Mary Shelley & Emily Dickinson
Women's oles Then and Now: A Dialogue between Mary Shelley and Emily Dickinson
Mary and Emily are having an afternoon tea at Emily's Homestead garden. In the midst of enjoying the different flowering plants that Emily had planted in the garden, the women talked about and compared their lives way back in 19th century Western society and in the present time.
MAY: I know I should not be surprised anymore, but news of another reprint and publication of my novel, Frankenstein, still amazes me. Imagine the literary and commercial success of the novel! And both critics and literary scholars hail me as one of the pillars of modernist thought in 19th century English literature. To think that during my time, they even doubted that someone like me, a woman, would be able to write a novel as groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and, as they say -- "modern"!
EMILY: I understand you…...
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References
Poovey, M. (1980). "My hideous progeny: Mary Shelley and the feminization of romanticism." PMLA, Vol. 95, No. 3.
Shapin, S. (1991). "The mind is its own place": Science and solitude in seventeenth-century England." Science in Context, Vol. 4, No. 1.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley conceived her well-known novel, "Frankenstein," when she, her husband Percy ysshe Shelley and their friends were at a house party near Geneva in 1816 and she was challenged to come up with a ghost story (Malchow 1993). Mary, then only 18 years old, produced the plot, largely drawn from her own experiences, perceptions and the personalities of the members of her family. These impressions are embedded in a Gothic horror romance woven through the letters of the Arctic explorer, Robert Walton, to his sister about the life of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates out of a desire to uncover the spark of being (James 1994). Most literature readers know the story about the monster's loneliness and rage, his victims and the guilt and torment of his creator. While terrifying in appearance, Mary also brings out the innocence, depth and longings of the…...
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Bakhtin distinguished the literary form of the novel as distinct from other genres because of its rendering of the dynamic present, not in a separate and unitary literary language, but in the competing and often cosmic discord of actual and multiple voices, thus making contact with contemporary reality in all its openendedness (Bender et.al., p. x). Bakhtin's definition of the novel is important because it serves to illuminate the reason why Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has come to be regarded as connecting important, but widely disparate, elements of nineteenth century culture in Victorian England (Fisch et.al., p. 186). ith many apparently conflicting themes such as the domestic ideology of the bourgeoisie family and parenting on the one hand, with fear of pregnancy, childbirth and forbidden emotions ranging from the desire to play God and incest on the other, Shelley's Frankenstein is often seen as a complex mosaic, which lends…...
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Works Cited
Aker, D.L. & Morrow, F. "Unleashing Our Unknown Selves: An Inquiry into the Future of Femininity and Masculinity." New York: Praeger Publishers, 1991.
Bender, J., David, D., Richetti, J.J., & Seidel, M. "The Columbia History of the British Novel." New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Caine, B. "English Feminism, 1780-1980." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Fisch, A., Mellor, A.K., & Schor, E.H. "The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein." New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Shelley's Frankenstien
Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein Monster
Mary Shelley is the author of the famous novel Frankenstein and was born in London, England the year of 1797 (Merriman, 2006). Shelley came from strong genes as both her mother (Mary Wollstonecraft) and father (William Godwin) were considered philosophers and enlightened thinkers (Merriman, 2006). Shelley is credited (believed) to have started the science fiction genre during this time period. As a writer, Shelley was well versed in penned novels, short stories, dramas, essays, and biographies. Shelley's husband is famous poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was known to have been a radical, often encouraging the working class to rebel against the nobles in his works (Prentice Hall, 2006). Shelley also helped in editing and often times marketing her husband's (Percy Bysshe Shelley) omantic poems.
This essay will discuss background information about the historical period when Frankenstein was written and include a detailed discussion of how…...
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and the Consideration of Psychological Traumas Women Face in the Lack of Control ver Their Reproductive rgans
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
zdemir, 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. ther literature sources to be added as…...
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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)
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's "Frankenstein" specifically how the novel from a Marxist point-of-view reflects the ideology of her times
Marxist Monsters
Mary Shelly is known as one of the greatest horror writers of all time, even though it may be more accurate to refer to her writings as introspective social commentary on the human condition and the state of society. Shelly's Frankenstein has become far more than just a novel. The story of this created Monster has been retold countless times and has become a part of the modern archetypal mythology. Shelly herself was raised by parents with influential artistic, political, and social ideas that infiltrated her personal ideologies and incarnated themselves in her work. Her father wrote a book called Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which he taught "public realization of rational ideals of justice and benevolence." This may be one of the first influences which inspired the Marxist elements that would later…...
