Week 7-9

1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples from Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

2. How do Blake and Rousseau's ideas align and differ (themes to consider are slavery, religion and education)?

3. See what you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816...

4. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube).

5. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g. The Vampire >> Dracula, etc).

7. How does Frankenstein a) reference the Bible, b) foreshadow the Death of God and c) juggle genres as well as narrative points of view in its storytelling? 

Comments

  1. Sarah TribbleMay 9, 2019 at 12:17 AM

    7. How does Frankenstein a) reference the Bible, b) foreshadow the Death of God and c) juggle genres as well as narrative points of view in its storytelling?

    a) Reference the Bible

    The Biblical referencing in Frankenstein is complex and multi-layered, much like the book itself. The main character, Victor Frankenstein, is positioned as being not just a god, but God himself, the creator of a whole new race. It is often misconstrued that Victor’s ambition was to learn how to reanimate the dead, but I don’t believe this was the case; rather, he wanted to learn how to create life: “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelley, 1818, p.55). Notably, the tango between Victor and his monster is modelled not on the relationship between God and Jesus -- that of father and child -- but rather on the relationship between God and Adam, that of a creator and his creation. His monster, then, is his First Man, his Adam, a moniker with which the monster often refers to himself: “Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed” (ibid, p.118).

    The other kind of Biblical reference that can be observed in Frankenstein is more subtle, but no less relevant. The book is a medley of Biblical reverence and scientific revelry, and its author, Mary Shelley, equates scientific discovery to the water-to-wine performance of miracles: “But these philosophers [...] have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show how she works in her hiding places [...] They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows” (ibid, p.46-7). Victor devotes himself to these scientists and their discoveries/beliefs, referring to himself as their “disciple”, a word choice that is hardly coincidental (ibid, p.37). Frankenstein is bursting with Biblical references, from the symbolic to the semantic, and Shelley’s coy interpolation of religious terminology is another aspect to the Biblical referencing that is so rife in her novel.

    b) Foreshadow the Death of God

    The ‘Death of God’ concept originated with Friedrich Nietzsche. It sounds, on its surface, paradoxical -- if God is eternal, he surely cannot die -- but Nietzsche claimed that ‘God’ is a fictional creation of humanity, invented to help people deal with hardship and suffering. He posited that the early Israelites invented the fiction of ‘God’ -- thus founding Christianity -- to help them deal with their daily trials; they wanted there to be a reason for their suffering, so they created one, and “thus, God ‘dies’ when there is no good reason to believe that God exists” (Remhof, 2018).

    In this vein, we can consider Mary Shelley’s views on religion. Shelley was concerned with the dark possibilities of the technology that was steadily advancing during her lifetime. In particular, she was fascinated by galvanism, a concept established in Luigi Galvani’s Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion, which introduced the fact that the contraction of muscle can be stimulated by an electric current (“Galvanism”, 2019). This report by Galvani is provides much of the source material for Frankenstein, not just in its content but also in the possibilities it invokes. Shelley worried about the possibility of man displacing god -- not capital-G God, but the idea of God, in the vein of Nietzsche’s ‘Death of God’ concept. Shelley posited that through technology, humans would become a kind of god, able to create/synthesise life. She was thinking of the consequences of technological advances, particularly galvanism. What if, she wondered, one were to stitch together a corpse and use galvanism to bring it back to life? Then humans would become gods, capable of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley, 1818, p.53).

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    1. kmscottJune 1, 2019 at 6:35 PM

      Hi Sarah,
      I found your comment on Shelley's interest in galvanization very interesting and your thoughts on her foreshadowing of the death of god as seen in her works - i think you raise extremely interesting points about her concerns of displacing god.

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  2. Sarah TribbleMay 9, 2019 at 12:19 AM

    c) Juggle genres...

    Frankenstein is a gothic horror. Gothic horror is characterised by a fascination with the gloomy, supernatural, and mysterious. Some of the key elements of gothic horror include dark settings like a dungeon or a crypt or a mad scientist’s laboratory; low lighting like rooms lit by a single candle or landscapes lit only by the light of the moon (“Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens, and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees” [ibid, p.122]); rugged landscapes like mountain ranges or polar deserts (“The immense mountains and precipices that overhung me on every side -- the sound of the river raging among the rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around, spoke of a power mighty as Omnipotence” [ibid, p.111]); and choices that lead to the main character’s downfall-- in Frankenstein, the main choices are Victor’s decision to reanimate a dead body, and his decision to destroy the female companion he has constructed for his daemon.

