gotico e frankenstein, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica gotico e frankenstein e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! GOTHIC NOVEL • Irrationality and obscurity • Si avvicina al romanticismo • The monk • Frankenstein • Dracula • Protagonist= the villain (embodiment of evil) Aim of the novel The aim of the gothic novel is to scare people because they want to try to exorcize the fear. Characteristics • Dark places/ nights • Death • Blood/violence • Supernatural/ obscure forces (unconscious subconscious) • Castles • Forests • Curches (it gives the idea that evils is hidden everywhere, even in churches. It reminds the sin of pedophilia) • Ruins New interests in fiction • Gothic novel ---- huge and common to all social classes • New interest in individual consciousness • Taste for strange and mysterious, freedom and escape from ugly world • Fear of triumph of evil and chaos • Gothic = first used for architecture, long before connected to literature Features of the gothic novel • Fear in the readers • SETTING influenced by the SUBLIME • Always night ---- symbols of gloom, oppression, and mystery • HERO = isolated; HEROINE = afflicted with terrors, persecuted by the villain. • PLOTS = complicated by monsters, vampire, supernatural. First gothic novel = THE CASTEL OF OTRANTO BY HORACE WALPOLE. CASTLE= huge and underground setting, dangerous. Symbol of BRAIN. Forces that can’t be explained---- ANGER We deal with unconsciousness (similar to Macbeth dehumanized) Gothic to Modern Gothic Gothic novels have been scaring us for about 250 years. Terror and horror the words used to describe the emotional responses caused by this novel. • TERROR = OBSCURITY that expands to the soul • HORROR = destroys the reders’ mental ability by means of an explicit exposition to atrocities • TERROR = RAPPRESENTATIVE ANN RADDCLIFFE • HORROR = RAPPRESENTATIVE MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS • TERROR creats suspance • HORROR shows macabre in atmospheres. Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus BY MARY SHELLEY Victor = scientist, swiss, wants to create life from death. He wants to destory the gap between life and death. THE CREATURE = the best part of bodies, with electricity he gives it life. She met, during the first years of 1800’s, Percy Shelley who will become her husband. Both had interest in chemistry, so when she wrote the novel she was aware of the latest experiments in the field of science, electricity and evolutionism. In fact Frankestein wants to create a human being with electricity and chemistry without minding the rules of nature, life and death. Literary ifluences. The monster is like Rousseau’s natural man, who is firstly non influenced by civilization, but then discovers the limits of nature and society. There is also influence by Locke, that can be seen in monster’s education. Another characteristic is that Frankestein is different from gothic tradition since it’s not set in dark castles and there aren’t supernatural events. There is also a romantic influence that derives from Coleridge; and also a reminding to Myth of Prometheus: the titan who stole fire from gods to give humans. He is punished by Zeus who bounds him to a rock, where a egle ( zeus enblem) everyday goes there to eat his liver, which grows back overnight to be eaten the next day again. Prometheus is challenging Gods like Frankenstein is challinging the nature of life; they’re both examples of overeachers. Narratire structure The story is told my 3 narrators: • Walton, who informs his sister (with a diary) • The monster informs Frankestein who informs walton, who then informs his sister. • We can say that the reciver is walton’s sister, but the novel has 3 points of views. With 3 narrators, maybe, Mary wanted to hide ther woman points of view behind three males so she can be more accepted. • The novel is epistolary. Themes. • The quest for forbidden knowledge • The overeacher • The duble • The penetration of women’s secrets • The usurpation of female role • Social prejudices The double. Walton is a double of Frankestein according to his ambition to overreach, to be the first man to be to the Pole. The pride of being different and the indifferene to other lives. Frankestein and the monster are, intead, complementary. They both suffer from isolation, they start being good people but end up being obsessed with hate and revenge. The creature is the negative part of Frankestein. One sign of duble is the constant presence of the monster in Frankestein’s life, even if he flees (fuggire) from his creature; but it’s exactly this behave that will transfer the personality of the creature: that’s why he is, then, an outcast, a murderer and a rebel against society.