; while in the first part, the creature shows an ardent need of the

doctor, in the last one he totally dominates him. With this new dynamic playing in the novel,

the two protagonists became interdependent from each other, bound by their desire for

revenge.

Ultimately, Shelley presents us Frankenstein’s scientific success, but parental failure,

showing that yes, he was able to create a life, but not capable of cultivating and educating

his own creature.

Narrative form

The form of the novel is epistolary and multi-layered, with a symmetrical structure: the

story begins with Walton, continues with Frankenstein, then with the Creature, then with

Frankenstein again and final with Walton. This narrative patterns can be described as

triangular, because each of the three main characters speak with the two others, excluding

all other characters from the story.

This causes the absence of an ever-present narrator to comment and guide the reader, which

has to figure out on its own the meaning. It also hides the author from the reader, and this

can be seen as Mary Shelley’s ‘anxiety of authorship’: believing that, as a female author, she

had no powerful voice, she spoke trough three male narrators.

It can also be seen as the mean by which the story is sort of destabilized, because each

narrator tells his version of the story, not the unique one.

Walton’s role as the primary narrator has many purposes:

He mediates the stories of Victor and Frankestein

• He introduces important themes, like that of discovery and ambitious. Walton’

• ambition is directed towards the discovery of the North Pole, while Frankenstein’s

ambition is directed towards scientific progress.

The friendship between Walton and Victor anticipates that between Victor and

• Clerval.

Walton and the Creature are connected by the same neglected education and passion

• for reading, anticipating the Creature’s self-education through reading.

He desired a friend just like the Creature, in order to cure the loneliness. This

• similarity shows the normality of the creature’s desires.

The framing narrative of Walton’s letters is the reason for the story to be told.

• He introduces themes that become concrete after the introduction of the main

• protagonists.

Frankenstein and Revolution

The novel is connected to the revolutionary political ideas of the time, and in particular with

the revolution in France and the fear and anxiety, common in Britain, about the possibility

of parallel uprisings. However, as we cannot define a clear-cut position about radical

science, so it is for the idea of revolution.

The presence and importance of Paradise Lost, with its anti-authoritarian elements, could

suggest the idea that the novel supports revolutionary activity.

Similar support comes from the presence of Prometheus’s myth as an analogy for Victor’s

works, as it narrates the challenge to the gods for the right to create.

The subtitle ‘Modern Prometheus’ shows how Mary Shelley was aware of the rebellious

elements in her story and wanted the reader to pay attention.

However, the final destruction of both Victor and the Creature is the sign that the rebellious

activity is destined to end and fail. Frankenstein’s challenge is punished, the Creature

remains excluded and eventually destroys himself.

The plot

The novel starts with the epistolary correspondence between Walton and his sister Margaret;

Robert Walton is captain who decided to explore the North Pole, in order to achieve

knowledge and fame. During the voyage, the crew notices a dog sledge driven by a gigantic

figure. A few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen man named Victor Frankenstein.

The captain welcomes him on board and gives him cure and attention to reinforce his health.

He then recovers and tell him his story in order to warn him to avoid such obsession for his

work.

Victor was born in Naples from a wealthy Genevan family; he has three brothers and by the

age of five, his parents adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, the daughter of an expropriated Italian

nobleman. She and Victory eventually fall in love. As a young boy, he studied outdated

scientific theory, focused on simulating natural wonder. His mother dies of scarlet fever.

He then frequents the University of Ingolstadt in Germany, studying chemistry and other

sciences. He develops a secret technique to impart life into non-living matters. He then

decides to create a humanoid, but due to the difficulty of replicating the minute parts of the

human body, he makes him very large. Despite the best intentions, the creature had a

hideous appearance, with yellow eyes and skin that barely conceals the muscle tissue and

blood vessels underneath.

Disgusted, Victor runs away, trying to get some sleep, in order to recover, while the monster