Post by Robin on Mar 10, 2006 19:46:57 GMT -8
I had to do answer some questions about Frankenstein, and so if somebody could tell me if these sound like...uh...sound answers, that'd be great.
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1. How does Nature (and natural surroundings) function in the novel thus far? Consider the letters AND chapters 1-3 when answering, not just summarizing when Nature and natural surroundings are mentioned, but analyzing how they affect your understanding of the work as a whole (plot, character, motif, etc.)
So far, Nature has played a huge role in the plot of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the letters, the narrator is always referencing the sea, or the salt air, or, more importantly, the ice that allowed him to find the sledding man. Of course, nature is not just used to advance the plot. It can be seen, in the letters, as a tracking of the narrator’s growing relationship with the man the ship’s crew rescued from the ice. When they were having so much trouble navigating the ice, the man would not open up emotionally to the narrator or anyone else of the crew, but as the voyage began to run more smoothly, the man allowed himself to become friends with the narrator. Another important point is that, until he is completely recovered, the narrator is uneasy about allowing the man up on deck, thinking that the salt air will aggravate him. Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, the sea air sparks in our sledding man a desire to go out and find the man he was searching for on the ice, the other man with sled dogs, and as a result becomes emotionally excited and has to be put below deck again until he is calmed down. Also like Ishmael, the sledding man seems to have a dislike of being cooped up below deck; a passenger, so to speak. Ishmael liked to sail as a sailor because it made sense to him to be paid for breathing fresh air rather then to pay for breathing stale air. This may be why the narrator is so fond of the sledding man; the narrator also dislikes being cooped up below deck.
2. What would you do upon creating a life? How would the task suffuse you with wonder? Horror? Power? Responsibility? What do you think might happen?
Were it possible to create a life using the method described in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and I managed to do so, the task would, at first fill me with self-pride and awe, but that wonder would eventually turn into a deep sense of responsibility for the thing I had created and a horror at myself for what I had done. It is simply considered morally wrong by most people to reanimate the dead, or to create new life in unconventional methods, or to, in other words, “play god.” It simply isn’t done, and to do so would seem morally wrong even if there really isn’t anything wrong about doing so. Events, however, would not spiral out of control. In the worst case scenario, the thing that I had created would most likely just be destroyed. As long as the secret of reanimation of the dead would not be shared with many others, nothing major would happen, although if many people were allowed to play god, the events that would follow would not be good.
3. Why does Shelley begin her novel with a series of letters from the lonely explorer Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret, rather than beginning with the creation of the monster in the first chapter? What effect does meeting the explorer have?
Shelley begins the novel with the letters from Walton to his sister to emphasize how Frankenstein must have felt when he created his creature. Frankenstein had spent his childhood in a very family orientated household, and his relations with his family and few friends were very tight knit. When he went to college, far away from his family and friends, he felt a sense of loneliness that Walton must also have felt, being friendless out on the sea. Shelley began the story with Walton’s letters to make obvious one important reason of Frankenstein’s creation of his creature. Frankenstein was lonely and disillusioned with the world of science: it is only natural that he would want to prove science wrong and reanimate the dead. Another important piece of fallout from Walton’s letters is how he reacted to meeting the explorer. He developed a new understanding and sympathy of the world and its loneliest creatures, and begins to understand that there are those lonelier than him. Frankenstein, also, is deeply affected by his creation of the monster: he learns, even in so short a time and so brief an encounter with his creature, that there are some depths that you should not go to illusion yourself: no matter how hard you try to create inspiration for yourself, things will never be quite the same, and you will usually simply end up making matters worse for both yourself and your subject. This is a vital piece of understanding that the reader would find difficult to pick up were Walton’s letters to his sister not included in the story.
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1. How does Nature (and natural surroundings) function in the novel thus far? Consider the letters AND chapters 1-3 when answering, not just summarizing when Nature and natural surroundings are mentioned, but analyzing how they affect your understanding of the work as a whole (plot, character, motif, etc.)
So far, Nature has played a huge role in the plot of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the letters, the narrator is always referencing the sea, or the salt air, or, more importantly, the ice that allowed him to find the sledding man. Of course, nature is not just used to advance the plot. It can be seen, in the letters, as a tracking of the narrator’s growing relationship with the man the ship’s crew rescued from the ice. When they were having so much trouble navigating the ice, the man would not open up emotionally to the narrator or anyone else of the crew, but as the voyage began to run more smoothly, the man allowed himself to become friends with the narrator. Another important point is that, until he is completely recovered, the narrator is uneasy about allowing the man up on deck, thinking that the salt air will aggravate him. Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, the sea air sparks in our sledding man a desire to go out and find the man he was searching for on the ice, the other man with sled dogs, and as a result becomes emotionally excited and has to be put below deck again until he is calmed down. Also like Ishmael, the sledding man seems to have a dislike of being cooped up below deck; a passenger, so to speak. Ishmael liked to sail as a sailor because it made sense to him to be paid for breathing fresh air rather then to pay for breathing stale air. This may be why the narrator is so fond of the sledding man; the narrator also dislikes being cooped up below deck.
2. What would you do upon creating a life? How would the task suffuse you with wonder? Horror? Power? Responsibility? What do you think might happen?
Were it possible to create a life using the method described in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and I managed to do so, the task would, at first fill me with self-pride and awe, but that wonder would eventually turn into a deep sense of responsibility for the thing I had created and a horror at myself for what I had done. It is simply considered morally wrong by most people to reanimate the dead, or to create new life in unconventional methods, or to, in other words, “play god.” It simply isn’t done, and to do so would seem morally wrong even if there really isn’t anything wrong about doing so. Events, however, would not spiral out of control. In the worst case scenario, the thing that I had created would most likely just be destroyed. As long as the secret of reanimation of the dead would not be shared with many others, nothing major would happen, although if many people were allowed to play god, the events that would follow would not be good.
3. Why does Shelley begin her novel with a series of letters from the lonely explorer Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret, rather than beginning with the creation of the monster in the first chapter? What effect does meeting the explorer have?
Shelley begins the novel with the letters from Walton to his sister to emphasize how Frankenstein must have felt when he created his creature. Frankenstein had spent his childhood in a very family orientated household, and his relations with his family and few friends were very tight knit. When he went to college, far away from his family and friends, he felt a sense of loneliness that Walton must also have felt, being friendless out on the sea. Shelley began the story with Walton’s letters to make obvious one important reason of Frankenstein’s creation of his creature. Frankenstein was lonely and disillusioned with the world of science: it is only natural that he would want to prove science wrong and reanimate the dead. Another important piece of fallout from Walton’s letters is how he reacted to meeting the explorer. He developed a new understanding and sympathy of the world and its loneliest creatures, and begins to understand that there are those lonelier than him. Frankenstein, also, is deeply affected by his creation of the monster: he learns, even in so short a time and so brief an encounter with his creature, that there are some depths that you should not go to illusion yourself: no matter how hard you try to create inspiration for yourself, things will never be quite the same, and you will usually simply end up making matters worse for both yourself and your subject. This is a vital piece of understanding that the reader would find difficult to pick up were Walton’s letters to his sister not included in the story.
