Frankenstein

1
Frankenstein

• A Primer

2
Mary Shelley

• Daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, William Goodwin
  
• Intellectual household
• Poetry was valued
• Nineteen at time of writing
• Scandalous affair with Percy Byshe Shelley
  eloped to France.
• Lost three of her four children in five years.

3
The Creation of the Book

• Lived in Geneva, near Lord Byron
• Trapped inside
• Challenge of a scary story
• Influenced by movements
• Social
• Political
• Educational/Philosophical

4
Gothic/Romantic Novel

• Connotations of Gothic
• Old Cruel, harsh, medieval
• Modern emo, black, sad
• Gothic literature
• Brooding atmosphere
• Emphasis on the unknown
• Inspire fear
• Wild and remote settings, (e.g., haunted castles
  or wind-blasted moors
• Plots involve violent or mysterious events.

5
Influences

• Science and philosophy
• Advances good or bad for humanity?
• Enlightenment (rational movement)
• Romantic (emotional movement)
• Myth of Prometheus
• Romantic Hero (Byronic Hero)
• Moody, rebellious, passionate, imaginative,
  unconventional and uninhibited

6
Narrative Structure

• Semi-epistolary
• Story within a story within a story.

Doctor Victor Frankensteins Narrative Ch. 1-10
Monsters Narrative Ch. 11-16
AND 17-
Captain Waltons Letters to Sister
7
WHY?

• How does the narrative structure change how we
  read?
• Why did she use this?
• How does it function?
• How do Frankenstein's and the monsters moral
  ambiguity affect our reading of the story?

8
Reading Schedule

• Read the book by Tuesday, March 8th
• General Schedule
• 3.1 Letters
• 3.2 Ch. 1-10
• 3.3 Ch. 11-16
• 3.7 Ch. 17-21
• 3.8 Ch. 22-24