AP Lit - Frankenstein

themes, The Modern Prometheus, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," God-Adam vs. Frankenstein-Creature relationship, frame story, strengths & weaknesses of the novel, tragedy

Myth of Prometheus: background

• war: Zeus & Olympians + Prometheus (“forethought”) + Epimetheus vs. other Titans

• reward = E & P get to populate earth

• E gave good qualities to animals, so P had to figure out how to make humans better - made men in gods’ likeness (stand upright, noble, conscious, hold head high) with clay and water, Athena breathed soul into them

Myth of Prometheus: Why did Zeus take away humans’ fire?

P was upset that men had to give best of meat to gods, so tricked Zeus into choosing a worse pile of meat - Z took away fire for revenge

Myth of Prometheus: How did P return the fire to the humans?

w/ Athena’s help, snuck into palace of gods and took fire from Helios, snuck it down Mt. Olympus in fennel-stalk

• took a great risk for love of his creation

Myth of Prometheus: What was P’s punishment?

chained to rock where giant eagle/vulture ate his liver every day, grew back at night

Myth of Prometheus: What is P’s offered way out, and does he take it?

can tell Zeus who would overthrow him - P refuses

Myth of Prometheus: How was P freed?

Zeus said would be freed if:

1. Immortal gives up life for P (Chiron does b/c in pain from poisoned arrow)

2. Mortal slays eagle (Hercules shoots with poisoned arrow)

Myth of Prometheus: Ending

Zeus forgives P b/c Z realizes his own fault, allows P to live on Mt. Olympus but must wear ring with stone from Mount. Caucasus - 1st ring with set stone

Myth of Prometheus: How are Victor and Prometheus similar?

• don’t stay in their lanes, play God, disobedient to God

• someone faces consequences b/c of the main character

Myth of Prometheus: How are Victor and Prometheus different?

• P already has knowledge/power, V must acquire it

• motives different - V = disordered, selfish, not altruistic; P = good of humans - altruistic

• V tries to pass on suffering to Walton, but P endures his

• P refuses his way out, but V accepts (and later goes back on it)

• P accepts responsibility, V runs from it & does nothing to fix it until end, when too late

• humans know creator (P) loves them, but the creature doesn’t

• P created the humans as best possible & together, V created only M & doesn’t care

common characteristics of a tragedy

• main character usually has recognition (epiphany - recognizes wrong) & reversal (attempts to rectify problem they caused - happens close to when main character dies)

• main character of noble stature (nobility or highly respected), but falls from great height

• hero has character flaw that prevents from dealing with problem or from dealing with it efficiently

• usually main problem brought about by character

• main character goes through series of struggles & usually emerges wiser but dies & causes others’ deaths

What aspects of Frankenstein make it a tragedy?

• reversal = tells magistrate, then goes to hunt down the creature (so recognition is just before that - probably when wakes up from fever illness after father’s death)

• V had nobility of character - perfect upbringing, respected family, high-minded, etc.; falls from it

• tragic flaw = hubris & curiositas

• pursues knowledge he shouldn’t, causing the problem

• struggles, V & his loved ones die

myth

fundamental truths that have become distinguished over time through their universality; typically show man’s relation to the divine & why things happen the way they do

• profound impact no matter how well it’s told

What two things aren’t essential for myth? How does this relate to Frankenstein?

form (author’s style) & historical fact

• Frankenstein myth “transcends its telling”

character foil for Victor in Greek mythology + story

Pygmalion - sculpts beautiful woman & falls in love with her so asks Venus to breathe soul into her, then marries her (creation done right because wonder for his creation takes him outside of himself)

hubris

blinding pride, man thinks himself higher than or equal to gods

curiositas

disordered intellectual greed, wanting knowledge for power without acknowledging that it comes from and goes to God; doesn’t allow one to open themselves outward

• opposite of wonder - seeing nature so you’re united to it & elevated to God

Victor’s curiositas

makes him not have proper wonder of mystery of life or of creature, perverting relationship with nature

What is the first horror of Frankenstein?

curiositas - Victor plunders nature’s secrets (mad scientist)

What is the 2nd horror of Frankenstein?

man creating without woman (no spiritual cooperation) - V creates in isolation w/o woman to balance his disordered desires with motherly love

What is the 3rd horror of Frankenstein?

techne - creation by scientific method instead of wisdom/love/artistry - distances himself from the creation - sees it as a subject, not a person with great potential (the greatest tragedy of the story)

• destroys life’s unrepeatability, beauty, sacrifice, etc.

What do the 3 horrors of Frankenstein combine to cause?

make V only consider what he can control, so fears M when realizes he can’t control it

What was Frankenstein inspired by?

Mary Shelley read ghost stories in Switzerland during a thunderstorm, then inspired by:

1. dream - creature terrifies creator

2. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

medieval “romance” genre

had hero, supernatural, woman needing rescue, battling enemy (good vs. evil), a quest

What did Romanticism value?

• feelings, imagination, passion, & impulse over reason

• being one with nature

• individual experience

• symbolism

• past/inner dream world to escape the industrial age

• no formal personal works

What was Romanticism a reaction to?

Enlightenment/Scientific Revolution

How is Frankenstein a book of its time period?

