Frankenstein novel, analisi, Appunti di Cultura Inglese I

Scarica Frankenstein novel, analisi e più Appunti in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity! CULTURA INGLESE INTRODUCTION In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became the neighbours of Lord Byron. incessant rain often confined us for days to the house. Some volumes of ghost stories, translated from the German into French, fell into our hands. ‘We will each write a ghost story," said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded. There were four of us. I busied myself to think of a story, which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror, to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart. If I did not accomplish these things, my ghost story would be unworthy of its name. I felt the void of inventation. Have you thought of a story? I was asked each morning. Many and long were the conversations between Lord Byron and Shelley. various philosophical doctrines were discussed. They talked of the experiments of Dr. Darwin, who preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case, till by some extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion. Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth. When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me. "I have found it!’ On the morrow I announced that I had thought of a story. I began that day with the words, It was on a dreary night of November , making only a transcript of the grim terrors of my waking dream. PREFACE Frankenstein opens with a preface, signed by Mary Shelley but commonly supposed to have been written by her husband, Percy Shelley. It states that the novel was begun during a summer vacation in the Swiss Alps, when unseasonably rainy weather and nights spent reading German ghost stories inspired the author and her literary companions to engage in a ghost story writing contest, of which this work is the only completed product. The works of Homer, Shakespeare, and Milton are held up as shining examples of the kind of work Frankenstein aspires to be. WALTON: Walton functions as the conduit through which the reader hears the story of Victor and his monster. However, he also plays a role that parallels Victor’s in many ways. Like Victor, Walton is an explorer, chasing after that “country of eternal light”—unpossessed knowledge. Walton’s is only the first of many voices in Frankenstein. His letters set up a frame narrative that encloses the main narrative—the stranger’s—and provides the context in which it is told. The use of multiple frame narratives calls attention to the telling of the story, adding new layers of complexity to the already intricate relationship between author and reader: as the reader listens to Victor’s story, so does Walton; as Walton listens, so does his sister. SUMMARY The novel begins with narration from Captain Walton, who is writing a series of letters to his sister Margaret. The point of view then switches to Victor Frankenstein, who tells Walton about his life and how he came to be wandering in the Arctic. When Walton first encounters Victor, he wonders if the stranger is insane, due to his wild appearance and desperate plight. By listening to Victor’s story Walton comes to appreciate his experiences. When Victor reaches the point in his story where he describes meeting with monster, the point of view switches yet again, this time to the monster, who narrates in the first person, describing his experiences. Both Victor and the reader are set up to expect the monster to be coarse, barbaric, violent, and inhuman, but his narrative shows him to be intelligent, sensitive, and capable of feeling profound human emotions like empathy and love. After that, the point of view returns to Victor, who continues his story. The novel ends with a return to Walton’s point of view and first person narration. -Within each framed narrative, the reader receives constant reminders of the presence of other authors and audiences, and of perspective shifts, as Victor breaks out of his narrative to address Walton directly and as Walton signs off each of his letters to his sister. “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clayTo mould me Man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?” These lines appear on the title page of the novel and come from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, when Adam bemoans his fallen condition. The monster sees himself as a tragic figure, comparing himself to both Adam and Satan. Like Adam, he is shunned by his creator, though he strives/tries to be good. These rhetorical questions epitomize the monster’s ill will toward Victor for abandoning him in a world hostile to him, where everyone rejects him, and to foist responsibility for his ugliness and eventual evil upon Victor. VOLUME 1 CHAPTER 1: autobiography The stranger, who the reader soon learns is Victor Frankenstein, begins his narration. He starts with his family background, birth, and early childhood, telling Walton about his father, Alphonse, and his mother, Caroline. Alphonse became Caroline’s protector when her father, Alphonse’s longtime friend Beaufort, died in poverty, leaving her as an orphan. They married two years later, and Victor was born soon after. ANALYSYS 3: the theme of death is very important. Because it’s the key to understand Victor’s desire to go beyond what is possible and human. The death of her mother can’t be accepted by him: it’s an horrible destiny, so he starts to think larger, he almost would want to go against this destiny of death, this injustice. So he starts university with the desire to deepen the curiosity he has ever had about the mystery of the world, nature and their idden laws. Frankeinstein’s aim is to study deeply the mysterious laws of nature to improve the conditions of humanity, not for his own glory. He is driven by his passion, unable to control. Victor’s passion will not be tempered by any consideration of the possible horrific consequences of his search for knowledge. Additionally, this declaration furthers the parallel between Walton’s spatial explorations and Frankenstein’s desire to discovery. They both seem to “pioneer a new way,” to make progress beyond established limits. So now we understand the ‘shared madness’ of them. They have the same great ambitio n . CHAPTER 4: studies of anatomy he made to create the monster. Victor attacks his studies with enthusiasm and makes rapid progress. Fascinated by the mystery of the creation of life, he begins to study how the human body is built (anatomy) and how it falls apart (death and decay). After several years of tireless and painful work, he masters all that his professors have to teach him: discovering the secret of life. To examine the secrets of life, we must first have recourse to death. I was led to examine the progress and cause of this decay. Privately he decides to begin the construction of an animate gigantic creature. Zealously (con ardore) devoting himself to this labor, he neglects everything else—family, friends, studies, and