Riassunto del libro Frankenstein, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Riassunto del libro Frankenstein e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! BOOK FRANKESTEIN EXTRA Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797 in London. Her father, William Godwin, was a political novelist, philosopher and publisher, and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a famous feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), she died shortly after Mary's birth. . She had an older half-sister, Fanny Imlay. William married his neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont. She didn't like Mary and they always had a difficult and unhappy relationship. Mary had no formal education, but she grew up in an intellectually exciting environment. Her father encouraged Mary to study in her large library, and later wrote that her favorite pastime as a child of hers was writing stories. Mary met Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was 14 and two years later, they started a love affair. In July 1814, Mary and Percy, along with Jane Claire, escaped to France and then traveled through Switzerland. William Godwin and Sir Timothy Shelley, Percy's father, both refused to give any financial support to their children, due to the fact that they were not married. Percy and Mary returned to England in September 1814. A few months later, in 1815, Mary gave birth to a girl, who died after a few days. During her life, Mary had five children. The loss of her children has caused her great suffering and frequent episodes of depression. In 1816, Fanny and Percy's wife both committed suicide. Percy and Mary decided to get married, hoping to secure legal custody of his children, but the courts rejected Percy's request, as they did not believe he was a capable father. The year 1816 is known as "Year Without a Summer", due to the eruption of the volcano Mount Tambora in Indonesia the previous year. It was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history and caused extreme weather conditions around the world. It blocked sunlight, caused three years of planetary cooling, and was a disaster for agriculture across the Northern Hemisphere. Byron challenged his friends to write a ghost story. Mary won the competition with her horrific story of a young scientist who gave birth to a monster. The idea for the story had come to her in a dream. It was this ghost story that later became Frankenstein. In History of a Six Weeks' Tour, Mary wrote about her 1814 travels to Europe with Percy and was later the author of numerous books including Valperga, A Science Fiction Story, The Last Man, Peroni Warbeck, Lodore and Falkner. Another novel, Mathilda, was published after her death in 1935. she Known for her novel Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus. After Byron's competition, Percy encouraged Mary to turn her story into a novel. When it was first published anonymously in 1818, it was a great success and many critics believed that Percy was the author because he had written the prologue. But the second edition of 1823 had Mary's name clearly printed on the cover. In 1831, Mary revised Frankenstein, creating not only one of the best gothic novels of all time, but also the hideous demon that remains one of the most recognizable monsters in modern culture. Due to their financial debts and possible detention, the Shelleys moved to Italy in March 1818. It was a time of great unhappiness. In 1822, while Percy was sailing with a friend on the Gulf of La Spezia, his boat sank in a storm and both men drowned. At the age of 24, Mary returned to London, where she worked to publish Percy's poems. As a result, he became known as one of the most important English Romantic poets. For the last 11 years of her life, Mary was very ill and she died, probably of a brain tumor, on February 1, 1851. CHAPTER 1 The novel Frankestein begins in the 18th century with Mr. Walton making preparations for a journey to the North Pole, a journey he would document in letters sent to his sister Margaret. He and a company of brave sailors had reached the northernmost part of Russia when they came across a curious giant being driving a sleigh. They did not become suspicious of the curious presence but, continuing on their journey, they came across a man on the verge of death who was looking for someone or rather something. This character was Victor Frankentein and he was following a monstrous creature. The first days of stay with the fleet, Frankenstein proves to be silent but then decides to confide the story of his life to Mr. Walton, who faithfully transcribe the story in the letters addressed to his sister Margherita. He tells particularly of her father Alfonso who, by marrying her mother Carolina after finding her dying father in the house, saved her from misery. He took her to Geneva where he married her, then they traveled all over Italy, where they had her Victor. In Italy, Carolina meets a young farmer, Elisabeth, whom she decides to adopt. A deep bond is created between the little girl and Victor right from the start. CHAPTER 2 Victor Frankenstein continues to tell about his childhood; we learn of the birth of two brothers. The emotional bond with Elisabeth becomes more and more solid. During his childhood, Victor became interested in some ancient theories concerning the creation of life. After having witnessed the destruction of a tree by lightning, he devotes himself to the study of the world of electricity, becoming aware of theories according to which, by means of it, it is possible to animate, give a breath of life, to non-living creatures. While Victor prepares to leave for Ingolstadt, where he will begin his university life, his mother dies of scarlet fever and on her deathbed the woman expresses the wish that Elisabeth and Victor get married. A few days later Victor left for Ingolstadt, alone, as the plan to leave with his best friend, Henry, could not be implemented due to force majeure. Once there, he