Scarica FRANKENSTEIN APPUNTI e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Frankenstein Mary Shelley narrated the story of doctor Frankenstein, for the first time, to Byron who gave her the idea of writing a tale of horror while they were in Geneva, Switzerland. PLOT The novel begins from the end: Captain Walton writes a letter to his sister in order to tell her, the story of doctor Frankenstein and his monster. Frankenstein is a scientist and he wants to create an artificial life, so he puts together parts of dead bodies and creates a monster. With the help of electricity, the scientist is able to give life to his creature, but when the monster wakes up, the doctor loses his senses (mi pare) and the creature runs away in a wood. Now the monster lives in close contact with nature and, in this period, he is good ( influence of Rousseau's philosophy ). Later he meets a little girl who accepts him and plays with him, (children are considered innocent and pure) but her parents are scared by the monster and they want to kill him. The creature becomes evil and runs away again. Later, he discovers the name of his creator: Doctor Frankenstein, so the monster kills Frankenstein's little brother and his best friend. Then he decides to ask the doctor for a woman, but the scientist refuses because he doesn't want a generation of monsters so he kills doctor's wife. The scientist decides to stop the monster and the only way is to kill him; so he goes to the north pole, but the monster mortally wounds him. The doctor is found by captain Walton, an adventurer in search of glory, he narrates his story to the captain and then he dies. A FAUSTIAN NOVEL Frankenstein can be considered a Faustian novel in fact the doctor is an overreacher: he wants to acquire the God-like power to give life. (he wants the forbidden knowledge) Captain Walton is another overreacher: he risks his life and the life of his crew trying to survive in the north pole. (in search of glory) Walton can be considered a sort of projection of Dr. Frankenstein because they are two overreacher. THEMES AND MORAL The novel of Frankenstein is a novel of purpose: it wants to propagate the ideas of isolation, discrimination and social injustice. It is similar to a Gothic novel because of his gothic elements (terror, dark, fear....). Anyway it can't be considered a gothic novel because there are no supernatural elements while we find scientific elements (not typical of gothic novels). An important theme is that of incommunicability: Doctor Frankenstein is unable to communicate, he writes everything on a diary. Then we can find the theme of the usurpation of the female role: female role is denied, in fact the monster is created by a man. Finally there is the theme of the double: Frankenstein and the monster are two sides of the same personality. The novel wants to demonstrate that science has some limits but where and when it has to stop depends on our beliefs. The moral of the novel is that if someone challenges God in the end he will be punished. WRITING THECNIQUE
