Name : Sejal N. Solanki
Roll No. : 27
Semester : 2.
Batch : 2019 - 2021
Enrollment No. : 2069108420200037
Email : sejal.solanki3107@gmail.com
Class : M.A. Sem : 2.
Paper : 5. ( The Romantic Literature)
Topic : The Frankenstein
( Summary , Themes )
Submitted by Dr. Dilip Barad
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumar singhji Bhavnagar University.
The Frankenstein
About the Writer
Mary Shelley (London, 30 August 1797 - February 1, 1851) was an English novelist, essayist and biographer. She is the author of the gothic novel Frankenstein, published in 1818. Edited editions of the poems of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, the romantic poet and philosopher. She was the daughter of the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the forerunner of political philosopher William Godwin. Mary Wollstonecraft died ten days after the birth of Mary who grew up with her father. When Mary was three years her father was married to Mary Jane Clairmont. She provides rich and informal education, encouraging them to adhere to her politics. In 1814, Mary fell in love with Percy. They were married in 1816. In 1822 her husband was drowned while crossing the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary returned to England where she devoted herself to her writing career. He spent the last decade of his life in the disease, probably due to a brain tumor, which killed the age of 53 in 1851.
Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.
Summary:
Frankenstein is a great scientist who decided to attend Ingostad, a university in Germany. Here he shows his qualities and decides to combine animation with life. He succeeded in his plan. He leaves the creature because he is disgusted. Stolen his personal diary, the monster found the doctor in France. The monster killed William, Victor's brother. When they meet the monster confesses his mistake and supplies the doctor to create another being like him, a "woman."
The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823. In the novel, the monster is identified via words such as "creature", "monster", "fiend", " wretch "," vile insect'', `` daemon'', `` being'', and" it ". Speaking to Victor Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as" the Adam of your labors ", and elsewhere as" who has been ". "your Adam", but is instead "your fallen angel."
The doctor promises he would be able , but in the end he renounces. Frankenstein accepted to marry Elizabeth. The doctor wants to take revenge of his wife and follow the Monster. He even arrives at the North Pole. Here he is saved by his friend Walton. He manages to narrate his story but he dies because of temperature and fatigue.
Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic Movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. It should be considered the first true science fiction story, because unlike in previous stories with resembling fantasy elements, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic results. It has had a great influence throughout literature and popular culture and has spawned a whole genre of horror stories, films, and plays.
The novel has many characters. All of the character creation of Victor Frankenstein is an antagonist of the novel. The antagonist is Frankenstein - Monster. Victor created the Frankenstein and after watching, Victor frightened and did not accept. So hatred of the master and society made Frankenstein as a Monster.
THEMES
Dangerous Knowledge
Both Frankenstein and victor attempt to surge beyond human limits. But this knowledge is really dangerous. In Fact the doctor is driven to death by his creature. And walton too is trapped between sheets of ice. So he gave up his mission because he saw the unhappy end of his friend.
Sublime Natural
Sublime natural world, embraced by Romanticism, initially offers characters the possibility of spiritual renewal. Victor heads the mountains to lift his spirit. The influence of nature on mood is evident, except for victor who realizes that the monster will hunt him forever, infact even the monster feels spring.in the end arctic desert acts as the symbolic backdrop for his primal struggle against the monster.
Monstrosity
This theme pervades the entire novel. Monstrosity of the monster results from his grotesque appearance and from the unnatural manner of his creation(amics og stolen body parts). His is a product of a dark and supernatural working. It is only the most literal of the monstrous entities in the novel. For example the knowledge that Victor used to create the monster. Victor himself is a kind of monster because his ambition and selfishness alienated him from society. (ordinary outside while monster inside). The novel is a monstrous combination of different voices, texts and tenses.
Texts
Frankenstein is an overflow of texts: letters, notes, books, nestled inside each other or simply quoted. Paradise lost fits inside the monster’s story. The profusion of texts serves as concrete manifestations of characters attitudes and emotions. Language plays an enormous role in monster’s development. By hearing he learns to speak and read which enables him to understand the manner of his creation(as described in Victor’s journal).
Secrecy
It is secrecy who combines Victor and the monster. The doctor conceives of science as a mystery to be probed and its secrets once discovered must be jealously guarded. Victor's obsession is shrouded in secrecy until he talks to walton. The monster is forced to exclusion. Walton serves as the final confessor for both and the tragic relationship becomes immortalized in Walton’s letters.
Birth and Creation
Mary Shelley does this through the main character, Victor (Frankenstein), who succeeds in creating a “human” life form. In doing this, Frankenstein has taken over the role of women and God. Shelly discusses how Frankenstein has used his laboratory as a kind of ‘womb’ as he has worked on his creation. He also refers to his task as his labour, suggesting that he has literally given birth to his creation.
Alienation
Victor is one character who is alienated from others. This is due to his desire for knowledge, and the vast amount of time in which he spends in completing his scientific experiment. Victor choses to be alienated, despite the fact that he insists many times that the only reason he is isolated from others is because of the Monster. Alienation is also shown through the creature which Victor creates. The suffering of the creature in the novel is also the result of being alienated, but unlike Victor, he does not bring this upon himself. Instead, others isolated the Monster.
The Family and Domestic Affection
The Family and Domestic Affections is also demonstrated in the novel Frankenstein. In the novel, the family unit is something which is frequently idealized. The home seems to be a paradise where the woman is the presiding angel. In the case of the Frankenstein home, Elizabeth is first adopted, as she is described as being somewhat angelic .
Frankenstein as a Gothic Fiction.
The word "Gothic" originally referred to the Goths, Gothic novel carries a typical story focused on the sufferings imposed on an innocent heroine by a cruel and lustful villain made large quantities use of Ghosts, mysterious disappearances and other sensational and supernatural occurrences. The principal aim of any Gothic novel is to evoke terror by exploring mystery and variety of horror.
All element of the Gothic novel in Frankenstein. Monster has been presented as the villain of the protagonist's happiness. It is the most striking elements of any Gothic novel which is completely applied in this novel. By the use of little-known technology with together the body parts of his experiments he creates Monster. The entire plot structure is dominated by the activities of the monster together with unbelievable supernatural real miracles. description about how the monster travelled in different places together with its destructive qualities in automatically created a horrific situation together with terror.
Scientific fiction in Frankenstein
" Frankenstein's chemistry is to quote James Rieger, switched –on magic, souped up Alchemy the electrification of Agrippa and Paravelcus …. He wants the forbidden… he is a criminal magician who employs up to date tools."
Some claims the novel to be the first legitimate example of the genre we now call science fiction , a genre that :
- Is grounded in valid scientific research.
- Predict what might be possible in the future given new scientific discoveries.
- Offers a humanistic critique of either specific technological invention or the very mature of scientific thinking.
Jane Donawerth contends that Frankenstein is feminist science fiction because it introduced 3 themes that can be repeatedly observed in science fiction. As written by woman:
- Locating a female voice in a male world.
- Creating an identity for women as alien.
- The exclusion of women from science.
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