Frankenstein Extensive Notes
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Frankenstein
Romantic novel by Mary Shelley
Themes
Anxiety about science
Natural philosophy (hybrid) [bunk!]
Philosophical
Religious
Scientific
Fascination with electricity and magnetism
Thought that electricity was the key to life
Intense interest in the origins of life
Beginning to find fossils and pre-Darwin evolution
Life and Death (see below)
Romantic Triad
Divine / nature / humanity
Frankenstein is the opposite (upside down triangle).
Prometheus Unbound (Romantic Hero)
Advocate of humanity
Good intentions = happy ending
Suffers, gains wisdom
Wisdom leads to final decision
Isolation leads to redemption of society
Filled with the virtues of sacrifice, love, protection, savior
Hero (particularly to the romantics)
Frankenstein–or The Modern Prometheus
Destroys humanity
Good intentions = dark endings (the road to hell is paved with good intentions)
Suffers, gains wisdom
Wisdom leads to suffering
Isolation leads to madness
Abandons his creation, revolution, unnatural, “bad parent”
Anti-hero (rather than “villain”)
Frankensteins goal is to create life (thus eliminating death) yet most of the images are of death. The slaughter houses, the “revolution” of is “human nature.” The human contact brings him back from the brink of madness (his friend, spring, letter).
LIFE DEATH (Life in death)
Beauty- black hair, white teeth
Horrific-black lips, yellow papery skin, watery yellowed eyes
Health-wants to eliminate death
Illness–creator wastes away
“Alas! Victor, when falsehood can look so like truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?” (956)
Polarity (Polar Opposite)
Natural Philosophy (electricity, morality, religion)
The central motif of Frankenstein is a disjunctive appearances in reality.
Frankenstein is more than just a horror story or thriller, but also an intense look at the human psyche. Shelley in many ways examines the human tendency to think of pretty things as GOOD and ugly things as BAD.
Dont mess with the triad: Sacred (God) / Nature / Humanity
Major Poles: Life & Death; Good & Evil; Nature vs. Nurture; Morality vs. Anarchism; Naпve vs. Knowledge; Good Judgment & Bad Judgment;
Social Opposite
Good father vs. bad father
“Noble Savage” untainted by civilization vs. the ills of civilization. [Society tainted the creature]
Ignorance vs. knowledge; bliss vs. suffering
Male power vs. female disempowerment
Sense of responsibility vs. whim and folly
Rationality vs. irrationality
Global (creature) vs. Selfish (Frankenstein)
Emotional Opposites
Love vs. rage / revenge
Bliss vs. misery; acceptance vs. isolation; [lack of companion]
Sane vs. insane
Creator immature vs. creature mature
Religions Opposites
Physical creation vs. imaginative
Social religion vs. inner spirituality [Justine dies for a crime she did not commit; “forced” to confess to crime to be “redeemed.”
Christ vs. “Adam.”
Sacred vs. Profane
Creator vs. destroyer
Polarity comparison to Ode to the Nightingale
Frankenstein–Inversion of Romantic Themes
Romantic triad harmonic–dismantled
Marriage of heaven and earth–broken
Frankenstein and Elizabeth
Frankenstein and creature
Frankenstein and brother/friends/family
Poet-Prophet brings good inverted to evil–creating evil / brings evil
Romantic man of feeling–creature vs.