Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and the Consideration of Psychological Traumas Women Face in the Lack of Control Over Their Reproductive Organs
This section will state the study's objective.
This section introduces the topic and the context in which this topic will be examined. The various literature reviewed in this study will be introduced.
This section describes the study methodology, which in this case will be qualitative in the form of a literature review.
This section will be comprised of the literature to be reviewed in the study.
Bewell, A. (1988) An Issue of Monstrous Desire: Frankenstein and obstetrics. Yale Journal of Criticism, 2:1 Fall 1988. Retrieved from: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/bewell.html
Ozdemir, E. (2003) Frankenstein: Self, Body, Creation, and Monstrosity. Ankara Universities Dil ve Tarih Cografya. Fakultesi Dergisi 43, 1 20033. Retrieved from: http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/26/1009/12241.pdf
C. Cavallaro, D (nd) Cyberspunk and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson. Retrieved from: https://is.muni.cz/www/175193/25476916/Cyberpunk_and_Cyberculture__Science_Fiction_and_the_Work.txt
D. Other literature sources to be added as they are located.
V. Summary of Findings
This section describes the findings of the study from the literature reviewed.
VI. Discussion
This section will discuss the study findings and how the literature reviewed is relevant to...
Conclusion & Recommendations
This section will make conclusions drawn from the literature reviewed. This section additionally makes recommendations for future study if any are indicated.
VIII. Bibliography
This section is comprised of the listing of sources reviewed in the literature review in this study.
Bewell, A. (1988) An Issue of Monstrous Desire: Frankenstein and obstetrics. Yale Journal of Criticism, 2:1 Fall 1988. Retrieved from: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/bewell.html
Bewell (1988) writes that the first to argue that the work of Mary Shelley "should be read as a birth myth" was Ellen Moers since the novel appears to express the painful experience that Shelley had as a young pregnant woman who was pregnant almost continuously for five years but whose babies all died soon after birth. Shelley was also not married and when she turned eighteen 'Mary Godwin' began the novel entitled "Frankenstein." (1988) Bewell writes that Shelley's experience of pregnancy and loss "was not simply a biological matter, but also a social and discursive event, which made her familiar, in ways that critics have not been, with the language of obstetrics and its extensive and long-standing discourse on the causes of monsters and abortions." ( p.1) Bewell writes that the books that were written between the years of 1650 and 1800 saw a massive increase in the publication of books on midwifery. This spate of books is largely attributable to the appearance of man-midwives,…
Ozdemir (2003) writes that it is likely the "illegitimate and premature motherhood / pregnancy of Shelley, possibly complicated by fear of death (her own and her future baby's), which anchored her existence for a time in the body and domesticity finds an echo in Paradise Lost in terms that evoke the monstrous otherness embedded within the very definition of femininity and nature as the site of fecundity: '"A Universe of death,... Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, / Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things' " (qtd. In Gilbert and Gubar, 1979: 227). Thirdly, the monster, like Eve, is marginalized within the narrative, which privileges Victor's voice, thereby reflecting the cultural silencing of woman." (p.1) Ozdemir writes that Shelley has an obsession in her writing of her own state of being an orphan as a child and the monster Frankenstein is also an orphan. According to Ozdemir "Constructed within the symbolic order and in relation to the otherness of woman, human identity requires the repression of femininity in society and culture. In this sense, the violence of the monster "marks the return of a repressed 'female principle'" necessary for the humanization of civilization." (2003)
Cavallaro, D (nd) Cyberspunk and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson. Retrieved from: https://is.muni.cz/www/175193/25476916/Cyberpunk_and_Cyberculture__Science_Fiction_and_the_Work.txt
The work of Cavallaro (nd) states that the creature of Shelley's in her work "Frankenstein" is such that "…combines all the disturbing markers of austerity that Shelley's culture would have readily associated with the illegitimate members of society: foreigners, women, the disenfranchised, the poor and the disabled. Concurrently, the novel shows that true monstrosity does not lie with the creature's repulsive appearance but with power structures and institutions capable of transforming an initially benevolent being into an evil-doer." (p.1)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Charles Darwin, Origin of Species There are many themes which readers can discern in Mary Shelley's inestimable work of literature, Frankenstein. They include the virtues of humanity vs. The vices of monstrosity, the power and effect of family and "community" (Bentley 325), as well as the considerable ramifications of ambition and work. However, the prudent reader will perceive that the principle motif unifying all of these themes, and
Monstrosity in Frankenstein Mary Shelly's Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, which is considered by many to be one of the first science-fiction novels that was ever written, is full of anti-Enlightenment sentiments, many of which are still present in society today. Shelley's novel, published first in 1818 and then edited and republished in 1831, takes a look at the conflicts between science and religion. Through this examination, Shelley provides insight into
Her list includes the following: culture / Nature reason / Nature male/female mind/body ( Nature) master/slave reason/matter (physicality) rationality/animality ( Nature) human / Nature (non-human) civilised/primitive ( Nature) production/reproduction ( Nature) self/other At first glance, this list seems to capture the basic groupings and gender associations that are at work in Mary Shelley's novel. The Creature exemplifies animality, primitiveness, and physicality, whereas Victor represents the forces of civilization, rational production, and culture. Victor is part of a happy family
Frankenstein "You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires," (Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 24) Frankenstein's monster remains one of the most misunderstood characters
One can see similarities between monsters decline into homicidal tendencies and other homicidal persons. Homicide and suicide are often closely linked. Those that have suicidal thoughts are often prone to homicidal thoughts as well. In the case of the monster, he desperately wants to end his own life, and also, to seek revenge against the one who brought him this misery. Homicides followed by suicides are seen mainly in the
As his views on society would force him, to use other body parts of common people and it would be the citizens of the village who would suffer Frankenstein's wrath. This is important, because the underlying class struggle, would be used later on (by historians) to draw parallels about similar incidents that were occurring throughout society at the time. A good example of the different Marxist theories can be