Read a classmate's critical article.
Write a paragraph as described below.
You'll read us your paragraph tomorrow, and hand it in.
SUMMARIZE the article for us. Do not plagiarize from the abstract or from your friend's summary.
PARAPHRASE a particular idea that you find fascinating.
Introduce and QUOTE a bit of critical insight from that section of the essay, and explain its relevance to a moment in the book. QUOTE the book in that context. (5-12 words per quote.) Cite all quotes correctly.
Respond. What deep insight do you draw from this, or how do you generalize this idea, or, you know, SO WHAT?
Your WORKS CITED page will have both the critical source and the primary source.
How do signal phrases work? The citations should contain page numbers only, because you've given us all the context we need within the sentence.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Ted, the monster, devotes himself to learning the language spoken by a family he spies on but instead of including him more into society it pushes him more out. Ashley Cross develes deep into the meaning that language has with Ted and how it transforms him and his story. As Ted learns, “language transforms his thinking and impresses on him the codes of bourgeois morality, even as these very codes exclude his difference” (6). He believes that learning the language will help him enter into the social world but is that language that isolates him and makes him more unhappy; “‘I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge’” (119-120). Ted thinks that once he masters language people would accept him but this is not what happens at all. The more that Ted learns about society and about himself, the more he becomes wretched for he realizes that he is the creature that all call a monster. He also learns that while everyone has someone, he has no one. - Anna B
Cross, Ashley J. “‘Indelible Impressions’: Gender and Language in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Women’s Studies, vol. 27, no. 6, Nov. 1998, p. 547. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00497878.1998.9979233.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Tom Doherty, 1988.
Technology in Frankenstein
Technology is thought of as a good and powerful thing but what is usually not thought about is the damage it quietly causes on our thinking and values. Thomas Vargish in “Technology and Impotence in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” believes it bribes humans so it can “usurp authority at precisely the moment of empowerment” (323). Once power is in a person’s mind the technology, in this case new life, the creation will take over and erase morals. The idea that Frankenstein had the ability to create new life was the only thing on his mind. He was not ready to maintain control over his new technology and this was the death of him. Frankenstein admits to himself that he “had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation” but when he saw what had been created “the beauty of the dream vanished” (Shelley 49). The last thought in Frankenstein’s head is how to take care of the life and creature he has worked so hard on. Instead, as soon as he has accomplished it he runs away hoping to not have to deal with it. Science is not something to mess around with, it can destroy lives, minds, and culture just by being created. - Torria C
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 1988.
VARGISH, THOMAS. “Technology and Impotence in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, vol. 21, no. 1/2, Nov. 2009, pp. 322–337. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=aph&AN=48170400&site=ehost-live.
Steven Marcus introduces the idea of the connection between human sympathy in regards to sickness and the monster’s feelings and experiences. Marcus refers to the corresponding ideas as “Otherness”. A huge part of the story is the monster’s own “awareness of his Otherness - his solitude, singularity, difference, isolation, his uncared-for state…” (198). The author goes on to compare these feelings of loneliness to feelings people get while ill. “Illness is of course one of our most common, universal, and inescapable experiences of Otherness…” (198). In other words, we do not feel like ourselves and we do not feel accepted or welcomed by society as a whole. There are many situations in the book where the monster is lamenting about his exclusion from the common world. The first time he truly experiences his desperate isolation is when his beloved family has “horror and consternation on beholding [him],” (136). After this, the monster’s patience and hope in society crashes even farther than it had been before. Marcus takes what we know about human aversion to illness, stemming from both fear and disgust, and gives the monster’s emotions relatable context. - Audrey G.
Marcus, Steven. “Frankenstein: Myths of Scientific and Medical Knowledge and Stories of Human Relations.” Southern Review, vol. 38, no. 1, Winter 2002, p. 188. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=6331892&site=ehost-live.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 1988.
One of the main ideas in Paul Lewis’ Victor Frankenstein and Owen Warland: The Artist as Satan and as God is that the creator exhibits godly and satanic characteristics. In his work, Lewis states that Frankenstein “fails as a God when he creates the monster” and “fails as a man when he abandons his creation” (280). His original intentions for his creation was to satisfy his thirst for power and knowledge, and in the beginning it seemed like a godly deed. But he also fails as a man when he turns away at first glance of the hideous being. Humans can become so wrapped up in appearance, that it steers them away from being kind and accepting to others. This idea is relevant to the actual story as it does reflect Frankenstein’s actions. As soon as life enters his creation he runs from it, and he never goes back for the monster. This creates a sense of loneliness and alienation for the creature. Shelley describes how when the monster comes to life Frankenstein is “unable to endure the aspect of the being'' and “rush[s] to his room” (49). This idea of first impressions and appearances being so important in relationships is very evident. And this idea can turn into a case of discrimation when looked further into. - Geny M.
Lewis, Paul. “Victor Frankenstein and Owen Warland: The Artist as Satan and as God.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 14, no. 3, Summer 1977, p. 279. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7150775&site=ehost-live.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Perma-Bound, 1988.
Author James A. Wohlpart explains how, through Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is actually meaning to criticize the environment of male poets and the true influence feminism has on Romanticism literature. Wohlpart believes that “because of his isolation from any feminine influence, Victor Frankenstein, as a pseudo-artist, creates a monstrosity” and how if the monster “had communed with a female mate, he would not have been a monstrosity but a benevolent and beneficent creature,” (Wohlpart, ) Throughout the entire book, all the monster ever wanted was to be treated equally and to feel loved. After Frankenstein refuses to give him either in fear of self-destruction, the monster begins to grow instead in a state of rage and hate. “My rage was without bounds; I sprang on him, impelled by all the feelings which can arm one being against the existence of another,” (Shelly, 96). In this moment of birth, the monster finds himself rejected from Frankenstein, a moment that will stain him forever. - Cliona P.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Patrick Nobes. Frankenstein. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Wohlpart, A. James “A Tradition of Male Poetics: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as an Allegory of Art.” Midwest Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3, Spring 1998, pp. 265-276. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=551488&site=ehost-live.
Dale Kramer and Scott Juengel are two Literary critics who have discovered similar connections of the human recognition of a person’s true character and the contrast of this character with their physical appearances. Both of these critics have gathered a deeper meaning on this idea in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. As noted by Scott Juengel, “Shelley's novel, again and again, attests to how beauty can, in a single horrifying instant, become "wretched." (234) Victor Frankenstein was very precise in the creation of this monster but after his work was complete he was horrified. There was a horrid contrast between the selected features that Victor chose and the end result. This shows us that we might think something is beautiful, but in the end, it can turn ugly. Ugly can mean different things. It can mean that they have an ugly soul or they are just plain ugly. When reading Frankenstein is it apparent that the monster was never given a name. This according to the critics may have been on purpose to show that he is not appreciated for the mind and heart he was given. - Kacey M. and Georgia P.