• critiques science/reason, applauds emotion/human connection

• Frankenstein’s pursuit of a scientific ideal vs. creature’s longing for friendship with humans

• appreciation of nature

What did Frankenstein give birth to?

sci-fi genre

gothic

sub-genre of romantic; focused on eerie/supernatural, reflecting on unpredictable nature & human aspirations/failures

• setting = deserted & haunted mansion/castle

• threatening landscape

• mystery/suspense

• supernatural events & omens/visions

• high emotion

• women in distress/threatened by tyrannical man

• metonymy

metonymy

subtype of metaphor where something closely related is used to stand for something, suggesting mystery/danger

• ex. howling wind, storms, crazed laughter, rusty hinges

frame story

story within story; starts and ends with Robert Walton’s letters to his sister; Frankenstein told in flashback

• allows 1st person POVs/perspectives of Walton, Frankenstein, & creature - makes readers conflicted b/c understand them well - sympathetic

  • adds Walton - he can comment on Victor, chooses what to share via letters, turns back at end and talks with the monster

• adds mystery & suspense

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” plot summary

• frame story = ancient mariner telling story to wedding guest

• all begins well on voyage, then storm pushes them to South Pole (land of “mist and snow”)

• Albatross brings good luck (ice splits to let them sail)

• Mariner kills albatross, ship becomes becalmed, no water

• crews hangs dead albatross around Mariner’s neck

• happy b/c see ship, but realize it’s skeleton ship with Death and Life-in-Death (Life-in-Death wins game)

• crew dies with curse in their eyes

• can’t look anywhere - dead crew on deck, slimy things in the sea

• finally prays/blesses slimy creatures - albatross falls off neck

• mariner can sleep, rain comes

• bodies of the crew are reanimated by angels

• South Pole spirit pushes ship to equator

• 2 spirits debate the mariner’s fate - more penance

• reaches homeland, angels leave the bodies, mariner overjoyed to see hermit for forgiveness

• ocean swallows mariner’s ship, mariner is saved on pilot’s boat but they’re terrified (think he’s the devil)

• penance = wander and tell tale

• epiphany = loves the idea of lots of people praying together (“sweeter than the marriage-feast”)

• story is ended; wedding guest is sort of in shock, sadder, wiser

Romantic influence on the ancient mariner

• eerie atmosphere

• valuing nature & the albatross

• symbolism

• metonymy

complexity of ancient mariner

mariner’s case seems hopeless after he sins, but repents & has spiritual awakening/rebirth

What can shifts be in?

in tone, focus, setting, structure, mood

tone

speaker’s (not author’s) attitude towards subject

Connection between mariner’s epiphany and Victor’s

makes wiser; epiphanies change them and both want to pass wisdom on to others

• but while mariner learns to appreciate God’s creation, Victor really doesn’t ever get wonder of his own creation

gothic/romantic influence in Walton’s letters

• isolation

• Walton is driven by emotion (even though quest is for knowledge)

• mystery & suspense - the figure, Victor waits for one event

• surrounded by nature (ice, water) - to learn from it, sparse/deserted setting

How does Walton think of Victor?

a friend/brother - b/c intelligent, ambitious/driven (although Walton’s ambition is more noble - betterment of man), noble/high-minded, mysterious, a man of character

themes

• Human prejudice often does not reflect the true character of a person.

• Abandonment and isolation can distort a being’s innate goodness.

  • both creature and Victor (isolation in lab)

• danger of playing God

• danger of discovery - having knowledge not meant for man, using it for self-serving purpose; consequences of hubris/curiositas

• role/responsibility of creator to creature

• loss of innocence (monster, Victor - nurtured in perfect environment, Elizabeth, Justine)

• taking responsibility for actions to reset wrongs

complexity in Frankenstein + how it’s developed

Who is the real monster? - sympathy & repulsion for creature, sympathy for Victor but sometimes think he’s irredeemable

• frame device, dialogue, characterization (they’re dynamic & round)

allusion in Frankenstein

to Bible, Paradise Lost, Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• creature compares himself to Adam & Satan (but still different than both)

strengths and weaknesses of the novel

strengths:

• Shelley makes Victor & creature foil characters, especially with their beginnings

• underlying MOTWAAWs of the consequences of not taking responsibility, wanting knowledge for power, not considering consequences, etc. are developed very well

• frame story!!

weaknesses:

• way too much coincidence (randomly meeting the creature places, especially on the boat at the end; slipping miniature into Justine’s pocket; finding papers) - created some disunity because things didn’t always seem like they were bound to happen that way, as a good novel should make it seem like

• inconclusive ending - don’t know if the monster was really repenting and will commit suicide or if he is just having his way with words

• way too much “waffling” on the part of Victor (and the monster too) - some of it is important to the story (like making the female but then tearing it up), but at the end it was just confusing b/c didn’t know if Victor wanted Walton to continue & hunt down the creature or not

• Victor isn’t too smart - couldn’t figure out that the creature would come for Elizabeth

God-Adam vs. Frankenstein-Creature relationship

• creature applies Paradise lost to his own life - like Adam b/c created without relations to others; unlike b/c wasn’t cared for, loved, or made perfect after creator’s image

• more like Satan, although even Satan had companions

• duty of creator = provide for goodness of creature to best of their ability - should take care of them, never forget about them (God is always thinking about us, but Victor forgot about the monster for a couple of years), create companions for them (God noticed that it wasn’t right for Adam to not have a companion, worked patiently to give him one)