Commentary on Frankenstein Project

English 10

Frankenstein: Commentary on Project

The basis for evaluation of the project is

1. How does your project use the novel?

2. How does your project expand or deepen our understanding of the novel?

3. How creative/inventive/original is the project in your use of the novel and your application of form?

1) How does your project use the novel?

Elements from novel you can use include:

•character, conflict, theme, setting, etc;

•all plot information from the novel;

•specific information on what the Creature or Victor or Walton and the other characters did or said or thought.

For example, we know the Creature read Paradise Lost. We know the specific lines he mentions to Victor. Obviously, the Creature was moved by the poem and saw himself as a “New Adam.”

What we don’t know are OTHER lines he was influenced by. So, a student could do as a project an annotated (by the Creature) Paradise Lost and write a poem by the Creature in the style of Milton’s great poem.

2) How does your project expand or deepen our understanding of the novel?

You just don’t want to duplicate what is already in the novel. You want to work from what is there to add what is not there or what is not so detailed. If all your project does is tell us what we already know, then you aren’t “deepening or expanding” our understanding.

For example, in the above project, the annotated version of the Creature’s Paradise Lost could add notes about his sense of forgiveness or his sense of beauty or his sense of himself in the world. This information would ADD to what we know of him by using the words of the poem. Then, the Creature could try his hand at poetry by telling some of his story in Milton’s line. This would DEEPEN our knowledge of his character.

3) How creative/inventive/original is the project in your use of the novel and your application of form?

To do an annotated Paradise Lost you need to read selections of Milton’s poem, know enough of the Creature’s thinking about it to respond to it, understand Milton’s poetic verse, and write a poem by the Creature. If you could add to that a crusty old notebook that the Creature wrote in, I’d say that’s a lot! And the form is in keeping with the Creature’s efforts to educate himself and to find out who he is. He found Victor's journal, so he knows about journals.

Each of you needs to write a commentary on your project. The commentary should include the following answers. Each answer should take at least a MIGHTY paragraph of 150-200 words.

Name:

Question you wanted to answer:

Explain which elements of the novel your project uses and include at least 5 quotes to support your explanation:

Explain how the project expands/deepens our understanding of the novel:

Explain why you choose the form you chose as the best way to answer the question: