AP Literature: October 2011

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Frankenstein References

"Color Blue Meaning." Gem Stone and Crystal Healing, Love Symbols, Totems, Magic

Spells. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://crystal-cure.com/blue.html>.

Mendelson, Edward. "Everything Has a Beginning." The Things That Matter. 2006. 7-14. Print.

"The Ass and the Lapdog - a Fable by Aesop." Long Long Time Ago: Stories for Children. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://www.longlongtimeago.com/ llta_fables_asslapdog.html>.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner>.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/>.

(18), Us. "Arabian Nights: The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor - Candlelight Stories." Candlelight Stories - Fiction, Movies, Games, Audio, Books and News for All Ages. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.candlelightstories.com/2009/03/27/arabian-nights-the-fourth-voyage-of-sinbad-the-sailor/>.

Frankenstein 11

11. “I am going to unexplored regions to ‘the land of mist and snow’; but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful and the ‘Ancient Mariner.’” (6)

Here, Shelley alludes to a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is about an old mariner who voyages out to sea when a storm blows his ship astray. Then an albatross flies over them, and while the crew is remarking on its beauty and good omens, the mariner shoots it out of the sky. Then bad things begin to happen and the mariner’s crew forces him to where the bird around his neck to show his regret. Slowly, he watches his crew die. In the end, he manages to get back to shore and devotes the rest of his life to telling his story. So Walton is comforting his sister by saying he wont do any rash, and will not return home with a weight on his shoulders as big as the one the Mariner returned with. ‘The land of mist and snow’ is also from this poem, and it is said that this land is where the evil spirits come from.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner>.

Frankenstein 10

10. “I said in one of my letters, my dear Margaret, that I should find no friend on the wide ocean; yet I have found a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I should have been happy to have possessed as the brother of my heart.” (11)

All people wish for companionship, for someone to relate and share thoughts and feelings with. This is one of Walton’s greatest desires as he sets out on his journey of discovery. And he does find a friend, Victor, although it is painful and short-lived. Victor Frankenstein also ached for companionship, although in a different way. Perhaps he thought that by many a ‘perfect’ human, he could also create a good companion, equal in intelligence to himself. He was overjoyed as a child when Elizabeth was adopted into the family, and still craved her company even after terrible things had happened to him. She was the only one that kept him sane. And Shelley shows that a need for companionship is intrinsic, because Frankenstein’s monster, knowing nothing of accepted human behaviors, wants a friend and ‘protector’ as well. He tries his best, but his physical appearance frightens all people away.

Frankenstein 9

9. “Satan had his companions, fellow –devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred. These were the reflections of my hours of despondency and solitude....”

Frankenstein’s monster is a solitary and lonely creature. He is created and left to fend for himself, and this plus his unfortunate looks, result in his wrong doings and madness. Frankenstein himself craves alone time, which leads to ideas and dreams that ruin his life. So perhaps a point that Shelley is making in Frankenstein, is that there is a lot of danger in too much time with ones self. It brings out dangerous ideas and impossible hopes.

Frankenstein 8

8. “What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?” (1)

“I was like an Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffectual light.” (31)

The pursuit of knowledge is a big theme in Frankenstein, and almost everything that happens is a result of this. Shelley uses light as a symbol of knowledge, or at least what is perceived to be knowledge. In this first quote, Walton speaks of the cold land he is in as a “country of eternal light,” and this is where he travels to seek knowledge. When Victor finally succeeds in animating lifeless matter, he compares himself to the Arabian, from The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad, in which he is trapped in a tomb underground but is eventually led to safety by a “glimmering light” (although is was actually an animal). And so it is the light of knowledge that has rescued Victor from his obsessive search.

Frankenstein 7

7. “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.” (35)

One thing that Shelley might be trying to say in Frankenstein, is the danger of desires and the seeking of knowledge. Here, Victor speaks of his desire that “far exceeded moderation,” which results in the creation of a monster that makes the rest of his life miserable. Also, Walton, the man who is being told the story of Frankenstein, is out on a fruitless and dangerous journey, in search of knowledge, when he meets Victor. But after being told this story, and getting trapped in a sea of ice, he sees sense and turns back. He does not make the same mistake as Victor.