After completing the task of reviving this inanimate being into a living entity, Victor admits that he is haunted by what he has done and that his heart is filled with "breathless horror and disgust" (Shelley, 52). Obviously, Victor has now entered the realm of true madness, due to realizing that his experiment with the dead has placed him in a very dangerous position. While trying to sleep on the night of his success, Victor sees the "miserable monster" staring at him through a shuttered window -- "His jaw opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks," and then, Victor calls the monster a "demoniacal corpse to which I
had so miserably given life" (Shelley, 53). Certainly, only a man whose mind and abilities would allow him to create such a hideous "monster" must surely be truly mad, considering that Victor goes so far as to…...
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus. New York: Barnes & Noble
My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. (Shelley, 1961, p. 44)
Frankenstein challenges the values of man that are based on fear and thus goes forward to create a beast that even Dante could not have conceived of. (Shelley, 1961, p. 50) He then chases the beast to his own death.
The Beast on the other hand exemplifies a helpless child in many ways, resenting the fact of his own existence and vilifying his maker for having made him without thought of what a lonely and destructive life he would face.
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,…...
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References
Shelley, M.W. (1961). Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus. New York: Collier Books.
You are my creator, but I am your master; obey."
Like God, Frankenstein initially believed that his creation will
enhance society, will be a boon to natural science and that the rewards for
creating such a creature will be the adulation and bended knee of a
grateful mankind, but too late he discovers that his creation is just as
capable of untold evils as it is capable of gratitude and love. Dr.
Frankenstein dreams of the bows of society and all the riches that go with
that, 'working feverishly for more than two years day and night' in order
to accomplish something no one else had even seriously contemplated. His
feverish and obsessive desire to create what no one has ever created leads
him into a mindset that becomes a permanent part of his psyche. Much of
that psyche has to do with the overwhelming sense of guilt that he has
created a being that needs his assistance and guidance in…...
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Works Cited
Shelley, M. (2003) Frankenstein, New York: Barnes & Noble
Thompson, T.W., (2006) Shelley's Frankenstein, The Explicator, Vol. 64 No
It is no surprise that this phenomenon shows up in her novel and that it symbolized evil. Lightening has been a dramatic voice from heaven in many works and the romantic poets thought it to be a revelation signaling dramatic change. Clubbe thinks every appearance of thunderstorms in Frankenstein have inner significance, and, for Shelley, it signifies what cannot be know, the secrets of the universe. That lightening could both create and destroy life is the central theme surrounding the novel, and that it, and all things in creation, can be used for either good or for evil.
This novel is almost Gothic, which was what followed the romantic period, and the description of stormy weather often set the dark, morose mood. Shelley uses thunderstorms to signal doom in three important spots in the novel, first in chapter two when Victor discovers he wants to study science, next in chapter…...
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References
Allingham, Philip V. 2002. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818) -- A Summary of Modern Criticism. Contributing Editor, Victorian Web; Faculty of Education, Lakehead University (Canada)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The writer of this paper uses several quotes and examples to illustrate the traits and personality characteristics that Victor and the monster share.
IN HIS ON CREATION
One of the most classic works of literature today, is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Her book, penned in an effort to support her family as a struggling single mother, has become one of the most studied manuscripts of all time. Classrooms are filled with heated debates over her use of metaphors and subtleties. One of the most interesting components of the story is the similar nature of the monster and his creator, Victor. hen one initially reads the book, one sees the two as enemies on opposite sides of the pole. However, if the reader peels away the topcoat and examines the underpinnings, he will see that the two had many things in common which can trace to the biblical belief…...
Gender Relations in Frankenstein
In tracing the historical etymology of the word "monster," the Oxford English Dictionary offers a primary definition of something to be stared at or marveled over (from the same root as "demonstrate") but notes the second-most common use of the word is biological: "an animal or plant deviating in one or more of its parts from the normal type; an animal afflicted with some congenital malformation; a misshapen birth; an abortion." The O.E.D. cites Hoccleve in the early 1400s: "was it not eek a monstre as in nature that god i-bore was of a virgine?" To modern readers, there may be something almost comic in the idea of calling Jesus Christ a "monster" like the one created by Victor Frankenstein. But it is clear that, long before Mary Shelley wrote her famous novel about the "modern Prometheus" who creates his own monster, the very word "monster" had…...
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Works Cited
Johnson, Barbara. "My Monster / My Self." In A World of Difference. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. New York: Bantam, 1981.