    Frankenstein is also regarded as the first ever science fiction novel, and Mary Shelley the progenitor of the genre itself. Although lacking spaceships or extraterrestrial settings, Frankenstein can still be recognised via this definition: “science fiction is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals” (“Science fiction”, 2019). The novel is all about the impact of science upon an individual. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist, fascinated by types such as Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus, and he uses the research of Luigi Galvani to advance into a realm of science into which none have yet ventured. The consequences of this venture upon his life are catastrophic, and so in this preliminary sense, Frankenstein is a science fiction novel, spawning a genre that has since sprawled far beyond its humble beginnings.

    d) .... as well as narrative points of view in its storytelling

    Frankenstein incorporates three points of view within its pages, and is famous for having a story within a story within a story. The outermost story is Captain Walton’s, an explorer who encounters Victor Frankenstein while journeying to the North Pole; the second outermost story is Victor Frankenstein’s; and the innermost story is the monster’s. In the middle of the book, the monster takes control of the narrative and the prose is written in his POV. Bracketing this on either side is the main story, told from Frankenstein’s POV, and bracketing this on either side are Walton’s letters to his sister, which successfully incorporates Walton’s POV into the story.

    The most distinctive characteristic of these narrative POVs is that they all imitate each other in some way, particularly Walton and Frankenstein’s perspectives. Frankenstein is “smitten with the thirst for knowledge” (Shelley, 1818, p.32). He wants nothing more than to make a groundbreaking scientific discovery, and his insatiable thirst for knowledge drives him to commit the deed that he comes to rue for the rest of his days: the reanimation of a dead corpse. Likewise, naive and optimistic Walton thirsts for knowledge. He desires to travel to the North Pole so that he can become one of the first men to complete this venture; he would gladly “sacrifice [his] fortune, [his] existence, [his] every hope, to the furtherance of [his] my enterprise. One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which [he] sought” (ibid, p.20). The monster also has a great desire to learn, but the place where his narrative aligns with Victor’s is bleak: just as Victor’s increased knowledge of science leads to his eventual downfall, so for the monster does the “increase of knowledge only discovered to me what a wretched outcast I was” (ibid, p.159). Not only does the story juggle multiple POVs, it also weaves them together by interpolating similar themes into each story, connecting them not just by their positioning within one another, but through their thematic similarities.

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  3. Sarah TribbleMay 9, 2019 at 12:19 AM

    WORKS CITED
    - Galvanism. (2019, March 25). Retrieved May 7, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanism.
    - Green, W. (2017, July 28). Key Gothic Themes & Elements From Frankenstein, Dr Faustus and The Bloody Chamber. Retrieved from https://www.askwillonline.com/2013/04/key-gothic-themes-elements-from.html.
    - Keats-Shelley Association of America. (2018). Sources for Frankenstein. Retrieved from https://frankenreads.org/resources/sources-for-frankenstein/.
    - Remhof, J. (2018, December 17). Nietzsche and the Death of God. Retrieved from https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2018/02/13/nietzsche-and-the-death-of-god/.
    - Science fiction - The 19th and early 20th centuries. (2019). Retrieved May 9, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction/The-19th-and-early-20th-centuries.
    - Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein. London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones.

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  4. kmscottJune 1, 2019 at 5:59 PM

