FRANKENSTEIN (The modern prometheus)
By Mary Shelley
Frankenstein (The modern prometheus), the gothic novel, was published in
England in 1819. But, which circumstances led to the literary creation of
one of the most famous “monsters” of all times…?
Session 1
Get the information to answer the questions below. Work in pairs. Write the
answers AS A PARAGRAPH in your blog. Add photos.
Divide the paragraph into TWO sections:
a) about the author
b) about the scientific discoveries of the time that influenced the author
A) READ THE TEXT OR FIND THE INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET
The writer
- Name and date of birth?
- Who were her parents?
The novel
- When was it published?
- What type of novel is it? (Genre)
- How did the story first originate?
- Look at the alternative title “The modern Prometheus”.
Who was Prometheus?, What’s the relation to the story?
B-Read the grid below. Make a TIMELIME using http://www.timetoast.com/
Sign up in TIMETOAST and create the timeline of the events that surrounded Mary
Shelley’s creation of Frankenstein, from 1752 to 1862. Post it in your blog using the embed
code or html code..
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1752
1775
Mary
Shelley
1797
1815
1816
1819
was born
married
spent
“Frankenstein”
Percy
summer
was published.
Shelley
with
1850
1862
Lord Byron
Society
The first period of the Industrial Revolution started in England and spread
throughout Western Europe and North America.
Science
Technology
Scientific experimentation on electricity was carried out in Europe and Noth America with outstanding success
James Watt
Patented the
steam
engine
Art
The Romantic Movement developed. Those artists showed hostility and fear towards the effects of
Industrialisation (factories and urbanizatiion, child labour, new technological inventions…)
Some British artists during this period were: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John
Keats, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
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ABOUT FRANKENSTEIN AND MARY SHELLEY
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READ THE TEXTS AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS IN THE GRID AND
IN YOUR BLOG
Electricity
Electricity would remain little more than an intellectual curiosity for millennia until 1600,
when the English scientist William Gilbert made a careful study of electricity and
magnetism.He coined the New Latin word electricus ("of amber" or "like amber" to refer
to the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed.This association gave rise
to the English words "electric" and "electricity".
In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity,
selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a
metal key to the bottom of a wet kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky.
A succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of the hand showed
that lightning was indeed electrical in nature.
In 1791, Luigi Galvani published his discovery of bioelectricity, demonstrating that electricity
was the medium by which nerve cells passed signals to the muscles. Alessandro Volta's
battery, or voltaic pile, of 1800, made from alternating layers of zinc and copper, provided
scientists with a more reliable source of electrical energy than the electrostatic
machines previously used.The recognition of electromagnetism, the unity of electric and
magnetic phenomena, is due to Hans Christian Ørsted and André-Marie Ampère in 18191820; Michael Faraday invented the electric motor in 1821, and Georg Ohm mathematically
analysed the electrical circuit in 1827.Electricity and magnetism (and light) were definitively
linked by James Clerk Maxwell, in particular in his "On Physical Lines of Force" in 1861
and 1862-
Romanticism
During the Industrial Revolution an intellectual and artistic hostility towards the new
industrialisation developed. This was known as the Romantic movement. Its major
exponents in English included the artist and poet William Blake and poets William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,John Keats, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe
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Shelley. The movement stressed the importance of "nature" in art and language, in
contrast to "monstrous" machines and factories.Mary Selley’s novel
Frankenstein reflected concerns that scientific progress might be two-edged.
Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that
combines elements of both horror and romance. The genre was given this name
because the stories usually had medieval buildings or ruins in them, often with secret
tunnels or rooms. As a genre, it is generally believed to have been invented by the
English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.
The poetry, romantic adventures and character of Lord Byron were a source of
inspiration for the Gothic literature. Byron was also the one who proposed the
ghost-story competition to Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley on the banks of
Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816.
Mary Shelley's novel, though clearly influenced by the gothic tradition, is often
considered the first science fiction novel, despite the omission in the novel of any
scientific explanation of the monster's animation and the focus instead on the moral
issues and consequences of such a creation.
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major
changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology had a
profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United
Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and
eventually the world.
It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of
iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal.
One of the most important innovations during this period was the steam engine.
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The improved steam engine invented by James Watt and patented in 1775 was initially
mainly used for pumping out mines, but from the 1780s was applied to power machines.
This enabled rapid development of efficient semi-automated factories on a previously
unimaginable scale in places where waterpower was not available.
The introduction of steam power fuelled primarily by coal and the development of allmetal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the
manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The
effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century,
eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialisation. The
impact of this change on society was enormous.
The first Industrial Revolution, which began in the 18th century, merged into the Second
Industrial Revolution around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained
momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the
19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation.
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan. He stole fire from Zeus and gave it
to mortals. Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a
great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next
day.
Clearly, Victor Frankenstein is this modern Prometheus. In a way, he stole the idea of
creation from God and used it for his own purposes.
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Dr. Frankenstein wants to create life, wants to be “God”, and he must be responsible for
the consequences of his acts. And that’s the message; Is the scientific community
responsible for its creations?.
The idea of the noble savage
The monster is not bad at the beginning, but the cruelty of other people towards him,
even his own creator’s cruelty, makes him become evil. People, society, are cruel to him
only because he’s different, he’s an outsider, he doesn’t belong in human society. And
then, he decides to revenge.
The idea is that people are not born evil but learn to be evil. But still, is revenge a right
solution?
ANWER THESE QUESTIONS IN THE GRID AND IN YOUR BLOG
New discoveries
- What did B. Franklin conclude after his experiment with a
on electricity
kite in a stormy day?. When was it?
- What did L.Galvani discover? When?
At that
time…
New technologies
-
When was the steam machine patented? By whom?
What did it mean in the process of industrialization of the
western world?
Literature
- How did the Romantic Movement feel about the
consequences of the Industrial revolution?
- How is it shown in the novel “Frankenstein”?
FINAL QUESTION: - What’s the moral of the story in relation to the monster’s evilness?
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