social life—and grows increasingly pale, lonely, and always more obsessed. ANALYSYS 4: he’s particularly attracted by the structure of human frame and the secrets of the origin of life. Interested in how the human body works, it’s not only a curiosity, a passion, but an obsession that will cause agony. The incontrollable need to discover the secret of life increases everyday. To discover how a body works, he must start by analyzing a death corpse. He studies the decomposition of bodies, eaten by germs. ‘I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted’. That marvel was degraded. His ambition is to overcome the borderline between life and death . Watching what death causes to the human body, he felt the need of this task. He succeded in discovering the cause of generation and life: experiments of Galvani and Aldini (life=movement), the scientific background is always a constant presence trough this story. It’s the realistic description made by an individual experience, the faithful reconstruction of Victor’s narration by the pen of Walton. The reader listens to the story, trough the narration of Walton. Effect on the reader: emotional implication. Victor tells to Walton, the reader and Walton don’t listen passively, but there are elements in the narrative that let the reader be involved in the story from an emotional pov. Even the expressions of the face of Walton and his reactions (which are even our reactions) make us understand this. There is a constant interaction between the two different narrative voices: Walton listens to victor’s story. Walton has to listen patiently until the end of the story to know what he has discovered about life. He needs to learn from him how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how happier is the man who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow: the satisfaction of going beyond the limits of nature. It means that you have to aspire to the top. He starts the process of his scientific experiment, considering the complexity of its impracticability. He began the creation of a gigantic human being. ‘Life and death appeared to him ideal bounds, which he breaks through and pour a torrent of light into the dark world’. Mary uses the symbolic idea for which Victor wants to bring light into darkness= improve condition of humankind. He spent days and nights for this hard, unrelaxed and breathless labour, the light of the moon gazed his labour: the mood is related to the gothic fiction, a light which is different from the light of sun. It’s a clear undefined, blurred light: the source of imagination. MOON: power of IMAGINATION. SUN: related to REASON.-> (inspired by Coloridgge The rime of the ancient mariner.) (also in chapter 3 valume 3) ‘I collected bones and I disturbed with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of human frame’: it seems a sacrilegious act. Victor is telling his story with a wiser awareness of the consequences of this action. Now, he’s aware of the madness of his action. He considers the story of his life in retrospect. Victor is informing us about his story, he wants us to be aware of his mistakes and wants us to become wiser. CHAPTER 5: monster’s birth (it marks the final achievement of his experiment; but disaster of this action starts). ‘ The end of his labour and the beginning of his misfortunes.’ One stormy night, after months of labor, Victor completes his creation. But when he brings it to life, its awful appearance horrifies him. He rushes to the next room and tries to sleep, but he is troubled by nightmares and wildest dreams about Elizabeth and his mother’s corpse (he remembers the idilicc condition of his past life). He wakes to discover the monster looming over his bed with a grotesque smile and rushes out of the house. The next morning, he goes walking in the town of Ingolstadt, avoiding a return to his now-haunted apartment. As he walks by the town, Victor comes across his friend Henry Clerval, who has just arrived to begin studying at the university. Delighted to see Henry—a breath of fresh air and a reminder of his family after so many months of isolation and ill health—he brings him back to his apartment. Victor enters first and is relieved to find no sign of the monster. But, weakened by months of work and shock at the horrific being he has created, he immediately falls ill with a nervous fever that lasts several months. Henry nurses him back to health and, when Victor has recovered, gives him a letter from Elizabeth that had arrived during his illness. ANALYSYS 5: he infused a spark of life into the lifeless thing that he has created. ‘I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open, it breathed hard and a motion agitated his limbs’. He’s at first fascinated by the colors of that creature, but then scared by the demoniacal corpse to which he had given life. ‘ the beauty of his dream vanished, the horror and disgust filled his heart’. Dreams/passion that has been his food were now become a hell. He hopes that this is only a nightmare, sleeping he remembers when he was in an heavenly condition in the past (family). The first physical reaction of Victor to the creation of the monster is his illness. The form of the monster was constantly before his eyes. He feels persecuted by it. -We have to remember that this narration is mediated, flitered by the narrative voice: Walton. There is a filter between us and the story. CHAPTER 6: letter from Elisabeth, linking chapter. The possibility to resume contacts with his family is hard and almost impossible. Victor receives a letter from Elisabeth. Elizabeth’s letter expresses her concern (preoccupazione) about Victor’s illness. She also tells him that Justine Moritz, a girl who used to live with the Frankenstein family, has returned to their house following her mother’s death. She’s the murderer of William. But when he returns to his family, he finds out that the murderer wasn’t Justin, but the monster. Why? The monster commits crimes to punish his creator. Victor can’t tell the truth because he would be considered crazy, so he suffers and he feels guilty for all the crimes committed by it. He feels responsible of these crimes. RESPONSABILITY. No possibility to stop the consequences of his act. After Victor has recovered, he introduces Henry, who is studying Oriental languages, to the professors at the university. the sight of any chemical instrument worsens (peggiora) Victor’s symptoms; even speaking to his professors torments him. He decides to return to Geneva and awaits a letter from his father specifying the date of his departure. Meanwhile, he and Henry take a walking tour through the country, uplifting their spirits with the beauties of nature. ANALYSYS 6: even the narration of Victor is characterized by the presence of letters which are sent from his family ->The effect on the reader is to emphasize the verosimilitude of the story and the emotional involvement of the reader. Victor’s incorporation of written letters into his story allows both Elizabeth and Alphonse