FRANKENSTEIN
by Mary Godwin Shelley
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1.
THE OVERREACHER
2.
THE DOUBLE
3.
ROUSSEAU'S IDEA OF "THE GOOD NATURAL MAN" AND
SOCIAL CRITICISM
4.
SCIENCE AND MORALS
5.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
6.
CHARACTERS
7.
THE SUBLIME
8.
THE GOTHIC NOVEL : GENERAL FEATURES
9.
MARY SHELLEY
10. FRANKENSTEIN Vs DR JEKYLL & MR.HYDE
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1.THE OVERREACHER
 Victor Frankenstein is defined "The Modern Prometheus"
in the subtitle of the novel. As Prometheus defied Zeus
stealing the fire from him to bring it back to Mankind,
the Swiss scientist protagonist of Mary Shelley's 1818
novel defies any natural law and God himself for his great
ambition: to create, not to generate, life. To give life to an
inanimate body.
 Both Prometheus and Dr. Frankenstein are
OVERREACHERS, special types of rebels who:
 try to go beyond the limits imposed to Mankind by God
or Nature
 are moved by a great ambition
 are always punished with death (not Prometheus, since
he was a Titan, a semi-god)
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2. THE DOUBLE
 There are two examples of this theme in Mary
Shelley's novel. Two characters recognize in an
"alter ego" their wrong side, the flaws in their
personality:
 1. Captain Walton recognizes in Dr Frankenstein
his own great ambition, which might lead him to self
-exhaustion and death, and decides to stop his
exploration of the North Pole, in order to avoid
risking his crew's lives and his own. So Dr
Frankenstein is an alter ago/ the double to Captain
Walton.

2. Victor Frankenstein recognizes in the horrible
creature he has created the embodiment of his own
"awful" ambition. This is why he is so terrified by the
vision of his "living experiment".
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3. ROUSSEAU'S IDEA OF "THE GOOD
NATURAL MAN" AND SOCIAL
CRITICISM
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Mary Shelley was influenced by J.J.
Rousseau's ideas. Rousseau believed a
human being was born innocent and
uncorrupted , then the unjust social system
and its prejudices spoilt and corrupted him.
This is exactly what happens to
Frankenstein's creature who was naturally
good when he came to life but was then
turned into a monster and an evil murderer
by the prejudices of all the human beings
he met, starting with his creator.
 He was rejected and wronged because of
his ugly appearance.
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4.SCIENCE AND MORALS
Frankenstein is considered the forerunner
of the science fiction genre.
The authoress, fascinated by physiology,
chemistry and physics, reflects on the
relationship between science and morals something we call bioethics nowadays .
She wonders what the destiny of someone
who overcomes the border might be.
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5. NARR AT I VE F E AT U RE S

Frankenstein has a complex structure. It is an
epistolary novel with three different levels of
narration, three narrators and different points of
view. The technique used is usually called
"Chinese boxes".
 Unlikely the many Gothic tales written
before, the characters in this novel are not flat
and there is a certain psychological insight
 In addition, unlikely the Gothic tradition , this
novel does not tell of supernatural but rather the
protagonist, Victor Frankenstein , embodies the
theme of science and responsibility to mankind.
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5 . 1 NA R R AT I V E F E AT U R E S
 At first Walton
informs his sister
 Then
Frankenstein
informs Walton who
informs his sister;
 Finally the
monster informs
Frankestein , who
informs Walton, who
informs his sister.
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6 . C H A R ACT E R S
 WALTON , who is the double of Dr. Frankenstein as he
manifests his ambition, is characterised by Romantic element:
 his desire to explore the unknown ( the Noth Pole) ;
 Nature seen as the embodiment of God;
 His pride of being different.
 He tries to go beyond human limits ( Prometheus myth) and, like
Prometheus, he is punished with the imprisoment of his ship in the
ice and the rebellion of the crew.