    7. How does Frankenstein a) reference the Bible, b) foreshadow the Death of God and c) juggle genres as well as narrative points of view in its storytelling?
    ‘Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus’ by Mary Shelley, is an incredibly important piece of literature that has been a fascinating read and an interesting topic to discuss. To begin, this text is especially noteworthy as it is commonly thought that the birth of genres such as science fiction, gothic horror and gothic romance can be linked directly to this text. One of the ways that this text can be understood is by looking at the historical context from which it is arose. This classic was written in the early 18th century during a time known as ‘The Enlightenment’, where the longstanding political and intellectual grip of Christianity had been crumbling and was slowly being replaced by ideas of rationality and natural law as ways to explain the world. The connection between the death of God and the rise of scientific thought was originally put forward by many philosophers, with one example being Fredrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche considered that God was no longer guiding humanity due to his ‘death’ through the rise of scientific thought. While I do not believe Shelley was purposefully providing literary foreshadowing for this school of thought in Frankenstein, it could be argued that the creature murdering his creator was a metaphor for the new scientific methods and thoughts of the time aiding in the reduction of the power of religion. ‘Frankenstein’ appears to be heavily influenced by religion and it could be argued that one of the main themes throughout Shelley’s book is the examination of the relationship between Victor and his creature, or the examination between Man and his creator, God. The book offers two perspectives from both the creature and Victor as a way to examine this complicated relationship between a creation and his creator. There are several intext quotes and references that clearly show direct examples of this theme throughout the text. It could be argued that one example is from chapter four, where Victor states “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.” This quote seems to directly reference the idea that Victor was considering himself a creator of life. Another obvious religious connection is that of the creature asking Victor to make him a partner because he no longer wants to walk alone in the world. This can be directly compared to God building a mate for Adam from his rib. One could look at Victor’s destruction of the half-finished female creature as a response to the idea of a woman bringing about further destruction e.g Eve convincing Adam to eat the apple. Frankenstein is a key text as it is an example of when it was written, with many of the themes found in the book directly relating to life in 18th century Europe.
    Word Count: 447

    References:
    Shelley, M. (1985; 1818). Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, London: Penguin

    Pierpoint, C. (2002). After God. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/04/08/after-god

    Peters, T. (2017). Playing God with Frankenstein. Theology and Science, 16(2), 145-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2018.1455264

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  5. Susanna VaileaJune 2, 2019 at 3:43 AM

    7. How does Frankenstein a) reference the Bible, b) foreshadow the Death of God and c) juggle genres as well as narrative points of view in its storytelling?


    Mary Shelley and her works possess a critical spot in various literary conventions: Frankenstein (which became out of the acclaimed phantom story sessions with Byron and Percy Bysshe) is generally viewed as the principal current work of science fiction just as one of the all the more convincing Romantic books and obviously its significance in the custom of the Gothic is still noteworthy (Shelley, 2009). The enthralling novel written by Mary Shelley; Frankenstein, has referenced the Bible in various ways. An example of the novel referencing the Bible is when Victor Frankenstein; the creator of the monster, proclaims, “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.” (Shelley, 1818). This example of Victor Frankenstein makes him appear as a ‘God’ or ‘Creator’ within the novel and that he is thinking highly of himself especially since he had just scientifically created a monster. Another example is of Old Testament, Adam and Eve: the first humans in which God created. Also, as the monster learns of his creation and creator, he betrays his creator, Victor Frankenstein, by murdering his best friend and wife. Similar to Adam and Eve’s story in the Book of Genesis where Eve is told by God to not eat a fruit from the ‘Tree of the Knowledge’. Both however, disobey their creator like how the monster defies Frankenstein; “Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect.” (Shelley, 1818). It is interesting how Shelley as the writer, wants us as readers to think deeply about God and the creation of life itself. Frankenstein foreshadows German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideology of ‘God is dead’ or ‘the Death of God’ through Shelley’s idea of creating Godlike characters (Victor Frankenstein). Also, with the creation of the monster, Shelley depicts the idea that with technology it would possibly create what God’s creation (humankind). The genres that can be identified within Frankenstein are: Gothic, horror and science fiction. Throughout Frankenstein, the setting/location of the story gives off the genre of both Gothic and horror, not only that but also the character of the monster. The “hideous ugly but sensitive and emotional” monster obtains the genres due to his actions. All these Gothic-horror like elements contribute to the genres that Shelley has used in Frankenstein. Science fiction can be identified within Frankenstein as Shelley’s illustration of the monster as a ‘scientific/artificial creation’ by Victor Frankenstein. This depicts the idea of Shelley bringing the concept of science into her novel as a way of establishing and advancing science/technology in her era . Frankenstein appears to have three narrative points of view in its storytelling. Shelley uses the framing structure of a story within a story within Frankenstein and it is depicted throughout the different perspectives within the story. First of all, Captain Walton’s point of view is depicted in the story. Subsequent to this is Victor Frankenstein and then the monster. Moreover, with this strategy Shelley has allowed the reader to perceive and understand all three point of views within the story. Frankenstein is still renowned as one of the most compelling Gothic-science fictions from the nineteenth century until now.


    References:

    Shelley, M. W. (2009). Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, 1818. Engage Books, AD Classic. Retrieved from https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:2ysOqT_60XEJ:scholar.google.com/+frankenstein+mary+shelley&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

    Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein. Retrieved from https://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/frankenstein.pdf

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