Class analysis of 'Frankenstein' by Rebecca Price https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a Victor's childhood and family life; the monster comes to life en-us 2018-06-15 10:47:52 UTC 2019-06-28 11:41:20 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/268439280 2018-06-25 09:38:38 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/268439280 https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/268570179 2018-06-26 08:18:40 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/268570179 Chapter 1 (pp 33 – 38) tells of Victor Frankenstein’s childhood and family life and emphasises the importance of the home, family and the need for sympathy and affection. His father, Alphonse Frankenstein, a respected public figure, marries late in life – to Caroline Beaufort, the daughter of a friend who has fallen into debt and despair. Victor, for some years an only child, is the apple of his adoring parents’ eye. When he is about five, his parents adopt a ‘sister’ for him: Elizabeth Lavenza, the daughter of a noble family, who has so far been brought up by peasants. Victor and Elizabeth develop a close and loving relationship. For analysis and comment :in groups, look closely at how the following are presented:• Victor’s father and mother (pp 33- 35)• Victor as a child (p 35)• Elizabeth Lavenza (pp 36 – 38) https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367789199 2019-06-16 18:07:52 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367789199 Rebecca and Polly https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367889955 Victor's father and mother:
Victor's father and mother, Alphonse and Caroline, are presented as deeply in love.  Victor recalls that the two fell in love when Alphonse Frankenstein's good friend, Caroline's father, passed away, and Alphonse felt responsible for ensuring Caroline's happiness and safety. Victor comments that their age difference only 'united them closer in bonds of devoted affection'. He says that his father loved his mother through 'reverence for her virtues, and a desire to be the means of...recompensing her for the sorrows she had endured.'

Victor presents Alphonse as being almost fatherly towards Caroline; 'he strove to shelter her', and 'surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind'. This highlights how the age difference affects the relationship and Alphonse's attitude towards his wife. Victor presents his parents as in love, but not as having an entirely equal relationship- Alphonse enjoys looking after Caroline and having her be dependent on him.

Victor as a child
As a child Victor was doted upon by his benevolent-presented parents, this is a reflection of not only their attitudes towards one another but also their adoration for their son. Victor presents his childhood is pleasant and almost perfect, reminiscing on his earliest memories of his 'mother's tender caresses' and his 'father's smile of benevolent pleasure'. This is unconventional for the gothic genre, as horror and despair is typical- the idyllic childhood Victor describes contrasts with the later misery of his adult life and serves to lull readers into a false sense of security. This juxtaposition between the blissful childhood described in the first few chapters and the miserable, dark later years in Victor's life emphasizes the enormity of his downfall.]]> 2019-06-17 10:25:39 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367889955 Meaghan, Annabel, Estrella https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890286 Victor is presented as happy and loving with two caring parents who have greatly influenced his attitude in later life. Victor goes into detail about his parent's lives, showing the deeply affectionate relationship that they shared and Victor's loyalty to them.

Victor is both fiercely protective and deeply loving towards Elizabeth. Victor describes his initial reaction to Elizabeth with angelic adjectives- conveying how she appeared distinguished to him from the beginning; describing how "her brow was ample and clear, her blue eyes cloudless. For Victor Elizabeth was "a being heaven sent."

Elizabeth is presented as beautiful, 'a child fairer than a pictured cherub' and loved by everyone, 'the passionate and almost reverential attachment with which all regarded her' She is viewed as a gift which is passed along from family to family and want Victor to look after her, treating her as is she was an heirloom.

]]> 2019-06-17 10:28:09 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890286 Milla and Libby https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890430 Victor's mother and father are distinguished "in that republic", which provides Victor with a respectable family name and a privileged upbringing. This is reflected throughout the novel in his clear intellect (due to a proper education) and his wealth and social standing.
Victor's mother is seen as 'rescued' from a life of poverty, by Victor's father, which influences Victor in his views on love and personal relationships as he questions the human condition. 
Victor's parents fell in love with each others presence and despite the love they feel for each other out of gratitude and justice. Their love is unconventionally genuine, conveyed through a sense of doting and affection for one another, which we see when Victor's father "Relinquished all his public functions" in order to take care of Caroline. 