Promethean myth holds a very strong hold upon the literature of the romantic era, a collected era of the rekindling of the ideas and ideals of classical antiquity. Though within each evolving age there is the incorporation of propriety and modernity into the stories and ideal of the old. Though not alone, in their fascination with creation and even the promethean myth, as the forbearers of the Romantics had a grand fascination with the messages of the Greeks, to some degree influencing the relative importance of any attention it has been paid through literary and philosophical history. The promethean myth has become such a common thread that the tradition continues to build in nearly every generation of writers. ithin this fascination there are many evolving interpretations of the reality of both, what the myth is and what it means to man and God.
Classical lessons spoke freely and openly to the…...
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Works Cited
Butler, E.M. Byron and Goethe: Analysis of a Passion. London: Bowes & Bowes, 1956.
Byron, Lord George G. Lord Byron: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) ed. Jerome J. McGann. Oxford UK: Oxford Press, 2000.
Cairns, Douglas L. Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Kerenyi, Karl. Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1963.
Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
Pursuit of rationalism and science at the expense of humanism: Analysis of "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
Since its inception in 1818, the novel "Frankenstein" had radically altered the horror genre of literature, for it introduced the horrors of humanity as a result of using science to attain power and control beyond humanity's capabilities -- that is, humans creating humans through scientific, not natural, production. Author Mary Shelley had introduced the theme of humanity's pursuit of rationalism and science to illustrate the state of society as she experienced it in 19th century: a society that was gradually becoming more rationalist, scientific, and objective to society's concerns and issues.
Evidently, "Frankenstein" is a novel that depicted the opposing nature of science and humanism. The characters of Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the Creature, represented science's objectiveness and detachment from human values and morals; however, Frankenstein's transition to being a humane…...
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Bibliography
Coleman, J. (1991). "Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN." Explicator, Vol. 63 Issue 1.
Shelley, M. (1991). Frankenstein. NY: Bantam Books.
Thompson, T. (2000). "Shelley's 'Frankenstein'." Explicator, Vol. 58 Issue 4.
This is seen explicitly in the events that Shelley has expressed after the monster asks for a mate. The monster had promised to leave the human populated areas and go into the forests and live there. He only asked from Victor to make him a female counterpart with which he could sit and talk to and relate to. Victor at first thinks that it would be a remarkable idea and the society would be clean of the monster. However, when he thinks about the matter, he feels that giving the monster a mate could prove to be disastrous. Victor knows that the female would have a mind of her own to think and decide and if she would disagree to the agreement made before her creation, behind her conscious self, then that would create problems for everyone and more blood would be shed. The fear of man is seen…...
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Reference:
The Mary Shelley Reader, eds. Betty T. Bennett and Charles E. Robinson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
I. Introduction
A. Hook: Have you ever wondered about the mysterious allure of gothic fashion?
B. Background information: Explain what gothic fashion is and its origins.
C. Thesis statement: This essay will explore the elements of a gothic wardrobe and the reasons why it has captivated individuals throughout history.
II. Elements of a Gothic Wardrobe
A. Dark colors: Discuss the significance of black as the predominant color in gothic fashion.
B. Layering: Examine how layering allows gothic fashion enthusiasts to create a dramatic and mysterious look.
C. Fabrics: Analyze the importance of materials such as velvet, lace, and leather....
I. Introduction A. Explanation of the concept of alienation B. Brief overview of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein C. Thesis statement: In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explores the theme of alienation through the experiences of the characters, particularly Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
II. Alienation of Victor Frankenstein A. Victor's isolation from society due to his obsession with creating life B. Victor's alienation from his family and friends as a result of his secretive and questionable experiments C. Victor's self-imposed alienation as he becomes consumed by guilt and fear of his creation
III. Alienation of the Creature A. The Creature's physical isolation from society due to his monstrous appearance B. The Creature's....
Outline for Essay on the Theme of Alienation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
I. Introduction A. Brief introduction to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its enduring impact B. Thesis statement: The novel explores the theme of alienation through the characters of Victor Frankenstein, the Creature, and Walton
II. Victor Frankenstein's Alienation from His Creation A. Victor's initial hubris and indifference towards the Creature B. The Creature's rejection of Victor and subsequent feelings of abandonment C. Victor's attempt to destroy the Creature and his growing fear and guilt
III. The Creature's Alienation from Society A. The Creature's physical and intellectual isolation B. His rejection and violence....
Certainly! Here is a possible thesis statement on Frankenstein:
"In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the monster's tragic existence and the consequences of Victor Frankenstein's ambition illuminate the dangers of unchecked scientific progress and the ethical responsibilities that come with creating new forms of life."
I would be happy to assist you in further refining or developing this thesis statement on Frankenstein. One possible direction to take could be to focus on the theme of isolation and loneliness in the novel, exploring how both Victor Frankenstein and the monster experience profound loneliness and the impact it has on their actions and development. Another potential....
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