Final Project Proposal

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I am going to complete Option #1. I chose this option because I do not have any passion about monsters, which was the alternative option. I like that Option #1 was a little more open-ended. I decided to do my project on the canonical author, William Carlos Williams. I chose him after doing some brief but sufficient research, because his poetry is readable and contemporary enough for me. The American subject-matter is relatable, and I generally enjoy is style. I also chose him because even though I am having to dive deep into the book of poetry I am reading, it’s not as much to read as say, a novel might have been by another author. It was tough fitting Frankenstein into my life. The primary text I have chosen is Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams, edited by Robert Pinsky. I plan to finish reading the book this weekend, as our rough drafts for the project are due next week. I am hoping to accomplish a satisfactory grade, for sure. But beyond that I hope to connect to and understand William Carlos Williams to the best of my ability… I also hope to have a strong thesis about him, as I have not felt too great about my previous theses in this class. Conducting research with secondary sources is something that I have a few questions about, mainly about how to find what I am looking for, and also- what is a database in relation to this project? I will email Mrs. Cline soon to have my questions answered. This biography on William Carlos Williams, as well as selected poetry on the same website led me to choose him for my project.

Mid-Term Check In

Dear Mrs. Cline,

I believe that during the first half of English 102 I have been successful first and foremost with turning things in. I think that sometimes it is all too easy to feel the stress of an assignment and its due date and let it pass by altogether. I have not done that at all- I’ve turned in every assignment. I have been successful because I am reading the material and trying hard to come up with my own original conclusions, which I think you have encouraged us to do. I have also been successful because I want to receive a “good” grade, I hope that is evident.

Some of the challenges I have experienced definitely include weekly deadlines and feeling like I am never caught up. Though I have obviously been able to turn everything in, I always feel like I have never-ending work for this class. Though I do feel this to be a labor intensive course, in all fairness, the assignments are all already posted, and so I can’t claim to feeling like you pop surprises on us. I just don’t have enough time in my life to ever get ahead.

I’ve enjoyed all of the readings. It was neat to really analyze a poem (Field of Skulls), and that is perhaps my favorite thing I have read so far. Frankenstein was also good; I was pleasantly surprised with its readability. I feel much more informed about the true story now, and I am glad I’ve been able to drop all the myths about Frankenstein that I was previously carrying around with me. I am currently reading a collection of selected poems by William Carlos Williams, and enjoying it!

Literary analysis is… difficult. I feel like it has really only applied in my English classes, as my other classes often call for more of a report or summary. I can definitely recognize how when writing about literature, it’s often the truly appropriate way to do it. I have bettered my understanding of the process of literary analysis in this class.

During the second half of this course, I hope to make an effort to feel less behind all the time, should my busy schedule permit. I hope that I am truly pleased with my final project, and with my portfolio… looks like some major points are found in the portfolio grade. I will definitely try to revise to my full potential.

Sincerely,

Margaret Lind

Frankenstein In Context

Margaret Lind

Cline

ENG 102

15 October 2011

Frankenstein: Shelley’s Creation

            Frankenstein is a book with a central theme of creation and reproduction, specifically of unknown creation. The book also ventures into the world of fear of the unknown, revenge & blackmail, and love & companionship. When analyzing a piece of literature, it is valuable to put the story in context, and to examine the author’s life and the time period in which it was written. For instance, the discoveries and milestones in science in 1818 were new and exciting. Shelley used science as a major support to her story. Victor Frankenstein’s creation is meant to be a scientific breakthrough. The monster which he tirelessly fashions, turns out to be nothing as he had hoped. His disappointment quickly turns to fear as his monster comes to life, representing emotions that readers across the centuries have been able to relate to. What if what we have looked forward to doesn’t turn out the way it’s supposed to? What if this turns out to be horribly, horribly wrong? Mary Shelley is able to capture the precarious moments and emotions of creation, though “its emphasis is not upon what precedes birth, not upon birth itself, but upon what follows birth: the trauma of the after-birth” (page 218, para 2). Shelley painted a story of creation and its consequences.

Mary Shelley created this piece of work during a time in her life when she herself was creating life, growing uncertain beings inside of her (page 220, para 4). This fact almost certainly contributed to the novel. An author with a passion, knowledge, or curiosity of a subject is sure to have fuel in writing a story. Shelley was extremely unlucky, losing all of her infant children to death. If grief over the death of a child isn’t enough to spurn a great classic novel, the world doesn’t know what is. Shelley expressed “that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption” (page 222, para 1). There is so much connection here to the story of Frankenstein. Victor suffers the loss of his mother, and shortly thereafter sets off on his quest to create a new human being. Though more implied than anything, he would love to be able to bring his mother back to life. To have this power would end much of human suffering. It is interesting that the very thing with which Victor wishes to end suffering is what brings about most of the suffering in his life that ensues, therefore demonstrating creation and its consequences.

Frankenstein has quite a complexity about it. The reader gets the privilege of hearing several characters narrate the story, with the bulk of it being Victor Frankenstein’s duty. One character we hear from to start the novel off is Robert Walton. As he sets out on adventure at sea, he writes letters to his sister. Walton’s most pressing desire during this time is to have a friend, a companion. He writes, “I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection… I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine” (Shelley, pg. 10, para 1). This very much foreshadows the coming events of the novel. The monster that Frankenstein creates ends up confronting his creator and asking for a companion, for that very reason- he has no one’s eyes to reply to his own, being a frightening monster. If he had a companion that looked like him, it would be different. “You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This alone you can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse” (Shelley, pg. 98, para. 2). Companionship is displayed here, or the desire for it, throughout the novel.

