mery shelly , Frankenstein or modern prometheus, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica mery shelly , Frankenstein or modern prometheus e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! MARY SHELLEY Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist philosopher and novelist, and Willian Godwin, an anarchist and philosopher. Mary’s mother died ten days after her birth. She never lacked intellectual stimulation and, moreover, she became friends with many writers of the time like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Shelley, who was attracted by the young, beautiful, intellectual Mary Godwin. In July 1814 the couple fled to France and they decided to rent a country house on the banks of Lake Geneva. It was there that he wrote Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, maybe the novel resulted from a competition between Mary, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori, to see who could write the best horror story. According to some sources Mary Shelley may have visited a Castle Frankenstein, in southwestern Germany, and here she may have found the inspiration for the novel. The inspiration for this novel came to Mary's consciousness with a daydream or a nightmare, along with her anxieties and uncertainties. The novel was published anonymously in 1818 and soon after moved to Lerici, where Percy set sail in a storm and was found drowned ten days later. She returned to England, where she died in 1851 FRANKENSTEIN, OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS PLOT AND SETTING Victor Frankenstein, a swiss scientist, menages to create a human being by joining parts selected from corpses. Despite careful preparation, the result of the experiment is ugly and revolting. The monster becomes a murderer and in the end he destroys his creator. The story is not told chronologically and is introduced to us through a series of letters written by Walton, a young explorer on a voyage of expedition to the North Pole, to his sister Margaret Walton Seville. The events of the story happen all over Europe, from Geneva to the Alps, to France, England and Scotland. But the most important setting is the North Pole, where Walton and his shipmates are stuck by the ice and where Frankenstein is found following his creation. This setting is used to show these two characters’ states of mind as being lonely, empty and depressed. Furthermore, the creation’s birthplace is next to Frankenstein’s university, this foreshadow the fact that Victor’s creation has also the mind of a scholar ORIGINS In the introduction Mary Shelley gives her own report of Frankenstein’s origin. A series of events like the reading of ghost stories, speculation about the re-animation of corpses or the creation of life, her personal anxieties and the loss of her own mother, led the writer to create a daydream, or her worst nightmare. THE INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE Frankenstein is dedicated to Godwin and there are many ideas that Mary Shelley gets from her parents, such as social justice and education. she sympathises with the monster but is also scared of the consequences of his actions. We can find a parallelism between the fear of the revolution but the interest in revolutionary ideas, typical attitudes of English intellectuals between 1789 and 1832. The influence of Percy Bysshe Shelley was important because he and Mary were interested in chemistry. So, when she wrote Frankenstein, she knew the latest scientific theories and experiments in the field of chemistry, evolutionism and electricity. This allowed the writer to understand contrasting scientific attitudes, important for the writing of Frankenstein, in which the protagonist fully represented the theme of science and his responsibility towards humanity. Frankenstein tries to create a human being using electricity and chemistry without respecting the rules of nature. LITERACY INFLUENCES The monster can be considered Rousseau’s natural man, a man in a primitive state, not influenced by civilization. He rapidly discovers the limitations both of the state of nature and of civilization. The influence of the philosopher Locke can be seen in the description of the monster’s self- awareness and his education by experience. The ghost stories read at Villa Diodati provided an immediate stimulus, even if it differed from the gothic tradition, as it is not set in a dark castle and does not deal with supernatural events. Another influence was from Romantic poets, especially from Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner derive that both the Coleridge’s ballads and Shelley’s novel report crimes against nature: Frankenstein’s creation of the monster and the Mariner’s shooting of the Albatross. Also important is the myth of Prometheus: he in the Greek mythology, was a giant who stole the fire from gods in order to give it to men. He challenged the divine authority and freed man from god’s power. He is an example of an overreacher, just like Dr Frankenstein, who takes his place alongside Milton’s Satan. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE The novel is told by different narrators:  At first, Walton informs his sister Margaret Seville, same initials with Mary Shelley  Then, Frankenstein informs Walton, who informs his sister  Finally, the monster informs Frankenstein, who informs Walton, who informs his sister The whole novel has Walton’s sister as the receiver but presents three different points of view. It is an epistolary novel, maybe the writer wanted to hide his voice, as a woman by hiding behind three male narrators.