Frankenstein 6

6. “‘I sympathized with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none, and related to none. ‘The path of my departure was free,’ and there was none to lament my annihilation.’” (91)

Here, Shelley quotes Percy Shelley’s poem, “Mutability,” which is basically about how change is the only constant in the world. Shelley might have quoted this because Frankenstein’s monster changes drastically over the course of the book, from a kind and harmless character to a homicidal monster, intent on making Frankenstein’s life miserable. So this poem foreshadows the changes he will go through.

"Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mutability/>.

Frankenstein 5

5. “‘Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but in his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator.” (92)

Shelley’s creature that Frankenstein creates relates to the bible in many ways. First of all, he discovers the earth in the same order that God created it: light, land and water, vegetation (berries in his case), animals, and then humans. He also represents a kind of ‘Adam’ character, as in the story of Adam and Eve. Like Adam, the creature was the first of his kind, discovering the world in a kind and curious manner. Then he asks his creator for a female. This is where the stories of Frankenstein and Adam and Eve divert in different directions. Adam’s creator, being the benevolent God that he is, creates a woman when Adam requests it. But the creature’s creator, Frankenstein, is not so benevolent. At first he agrees to this task, but soon abandons it causing his creature to turn into the monster that Frankenstein fears.

Frankenstein 4

4. “‘It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night.’” (123)

This is the threat that Frankenstien receives from his monster after he breaks his promising of creating a female for the creature. This obviously is showing his jealously of love and happiness, and his wish to prevent Frankenstein, the one who denied him of this, from having love. It also might be implying that he craves a kind of love from Frankenstein and is jealous of anyone who receives it. It once again makes the reader feel pity for the creature because of his loneliness.

Frankenstein 3

3. “It was as the ass and the lap-dog; yet surely the gentile ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration.” (81)

The Ass and the Lap dog is an old fable. The donkey sees the lap dog being treated much better than he is, although he lives a comfortable life, so he reasons that if he acts like the dog he might be treated in the same manner. So one day he runs into the kitchen, wagging his tail and jumping around, and he sits on the farmer’s lap. His punishment is a beating. The moral of this story is meant to say that we should all content with what we are given, or at least we should recognize our own constraints. But Frankenstein’s creature clearly disagrees with this moral because he can relate to the donkey in many ways, and like the donkey, he doesn’t recognize the constraints of his figure. In fact he has almost exactly the same situation with the family he tries to connect with, when he goes into their house and is chased out by the frightened family.

"The Ass and the Lapdog - a Fable by Aesop." Long Long Time Ago: Stories for Children. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://www.longlongtimeago.com/ llta_fables_asslapdog.html>.

Frankenstein 2

2. “Oh! How unlike it was to the blue season of the south!” 152

The color blue represents moderation, calm, and distance. All of these qualities represent what Victor’s home in the south is, compared to the cold icy ocean that his creature led him to. Shelley might also have used this color to represent the feeling that these two places represent. At his home in Geneva, Victor always felt somewhat at ease. But in this cold desolate land nothing is calm or distant. His monster is right in front of him, his thoughts and emotions are only in one place, and his mission is definite.

"Color Blue Meaning." Gem Stone and Crystal Healing, Love Symbols, Totems, Magic

Spells. Web. 02 Oct. 2011. <http://crystal-cure.com/blue.html>.

Frankenstein 1

1. “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself.” (19)

In Edward Mendelson’s The Things that Matter, he says, “The whole moral and emotional context of her (Shelley’s) book is an extended restatement of a single sentence by her mother... ‘A great proportion of the misery that wanders, in hideous forms, around the world, is allowed to rise from the negligence of parents.’” It is obvious that there is some truth to this because Frankenstein’s creature is neglected by Frankenstein after his creation and turns into a miserable creature. But at the same time, Shelley contradicts herself. Victor Frankenstein says himself that he had the happiest childhood a person could hope for, yet he ends up miserable in his own way. He is the creator of the thing that destroyed him, and his whole life amounts to the destruction of it.

Mendelson, Edward. "Everything Has a Beginning." The Things That Matter. 2006. 7-14. Print.