Prose - Contexts and Settings

Scientific Context

Frankie

• Shelly inspired by galvanism

• Industrial Revolution

• Arctic and general exploration

Scientific Context

NLMG

• Dolly the sheep

• Stem cell research

Political Context

Frankie

• French Revolution - hopes of equality

• After Napoleonic wars, period of radical uprising

• Philosopher Rousseau - individuals are born as good and made evil

Political Context

NLMG

• Orientalism - mirroring ‘othering’ depending on race, ethnicity etc

• British boarding - those born and given a sense of innate superiority

Literary Context

Frankie

• Myth of Prometheus - alternate title

• Creatures pursuit of literary knowledge

Literary Context

NLMG

• Similar to 1984

• Postmodern concern of memory and identity

• Metaphor for universal morality

Personal Context

Frankie

• Parental abandonment

• Her own parents, particularly her mothers, ‘radical’ ideas

Personal Context

NLMG

• Admits raising his own daughter provided insight into how parents deceive children to preserve their innocence

• Own parents shielded the true extent of the horrors of the bombing of Nagasaki, reflective of the sheltered Hailsham

• Duel cultural insight - Japanese and British

Comparisons

Trauma of Creation

• Victor immediately flees in horror from the Creature due to “shriveled complexion” and “yellow skin”

• Mirrors “shuddering” revulsion Madame feels towards the clones

• Both depict a parental figures visceral rejection of their creation

Comparisons

Education and the Soul

• Creature watches DeLacey family to learn language and culture, hoping “eloquence” will win them over

• Mirrors focused education at Hailsham, and art gallery as proof of soul

• Both believe that demonstrating internal humanity will grant them social acceptance, yet this ultimately is not the case

Comparisons

The Failed Petition

• Creature confronts Victor on a glacier, pleading for a companion to end his “miserable” isolation

• Mirrors Kathy and Tommy’s visit to Madame and Miss Emily to request “deferral”

• Both feature a desperate appeal to the ‘creator’ / ‘parental figures’ for basic human rights which are denied by colder institutionalized logic

Comparisons

Destruction of the ‘Sanctuary’

• Creature burns DeLacey cottage, reflecting a loss of hope in humanity

• Mirrors closing of Hailsham, childhood lost, loss of only physical evidence of their unique education and protected status, leaving them alone in a world that views them simply as medical supplies

Comparisons

Final Isolation

• Victor and Creature in frozen wasteland bound together by mutual destruction

• Kathy’s visit to a bleak Norfolk field at the end

• While Kathy’s end is quieter, both protagonists inevitably complete their predetermined roles, ending their journeys in literal and metaphorical wastelands

Comparisons

The removal of the Mother

• Victor as sole creator of the creature, diminishing of the mother in the creation process

Settings - Frankie

Isolation

Shelley uses vast, hostile landscapes like the swiss alps and the arctic, creating the sublime and mirroring the internal desolation of Victor and the creature, the creature is only at home in places where humans cannot survive, emphasising his enforced isolation by society

Settings - NLMG

Isolation

Ishiguro uses peripheral locations like Hailsham, the cottages, and recovery centres. The clones suffer from group isolation, confined in institution that provide a controlled illusion of normalcy while keeping them hidden from the real world

Settings - Frankie

‘Sanctuary’

DeLacey Cottage: creature's only window into human domestication and love, he is then rejected from this space and turns to destruction and cannot belong in any human setting

Settings - NLMG

‘Sanctuary’

Hailsham: serves as a 'privileged' sanctuary that protects students innocence but serves as a holding cell, it's closure symbolises the loss of the students humanity in society's eyes, they are no longer special, just medical supplies

Settings - Frankie

Metaphor for Loss

Frozen wastes at the end of the novel represent the complete emptiness and finality of Victor's and the creatures lives. It is a place 'beyond human knowledge' where creator and creation are finally equals in desolation

Settings - NLMG

Metaphor for Loss

Norfolk/Lost Corner: represents the clones lost childhood belief that everything they lose will eventually resurface there. The landscape becomes a symbol of the futility of life and hope, Kathy stands reflecting an internal wasteland thinking about her lost friends