Victor had a loving childhood, but suffered socially from a lack of permanence in anything but his parents love due to their constant travelling and his isolation from other children as he didn't attend a school. His sheltered life allowed his mind to grow and fascinate with fantasies, which lead him to extremes of language and desire for knowledge. Victor only experiences the deep love from his parent's growing up, and so cannot separate friendship and love as singular states, and so claims his sister as his own with a deep passion which ultimately leads to his desire to create and control life as he struggles to balance emotion and intellect. ]]> 2019-06-17 10:29:13 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890430 Summer and Jess https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890465  Victor's narrative paints a picture of idyllic family life, and his close relationship with his parents from a young age indicates a sense of dependency on his behalf - 'while every hour of my infant life, I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-control, I was so guided by a silken cord'. Shelley's use of the verb 'guided' indicates his absolute dependence on his mother, foreshadowing the mental unrest after this guidance is lost due to his mother's passing. 

Victor's literal interpretation of his mother's words meant that he looked 'upon Elizabeth as mine - mine to protect, love, and cherish'. Shelley eludes to excessive love and dedication to Elizabeth, and in turn, this patriarchal obsession portrays Elizabeth as a belonging of Victor. Through this, Shelley foreshadows Elizabeth's death, due to the work of Victor through his monster, and shows the extent of destruction that the monster brings to Victor's previously idyllic, loving domestic life. This is further reiterated through his line ' since till death she was to be mine only' - Shelley criticises the patriarchal society and shows the devastation that follows such obsessive nature from such a young age.]]> 2019-06-17 10:29:25 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890465 Megan and Nicole https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890608 Chapter 1
Elizabeth Lavenza
  • Elizabeth's appearance - use of celestial nature and beings (e.g. her features were said to be 'bearing a celestial stamp'. She has been described as a 'child fairer than a pictured cherub') 
  • Shelley uses natural imagery to emphasise to show how highly Victor thinks of her (e.g. she 'bloomed in their rude abode fairer than a garden rose among dark leaved brambles') Shows that she is the fairest of them all
  • Victor's mother said that she was 'a pretty present' for Victor which makes him call her 'a possession of [his] own'. - shows attitudes towards gender at the time
  • Victor cannot explain the intensity of his love for Elizabeth - 'No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me - my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only'
Victor as a child
  • He was much loved and doted upon by his parents - 'they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from the very mine of love to bestow them upon me.'
  • Victor was his parent's 'plaything and their idol, and something better - their child'
  • He describes his future 'in their hands' . His parents job was to 'direct happiness or misery'
  • He describes lessons 'of patience, of charity and of self-control' that guided him and he had 'but one train of enjoyment'
 Victor's mother and father
  • Victor describes his parents as very loving towards each other and himself -  'they seemed to draw inexhaustible stores of affection from the very mine of love to bestow them upon me.'
  • Victor's father showed 'gratitude and worship in his attachment to [Victor's] mother'
]]> 2019-06-17 10:30:23 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367890608 Ami and Erin https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367892764 Chapter 1 (page 36-38)
Elizabeth Lavenza
 
Elizabeth is presented in an angelic light, with a metaphorical “crown of distinction” on her head, dividing her from the “dark- eyed, hardy little vagrants” that are her siblings. 

She is singled out as being “heaven-sent” further emphasising her angelic nature. 
"Mine to protect, love and cherish", are the words Victor uses to express his protective and almost possessive disposition towards her. 

He also calls her a "gift", suggesting she is more than a sibling and more of a object worthy of praise and adoration. 


