Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus: A Tale of Overreaching and the Role of Science, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus: A Tale of Overreaching and the Role of Science e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus The story is about a scientist named Frankenstein who manages to create a monster by joining parts of different corpses. On a stormy night he manages to get a lot of energy from the lightning and gives life to the creature. After giving it life, he turns out to be disgusted by its monstrosity and abandons it. The monster wants Frankenstein to create a spouse for him, but he refuses having anything to do with it anymore. So the monster becomes a real criminal, killing most of Frankenstein's family and compelling him to chase him. So Frankenstein chases the monster till he arrives to the Arctic Circle and is saved by a mariner, Walton. Frankenstein is weak, and almost dying, and spends his last words telling the story to Walton. At the end the monster appears and grieves over the dead body of his creator, then he disappears in the dark. The passage we read is drawn from Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus written by Mary Shelley. The story isn't told chronologically, in fact it is told by Walton in his letters to his sister Margaret. The main theme of the story is the theme of the overreacher. Frankenstein finds his double in Walton, they are both overreachers: Frankenstein finds Walton in his attempt to get to the North Pole which is a difficult deed for a man on his own. Frankenstein is an overreacher because he wants to go beyond the laws of nature and creates life. The monster embodies Rousseau's natural man, which is good at the beginning, but after that he is corrupted by society and becomes evil. However, the monster's aim isn't killing all the people in Frankenstein's life, his aim is to make him suffer so that he can realize the suffering he is passing through. At the end Frankenstein comes to understand the importance of friendship, family and love, and regrets about letting the monster alone. The monster has brutal manners but he reveals to be eloquent and rational and he longs for affection and love. The two characters may seem antithetical, but they are complementary to each other. Another theme is the role of the science and the scientist which we can see clearly because Frankenstein does what we call a crime against nature: he creates human life and usurpates the woman's role in nature ; what a scientist must do with science is mainly not going beyond the limits of nature. Finally, the story has the subtitle Modern Prometheus because we can identify Frankenstein with Prometheus, who stole the fire from the gods and gave it to men.