Victor learns hard lessons in the revenge department. The monster kills William, and then Justine, the family’s servant, is blamed for the murder and sentenced to death. The monster first kills William, not knowing his own strength, sort of a state of confusion about his identity and where he has come from. The monster kills Victor’s dear friend, and his bride Elizabeth at the end of the novel. So many people near and dear to his heart, all dead. Victor experiences intense regret because of this. “A bad conscience! Yes, I surely had one. William, Justine, and Clerval, had died through my infernal machinations” (Shelley, pg. 127, para. 2). Perhaps Mary Shelley felt some guilt and regret over not being able to sustain life in her babies. She definitely felt strange about the fact that it was her own birth that ultimately killed her own mother (Moers, pg. 222, para. 2)

Fear of the unknown weaves through the novel in several places. Robert Walton, at sea, is searching for the North Pole. He wants to be the first to discover it and though he is extremely ambitious, he is often weary of the trek. The unknown comes up again when Victor’s mother dies. Grief as an emotion is an unknown realm, even to those who have experienced it before. Victor has to deal with the loss of his mother, flying by the seat of his pants. Next, Victor creates the monster. Upon seeing him, he feels fear and flees. “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued  a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelley, pg. 34, para. 4). Here it is, things not turning out the way he had hoped. How do we as human beings deal with this?  Victor reacts by running away, which ultimately proves to fail when his problems catch up with him. Did Mary Shelley feel this way, a desire to run from a slew of tragedy in her early life?  Lastly, fear of the unknown, or fear of what we do not understand, is demonstrated in the fact that the monster does not know who he is, and he is scared. He is received adversely by all he comes in contact with, because they do not understand why he appears so frightening.

Love and companionship are important themes in Frankenstein. In some moments, it is a love story, in others a tragedy. Shelly blended early science fiction with romance and gothic styles, achieving a work for which “there is perhaps no reader who will not feel a responsive string touched in his inmost soul.” We as humans feel love for our families, friends, and lovers. Each relationship is explored in the novel, as were they in Mary Shelley’s life. When the monster retreats to the mountains, he educates himself by learning to read. This is when he is able to realize that he desires love in his life. Mary Shelley had a similar experience, reading the works of her parents, especially her mother’s, during her childhood (Gilbert & Gubar, pg. 227, para. 2). Perhaps she formulated some of her own ideas about love by reading these works, later pouring them out into the pages of Frankenstein. Several characters in the novel want a companion, some romantically and some for friendship. All characters love their family members. The monster weeps over the dead body of Victor at the end of the story, basically meaning that he realizes that Victor is kind of the only family he has. Victor is his creator, his mother. The novel shows that that we all need human interaction and love, whether or not we are of this natural world or not.

Mary Shelley’s creation, Frankenstein, is truly an impressive work of literature. When we look at it in its context, it makes more sense, and the pieces fall together. It was said that Shelley essentially wrote a story that was first created by the people she surrounded herself with during the time she was writing it, specifically her husband Percy, and Byron. This cannot be true, in examining her life. She was influenced by her life and was able to produce a classic in the midst of that. Classic novels don’t become this way for no reason. She wrote the novel “with a firm and steady hand” (Shelly, Percy, pg. 185, para. 1), ad we are happy she did.

Work Cited

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and J. Paul Hunter. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: the 1818 Text,

Contexts, Nineteenth-century Responses, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.

Critical essays:

Moers, Ellen. Literary Women. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar: Mary Shelley’s Monstrous Eve. The Madwomen in the

            Attic. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe: On Frankenstein. The Athenaeum Journal of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts. 1832.

Summary of a Critical Response

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Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote his critical response,  ” On Frankenstein”, in 1817, presumably in England, shortly after Mary Shelley completed the novel. His response was published in 1832. Percy Shelley was Mary Shelley’s husband. An inference could be made that because the two were married, Percy most likely read the novel with care, and closely interpreted it. His opinion is almost certainly reliable.

Percy first writes of Mary’s accomplishment, talking about its originality and honorable writing style. He also mentions the pace of the novel, how “the interest gradually accumulates and advances towards the conclusion with the accelerated rapidity of a rock rolled down a mountain.” Next Percy writes about the reader’s emotional response to Frankenstein, saying “there is perhaps no reader who will not feel a responsive string touched in his inmost soul.” Readers also respond to the universal moral of the novel, “treat a person ill, and he will become wicked.” Next, Percy admits that the monster is a “tremendous creature” and therefore it is no wonder he was received the way he was in Mary’s story. Percy then mentions some examples of the monsters interaction with humans throughout the novel. Percy ends his response by saying that the “exhibition of intellectual and imaginative power” in the novel is something “we think the reader will acknowledge.”

I think that Percy Shelley and I read the novel similarly. I definitely felt impressed by how well the novel advanced towards the climax. It drew me in. By reading this and other critical responses, I just understand Frankenstein a little better. It’s nice to read other people’s opinions to aid in forming your own. Yes, I will most likely use portions of Percy’s response for essay #3, especially because it was a response that I could comprehend pretty well.

Here's Wikipedia on Percy Bysshe Shelley. I love wikipedia.