Scarica Mary Shelley e Frankenstein e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! MARY SHELLEY AND FRANKENSTEIN The gothic age: In the gothic age the main genre was poetry, since it was very introspective. Novels were usually set in dark places, such as forests, castles or ruins and they were aimed at entertainment (they didn’t have a deep meaning), such as in the first gothic novel, which is “The castle of Otranto”. Mary Shelley: Mary Shelley was the daughter of a feminist philosopher and novelist. Both her parents were strongly influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution. Her mother died while giving birth to her, however she grew up in an intellectual environment, in fact her house was constantly visited by some of the most famous writers of the day, including Percy Shelley, who married her Frankenstein: In 1816 Mary Shelley started writing Frankenstein, which was published in 1818 anonymously. The novel is dedicated to Godwin, even though the influence of Percy Shelley was fundamental since they were both interested in science, and particularly chemistry (in fact Frankenstein tries to create a human being through the use of electricity and chemistry). For what concerns the plot Frankenstein is a scientist fascinated by life and death, he was an outcast (there was no place for him in the society). He created a human being that turned out to be a monster, so Frankenstein decides to abandon him. There is one specific episode in the book in which the monster was inside a barn, from which he could see inside the house, where he saw a family. From them he learns how to speak and how to act, until one day he decides to talk with the father of the family, who was blind. After a while he started looking for his creator in order to ask him to create the female version of him, otherwise the monster would have killed his family. The story starts with Captain Walton, who was going to the north pole; he was writing letters to her sister Margaret informing her about his situation, until one day he met the monster who tells him his story. Frankenstein can also be called “the modern Prometheus”: Prometheus was a giant who stole the fire from the gods in order to give it to men; he is tied to a cliff, where every night an eagle eats his liver, that used to regenerate (as an endless punishment). Prometheus is an overreacher just like Frankenstein. The main themes/issues of the novel are: ➔ The pursuit of forbidden knowledge ➔ The overreacher ➔ Social prejudice ➔ The usurpation of the female role (no need in women) ➔ Individual and social responsibility: who’s responsible for the monster’s actions? Victor, the monster or the society? ➔ Desire to overcome limits (Frankenstein and Walton) ➔ Acting like god and women: only they can give life to a human being, so there’s also an inability of accepting death
