Frankenstein: Difference between revisions

← Older edit

Frankenstein (view source)

Revision as of 03:41, 12 April 2023

6,992 bytes added , 12 April 2023

m

→‎Adam and Eve

VisualWikitext

Bromley

Bots, Bureaucrats, Interface administrators, Suppressors, Administrators

4,620

edits

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 == Mary Shelley ==
-* her mother was the famed writer and women<nowiki>'s rights thinker, '''Mary Wollenstonecraft'''</nowiki>
+* her mother was the famed writer and women's rights thinker, Mary Wollenstonecraft
 ** Wollenstonecraft is considered the "first feminist"
 * her father, <nowiki>'''William Godwin'''</nowiki>, was a famous political philosopher and novelist
-** Godwin was considered a political radical for his attacks on political institutions, "aristocratic priviliege", and religion
+** Godwin was considered a political radical for his attacks on institutions, "aristocratic privilege", and religion
-** he was an early promoter of "utilitarianism,"
+*** he argued
+** he was an early promoter of "utilitarianism," a philosophy that sought to create the "greatest good" or "happiness" for the "greatest number of people"
+** Godwin wrote a novel that drew from John Milton's "Paradise Lost"
+*** Mary Shelley also drew inspiration from <nowiki>''Paradise Lost''</nowiki>
+* Shelley had an affair with the poet Percy Shelley, who was married, and married him in 1816
+*
+== Writing of Frankenstein ==
+=== The Year Without a Summer ===
+* it was on a trip to Switzerland in 1816 w/ Shelley, the poet Lord Byron, and William Polidor that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein
+* Mary wrote of her time in Switzerland,
+ "It proved a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house"
+* there were unusual, frequent thunderstorms that summer
+** in 1815, Mt. Tombora, in Indonesia, had exploded, the largest volcanic eruption in 1,300 years
+** the volcano emitted an enormous amount of ash and particles into the sky
+*** caused agricultural disasters and famines across the northern hemisphere
+** the summer of 1816 was known as "The Year Without a Summer"
+** worldwide temperatures dropped 1 degree Celsius
+** in Switzerland ice formed in the mountains during the summer and reddish snow fell during the summer in the Alps regions of northern Italy (bordering Switzerland)
+** and rain across Europe flooded major rivers
+** in Hungry, the volcanic ash mixed with snow and fell as "brown snow"
+* during the gloomy summer, to amuse one another, the friends told ghost stories to one another
+* Byron suggested they each write one of their own
+* Mary was unable to think of one, until her thoughts moved towards "galvanism" and the re-animation of a corpse.
+=== Galvanism ===
+[[File:A Galvanised Corpse.jpg|thumb|Cartoon of a galvanized corpse (1836)]]
+* Benjamin Franklin's discoveries in the mid-1700s of the nature of lightning as electricity spurred research into electricity
+* in the late 1700s, Luigi Galvani realized that muscle tissue reacted to electricity
+** his assistant accidently touched a dead frog's leg with a charged scalpel, which made its leg move
+** Galvani later realized that electricity produced the same effect
+** he proposed that electricity animated living things
+** he called it "animal electricity"
+*** became known as "Galvanism"
+** became a cultural phenomenon (meme)
+*** cartoons and stories of corpses raised from the dead with electricity
+** the term "Galvanism" was actually coined by Alessandro Volta, who built the first chemical electric battery
+*** for Volta, "Galvanism" referred to generation of electricity via chemical reactions
+* '''James Lind''', 1736-1812
+** a physician who taught Galvanism and demonstrated it to Percy Shelley with dead frogs and reptiles by making them jump by applying electricity
+*** he suggested the use of electricity to treat the insane (called today "electroshock therapy")
+*** and he may have revived a cardiac arrest patient with electrical shocks
+** Mary Shelley had nightmares about these sessions
+** Lind was likely the inspiration for the characters De Lacey and Dr. M. Waldman in ''Frankenstein''.
+== Technological change ==
+* during the early 19th century, the world saw tremendous technological and scientific change and advance
+* new technologies and inventions excited and scared the world
+* religion was challenged as the sole explanation of the natural world
+=== exploration ===
+* the world was first circumnavigated in the 1500s
+* a part of northern Australia was only discovered in 1606 by the Dutch, who never settled it
+* the British mapped and settled Australia in the 1780s after losing the American colonies
+* explorers were still mapping the Arctics in the late 1700s
+=== electricity ===
+* in the 1740s and 1750s Benjamin Franklin astounded the world by discovering the nature of electricity and lightning
+* other scientists and inventors studied and experimented with electricity
+=== steam engine ===
+* the first steam engine was invented in the mid-1700s
+* the first steam boats were employed in the late 1700s
+* the first steam-powered land vehicles (trains and tractors) were used in the early 1800s
+=== medicine ===
+* along w/ the telescope, the microscope was invented over a long period of time
+* in 1676,  Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
+== Science, knowledge & acting like God ==
+* the overall theme of Frankenstein is the danger of knowledge
+* "science" originally means "knowledge" or "acquiring knowledge"
+** thus "science" is taking on knowledge
+* the novel poses questions about Dr. Frankenstein's experiments and about science itsefl:
+** ''was he trying to gain knowledge that he should not possess?''
+** ''was he acting like a god or God?''
+** ''is there such as thing as "dangerous knowledge"''
+** ''should there be limits upon scientific experiments?''
+== Literary, mythological & religious inspirations and references ==
+=== Adam and Eve ===
+* in the Hebrew bible (Christian "Old Testament"), God created man in the form of Adam and Eve
+** they were to live in peace with God and all the animals in the "Garden of Eden"
+** the only rule was that they should not eat the fruit of the "tree of knowledge"
+* Satan (the devil) appeared to them as a serpent (snake)
+** and convinced Eve that God was unfair and cruel to not let them eat from the "tree of knowledge"
+** and that they could become like God if they ate the fruit of that tree
+** by eating the fruit, they lost their innocence and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden for it
+* while God created Adam and Eve, is God responsible for their decisions?
+** or do Adam and Eve exercise free will (make decisions on their own)?
+*** or is He?
+=== Paradise Lost ===
+* by the English poet, John Milton
+* tells the Biblical stories of
+** the fall of Satan and other angels who are banished from Heaven for rebelling against God
+** the "fall of man" through the narrative of Adam and Eve and their "temptation" by Satan to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge
+=== Prometheus ===
+* ''Frankenstein'' is also called, or sometimes uses the subtitle, "The Modern Prometheus"
+* = Greek myth of "Prometheus"
+** he was a Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans in order to help them
+** = giving humans knowledge of the gods
+* the gods were angered and punished Prometheus to eternal torment
+** by being tied to a rock and having his liver eaten by an eagle every day
+** then it would grow back to be eaten again the next day
+** eventually the hero Heracles rescued him
+=== Problems for Dr. Frankenstein ===
+so a question for Dr. Frankenstein is if he is acting like God, the Greek gods, or Adam & Eve or Prometheus?
+* ''if Dr. Frankenstein is acting like God, is Frankenstein responsible for the actions of the monster?''
+* ''if, instead, Dr. Frankenstein is acting like Adam and Eve or Prometheus, is he not then responsible for his actions, as he stole "knowledge" from God/gods?''
+* ''is some knowledge dangerous?''
+* ''should there be limits upon knowledge?''
+* ''is there responsibility with knowledge?''
 [[Category:British Literature]]