]]> 2019-06-17 10:44:54 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367892764 rebecca_price https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367949569 2019-06-17 16:06:16 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/367949569 rebecca_price https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369549050 Chapter 5 :  The monster comes to life.  How does Shelley present this crucial episode pages (62 -63)?  Comment on her methods, making links to themes and context where possible.]]> 2019-06-28 09:37:41 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369549050 Ami and Erin https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554737 The Monster comes to life (pages 62-63)
Shelley opens the chapter by setting the scene of where the "monster" awakes using pathetic fallacy, "dreary night of November", to perhaps foreshadow the horror that Frankenstein comes to realise. 
Frankenstein exclaims "Great God!", ironic in the sense that he is acting God himself, creating life in the form of the "monster". Shelley continues by describing the monster with "beautiful" features, contrasting the morbid nature of his actual creation. This could symbolise 'expectation vs reality as Frankenstein expected the monster to be beautiful like it's features.`
The only task Frankenstein has been working on turned out to be disgusting to him, leaving the place of passion, his "heart" to be filled with "horror and disgust",

]]> 2019-06-28 10:43:05 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554737 Summer and Jess https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554744 Shelley foreshadows devastation through her use of the gothic concept of setting.  'It was a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils'. 'It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out'. Shelley's use of pathetic fallacy, through ominous weather conditions, time of year (Winter) and the early morning, creates a dull and dreary atmosphere. This is constructed to contrast with Victor's agony of expectation and anticipation of his creation. 

Shelley presents Victor as immediately horrified about his creation; this is not a triumph but a catastrophe. 'I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!' Victor is repelled by, and unable to look beyond the physical ugliness, the alien appearance. Shelley criticises the superficial society that places emphasis on physical beauty, and the importance of not deviating from the societal norms. The exterior is assumed to reflect the inner being.

Shelley immediately links the creation of the monster to death, foreshadowing later events in the novel. In Victor's dream, he sees Elizabeth but as he 'imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death', turning into a corpse. Through this, Shelley links Elizabeth and devastation in Victor's family life to his creation of the monster, and thus, the dream is prophetic, showing the power of the subconscious. Victor is aware of his wrongdoing, but only now considers the threat and consequence of transgressing social boundaries of science. 

Shelley presents the monster as a dangerous character, through Victor's response to his creation. The monster is described as 'ugly' with 'watery eyes', 'shriveled complexion and straight black lips' by his creator, and is subsequently cast aside and neglected as Victor 'rushed out of the room'. Shelley uses Victor's sudden change in commitment to his creation to foreshadow the monster's alienation. Shelley also highlights the importance of family life, through portraying the monster as Victor's child-like creation. Through his neglect of his so-called child, Victor lays the foundations for the Monster's destruction of his society.


]]> 2019-06-28 10:43:10 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554744 Rebecca https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554789 In the recollection of Frankenstein's dream,  Shelley shows the development of Frankenstein and the change undertaken in him after his creation has been finished. It begins by introducing his sister in a familiar and previously described Utopian area that was distinctly natural, his home 'Ingolstadt'. By starting the dream with this it serves as a reminder of the events previous to Frankenstein's transgressions and decline over the years while losing himself to obsession. 'I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health' Shelley draws attention to the description of Elizabeth, illustrating her as healthy, something contrasting Frankenstein's current anxious disposition and the decline in his own health for years due to the self-induced neglect of his well-being in favour of prioritizing his research. The contrast emphasizes how far Frankenstein has fallen into his obsession and how far he has fallen since he last saw Elizabeth who only walks in his memories now. Later in the dream Shelley uses Biblical imagery, 'as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death;' this imagery refers to God's kiss of life, breathing life into his creations and refers directly to Frankenstein's own perverted method of breathing life into the dead. 

