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Gothic fiction: setting, plot, characters and heroes

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Gothic fiction: setting, plot, characters and heroes

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Melissa, Lorenzo, Chiara S., Martina S., Filip, Jacopo

https://youtu.be/1wCmZoljqqU?si=VYqanrbGMlt0m3ep

Summary:

In the late 18th century, Gothic fiction became popular for its themes of mystery, terror, and the supernatural, set in dark castles and eerie landscapes. Starting with The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, the genre featured isolated heroes, supernatural beings, and complex plots. Key works include The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Monk, and Frankenstein. American Gothic later added elements from Puritan culture and wild landscapes, with writers like Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe. This Gothic tradition has influenced modern horror stories and films.

They featured supernatural creatures who were societal outcasts, noble, sensitive, heroes and persecuted heroines.

The hero is usually sensitive and honurable, the heroine is persecuted by a villan.

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Marta, Giulia, Gabriele, Chiara F., Peng, Sofia M.

PLOT

https://youtu.be/gW0aqDUmTQA?si=O0KIf0Xc4Ran6agM

An explorer, Robert Walton, encounters Victor Frankenstein on an Arctic expedition. Victor shares his story: he created a living creature from dead body parts in a quest for scientific knowledge but was horrified by his own creation. Abandoned and rejected, the creature becomes vengeful, causing the deaths of Victor's loved ones, including his wife. Consumed by guilt, Victor chases the creature across Europe and into the Arctic, where he dies on Walton’s ship. The creature, filled with regret, vows to end its life in the frozen wilderness, leaving a tragic tale of ambition, loneliness, and revenge.

LEVELS OF NARRATION

THEMES:

This video talks about the themes of Frankestein https://youtu.be/yVEhcRr27Xg?si=PiWEln_hd6IhLrmw

The themes of the novel are the boundary between life and death, the quest for forbidden knowledge, education and social prejudices as the monster is depicted as an outcast from society and the overreacher in characters like Walton and Frankenstein that want to achieve more than they can.

Another important theme is the usurpation of the female role, because the monster is made by a man, so the creation of human beings is possible without a woman.

THE ROLE OF SCIENCE

ary Shelley's Frankenstein was dedicated to her father, who believed in social responsibility and justice. The character of the creature is mistreated and rejected by society for being different, and Shelley shows sympathy toward him. However, she also fears the consequences of his actions, reflecting the tension between fear of revolution and interest in revolutionary ideas common among English intellectuals after the French Revolution. Both Mary and her husband Percy were intrigued by scientific experiments with electricity, particularly those by Luigi Galvani, who discovered that electricity could make dead frogs’ legs move. This knowledge influenced Shelley's views on science in Frankenstein, presenting the monster as the first symbol of science and its moral and dangerous consequences.

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Danilo, Carlo, Caterina, Elisa, Ali

https://youtu.be/KFTB8unXvd8?si=zgKs3d1ytYfWQPy2

https://images.app.goo.gl/cAoUyL3CHRA51Dn76

LIFE

Mary Shelley was born in 1797.

her parents were influenced by the French

revolution and were part of a radical group, so she grew up surrounded by intellectual stimulus.

In 1814 she eloped with percy shelley and they spend holiday at Villa Diodati

here she had the idea of Frankenstein that was published anonymously.

They had 4 children, only one survived.

After Percy died Mary returned to England, where she continued writing till' she died.

LITERARY INFLUENCES

We can say that she was inspired by Rousseau’s “natural man,” showing the struggle between nature and society. The ghost stories at Villa Diodati gave her all the creativity. She was also influenced by the myth of Prometheus, where a figure challenges the gods with some serious consequences, similar to the action of Dr. Frankenstein’s.

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(Group no. 2: Marta, Giulia, Gabriele, Chiara F., Peng, Sofia M.)

Read the passage from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (pp. 194/195) and do the following activities:

1) What does the creature look like?

2) What are the creature's first actions?

3) What word does Frankenstein use to describe the result of his experiment?

4) Many people think that artificial intelligence (AI) could turn into the 'Frankenstein's monster' of our century. What do you think about the creation of a bionic human or super inteligent robots?

Domanda 1) The creature hard a yellow skin, scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was was of a lustrous black; and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in wich they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

Domanda 2) The creature’s first action, it was to hold up the bed curtain,stare at the creator, opened his jaws and muttered some inarticulate sounds.

Domanda 3) The word that Frankenstein used for his creation is “beautiful” he loved his creation

Domanda 4) I think that although AI has developed a lot in the last years we're still relatively far from creating a bionic human so i don't really consider it an imminent threat.

If we ever got super intelligent robots I'd only trust them with basic tasks, for example I'd never let a robot drive my car or schedule a medical appointment because I wouldn't feel safe.

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(Group no. 3: Danilo, Carlo, Caterina, Elisa, Ali)

Read the passage from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (pp. 194/195) and do the following activities:

1) Identify the Gothic features of the text

The text contains gothic elements like:

dark atmosphere

setting: night

complex plot

supernatural beings (monster)

2) What feelings replace the 'beauty' of Frankenstein's dream?

replaced by horror and disgust

3) What nightmare disturbs Frankenstein? Who wakes him up?

The nightmare is about Elizabeth and when he tries to kiss her she transforms into her mother dead body covered by worms.

He wakes up by his monster that he created

4) Many people think that artificial intelligence (AI) could turn into the 'Frankenstein's monster' of our century. What do you think about the creation of a bionic human or super inteligent robots?

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(Group no. 1: Melissa, Lorenzo, Chiara S., Martina S., Filip, Jacopo)

Read the passage from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (pp. 194/195) and do the following activities:

1) Who is the narrator?

2) What is the setting in time?

3) Where does the action take place?

4) Many people think that artificial intelligence (AI) could turn into the 'Frankenstein's monster' of our century. What do you think about the creation of a bionic human or super intelligent robots?

1) The narrator is Victor Frankenstein.

2) The excerpt is set in “a dreary night in November”.

3) The excerpt takes places in Victor’s laboratory.

4) The idea that AI could become the Frankenstein’s monster of our time reflects fears about losing control over our creations. Bionic humans and super-intelligent robots offer amazing benefits, like curing diseases or solving global problems, but they also come with risks.

If not carefully designed, AI could act in ways we don’t expect, raising ethical issues and even creating existential dangers. Like in Frankenstein, the key lesson is to approach innovation responsibly, with strong safeguards like regulation, transparency, and alignment with human values.