meets a professor who will be decisive for the continuation of his studies, and he will be his mentor: Professor Waldman. Waldman introduces him to the study of human creation and the use of electricity to bring inanimate things to life. He will become very famous. CHAPTER 3 Victor Frankenstein begins to devote himself to the creation of the new creature but the work was horrible: it was necessary to dissect human corpses, and also to torture live animals. The first task was to build a man by joining pieces of a corpse. For almost a year he stops writing to his family. In a reflection Frankenstein says that all things, however important, that make you forget the simple joys of life, and the people you love, are negative. Victor's health also begins to deteriorate, and while he continues to work tirelessly, day and night, he promises himself that when he's finished he'll take a long break. The day comes when the corpse made up of many pieces of other corpses is finished. The creature begins to breathe, opens its watery yellow eyes, and stands up, it was monstrous. At that very moment he realizes that his dream of being the creator of a new breed of better men is over. Terrified by the monster he himself created, Victor passes out. When he revives the sight of the monster causes him to escape and wander through the streets of the city, where he meets his best friend, Henry. Once they get home Victor Frankenstein faints, and for months he struggles between life and death, followed by his friend. Henry writes to the family, trying as much as possible to reassure them about their loved one's condition. Elisabeth sends Victor a letter in which she talks about a sick maid named Justine Moritz, she is also the woman who looked after Victor's mother as she died and had returned to live with them. Victor immediately responds to the letter, and reassures his family that he is in good health. He has now definitively renounced his studies. Sometimes the memory of the monster filled his being with anxiety and disgust. Victor and Henry finally return to Ingolstadt. EXTRA European alchemy was a medieval philosophy and spiritual science that included elements of physics, astrology, medicine, mysticism and art. It had three main objectives: - to find the "philosopher's stone", a material that alchemists believed could be combined with a base metal to form gold, the purest form of matter; - find "the elixir of life", a magical potion designed to be able to give eternal life and cure all diseases; - understand how nature works to make discoveries that could benefit humanity. Alchemists believed that the philosopher's stone could "transmute" base metals such as lead and mercury into gold and silver. One of the most important alchemists was Paracelsus. He used the principles of alchemy to cure people suffering from plague and other diseases by giving them salts, minerals and metals. Many leading scholars, such as Sir Isaac Newton, continued to study and use the principles of alchemy in their scientific activities. In 1661, Robert Boyle discussed the clear differences between chemistry and alchemy in his book The Skeptical Chimist, and the two fields of study were divided in the early 1700s. Science became interesting and fun. The work of two Italian scientists, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta, were themes of science and popular literature of the early 1800s. The publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein brought the themes of galvanism and electricity to the attention of the general public but the book also invited its readers to reflect on the moral responsibilities of the scientist in the nineteenth century. Morally responsible scientific progress continues to be the subject of heated debate. CHAPTER 4 Upon returning from his trip to Ingolstadt Victor receives a horrible letter from his father Alfonso, in which the death of William, Victor's little brother, who has been murdered, is reported. Alfonso reports how William, during a walk in Plainpalais, had gone away, and never came back. Believing that he could have returned home, everyone went back, but William was not there. Everyone then returned to the villa with torches, and during the night he was found, with the signs of strangulation still in his neck. When Elisabeth arrived; she blamed herself for her brother's death, as she gave her brother a necklace with a picture of her mother, which William no longer had. A thief was thought to have killed William in order to steal it. Victor left immediately for Geneva to be close to his loved ones in a moment of such great pain. During the journey, near where the murder was carried out, Victor meets the monster (in the forest). Upon arriving home, Victor discovers that Justine has been accused and will be tried for the murder of the child, as the necklace belonging to the victim was found among her clothes. Victor defends her, and is sure of her innocence, as he believes the real killer is the monster he himself created. The process has begun. Justine tells things as they actually went, but she cannot provide a logical explanation for the possession of the medal. Frankenstein's conscience is tortured, he would like to tell the truth but he would be taken for mad. Throughout the process she thinks about the monster. Eventually Justine is convicted and hanged. The next day Elisabeth mourned Justine's death. She cried innocent tears, unlike Victor's, filled with remorse and guilt. CHAPTER 5 Victor continues to live in pain and regret over the death of William and Justine. He also feels guilty about Elisabeth's state of mind. Suicidal thoughts run through him. All these feelings are repressed because she cannot reveal her story about her to anyone, as she would have been charged with the madness following the despondency of the grief. Victor and the monster meet on the top of a mountain. The monster first threatens to kill Victor and all of his loved ones if he is not made happy by Victor. Victor initially rejects