'livid with the hue of death' creates the impression that Frankenstein almost sucks the life out of her with his kiss, the reverse of God's actions. Shelley, a religious author, shows the repercussions of Frankenstein's attempt at playing God through this dream, Frankenstein's kiss taking life instead of bestowing life, an intense and traumatic experience for a scientist who was obsessed with giving life instead taking it away from his most precious person 'I started from my sleep with horror'. He has become a destructive force, the reverse of what he so longed for, to be God. ]]> 2019-06-28 10:43:47 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554789 Megan and Nicole https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554801 The monster comes to life - Chapter 5
  • Use of pathetic fallacy - 'the rain pattered dismally against the panes'
  • Frankenstein describes the awakening of 'the wretch' as a 'catastrophe' 
  • Shelley uses contrast between beauty and reality - 'Beautiful! - Great God' 
  • Frankenstein switches between describing the monster's 'lustrous black' hair and 'a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes' emphasising the 'shrivelled complexion' of 'the wretch' he had created  
  • Frankenstein 'had desired it with ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that [he] had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished' showing the dangers of dreaming to go beyond the wills of nature
  • When Frankenstein slept he was 'disturbed by the wildest dreams' of life and death, the boundaries of which he had overstepped 
  • When Frankenstein awakes from his sleep he describes himself similarly to the awakening of the monster. He describes 'dim and yellow light' similar to that of the monsters eyes. 'every limb became convulsed' reflects the monsters 'convulsive motion agitated his limbs' showing how Frankenstein himself is becoming monster for overstepping the boundaries of life, death and nature.
  • Frankenstein uses an inter-textual reference to Dante's Inferno emphasising the horror he feels when staring at 'the miserable monster whom [he] had created'. Shelley uses another inter-textual reference to Ancient Egyptian mummies and their hideous countenance which is nothing compared to 'that wretch'

]]> 2019-06-28 10:43:57 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369554801 Meaghan and Annabel https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369555133 Shelley describes the vision that Frankenstein had initially pursued in creating the monster, giving him limbs that were "in proportion" and "had selected his features as beautiful." This description is used to emphasise Frankenstein's horror and disbelief at the monster he had created. In reality "these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes." Victor's intentions for the appearance of the monster are starkly contrasted with the monster's "yellow skin" and "shrivelled complexion." 

Potentially this dramatic and horrific revealing of the monster serves to demonstrate, to both Frankenstein and the reader, the disastrous consequences of arrogance and meddling with the powers of nature. The awakening of the monster marks the point in which the previous confidence Victor had held in his power over nature has been eradicated and replaced by "breathless horror and disgust."

'I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster I had created' Shelley shows the danger of taking science too far and playing God with life and death, showing that once something has been created, you cannot go back and change what you have done. Frankenstein's feelings of regret and the 'bitterness of disappointment' highlight the dangers of the rapid scientific advancements taking place in Shelley's own society.]]> 2019-06-28 10:47:40 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369555133 Milla and Maddy https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369555187 Shelley begins the chapter with a dismal tone, using pathetic fallacy to suggest that the outcome of victor's work may not be as he hoped. Shelley juxtaposes Frankenstein's description of the monsters "lustrous black , and flowing" hair and beautiful features with grotesque imagery to reflect the division between Frankenstein' dream with the reality of his creation. The creature in actual fact has "watery eyes" and "straight black lips".  

The initial imagery of natural life is twisted through Frankenstein's "wildest dreams" and the monster itself as a "demoniacal corpse". This is turn displays the view that going against nature will only bring destruction of the self and others. Alternatively, this could also link to new discoveries in science at the time as they were often considered against religious beliefs and were regarded as unnatural. The creation of life is supposed to be sacred and yet Shelley presents this experience as cursed and profane. "The beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart".

Furthermore, Frankenstein never names the monster, only referring to it as "it", "creature" and "monster". Victor realises his mistake and shuns his creation, "it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived". His creation which he worked on for so long in isolation has become something even worse than the concept of hell.]]> 2019-06-28 10:48:05 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369555187 rebecca_price https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369559168 2019-06-28 11:41:16 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369559168 rebecca_price https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369559179 2019-06-28 11:41:20 UTC https://padlet.com/rebecca_price/i7szdbkk1r9a/wish/369559179