 FRANKESTEIN and THE MONSTER are complementary: they
both suffer from a sense of alienation and isolation , both they
begin with a desire to be good but become obsessed with revenge.
 FRANKESTEIN may be considered an overeacher who is
looking for forbidden knowledge.
 The third part of the novel has the MONSTER as protagonist.
 He is rejected by people because of his ugly aspect and
therefore he becomes an outcast , a murderer and a rebel against
any human being.
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7 . T H E O R I G I N S O F T H E G O T H I C TA S T E
- A N E W C O N C E P T I O N O F B E AU T Y
 A new taste for the desolate, the love of ruins,
graveyards, ancient castles and abbeys, was part of a
revival of interest in a past perceived as contrasting with
the present reality. The rediscovery of the art,
architecture, legends and popular traditions of the
Middle Ages manifested itself in the “Gothic”, which was
no longer synonymous with barbarity, but became a facet
of exoticism.
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7 . 1 T H E O R I G I N S O F T H E G O T H I C TA S T E - A
N E W C O N C E P T I ON O F B E AU T Y
The new concept of
beauty was theorised
by Edmund BURKE «
A Philosophical
Enquiry into the
Origin of Our Ideas
of the Sublime and
Beautiful (1957)
SUBLIME does not depend
on the objectivity of
experience ( the quality of
things themselves) but it
exists merely in the mind
that contemplates them.
SUBLIME= the
strongest emotions
aroused by vast &
natural landscapes
which are vast,
desolate, grandiose,
powerful,
overwhelming
SUBLIME because
man stands before it
in fear and amazment
, in admiration and
trepidation
FREEDOMthe aesthetic categories of
ROMANTICISM are based on the idea of
freedom as they are subjective , that is to say they
are judged by the individual in accordance wth the
emotions they can arouse in him.
The concept of BEAUTY & SUBLIME is a
psychological one as it is within the mind of
men , in their
reactions
to the objects.
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8 . G E N E R A L F E AT U R E S
 THE GOTHIC NOVEL
 The adjective “Gothic” had three important
connotations:
 MEDIEVAL , because it is related tothe architectural
style of the Middle Ages
 IRREGULAR as opposed to the proportion and order of
cLASSICISSM;
 WILD & SUPERNATURAL in the senese of MYSTERIOUS
nad FEARFUL
 great importance given to terrifying descriptions
 ancient settings (i.e. isolated castles, secret rooms,
mysterious abbeys)
 the choice of Catholic countries as the setting for the
most terrible crimes due to the Protestant prejudice
against Catholicism
 use of supernatural beings (vampires, monster, ghosts)
 flat characters (the villain - a terrifying male character,
often the victim of his evil impulses ; the sensitive
overreactive heroine- the persecuted girl derived from the
model of Richardson’s Pamela; the brave sensitive hero)
 a new conception of beauty : SUBLIME
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9. MARY GODWIN SHELLEY
MARY SHELLEY’s main
achievement: FRANKENSTEIN, or the
modern Prometheus
epistolary novel
use of multiple narrators (Chinese
boxes)
interest in science
the overreacher
the double
social injustice
Rousseau's idea of a "good natural
man"
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10.FRANKENSTEIN & DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE
1. THE FIGURE OF THE OVERREACHER - The two
protagonists are scientists who, led by their great ambition, fulfil their
achievement but, thus doing, they overcome the limits and borders imposed to
them by ethics, nature or God.
Their punishment is death by exhaustion in one case, by self-destruction in
the other.
Both are OVERREACHERS, rebels who go beyond the limits imposed to
Mankind by God or Nature, who have their prototype in Prometheus, the
mythical Titan who defied Zeus stealing the fire from the Olympus.
2. FORBIDDEN SCIENCE - Both Mary Shelley, who is considered a
forerunner of science - fiction, and Robert Louis Stevenson reveal deep
interest in science in these works and reflect on what is now called bioethics.
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10.1 FRANKENSTEIN & DR. JEKILL & MR. HYDE
3. COMPLEX NARRATIVE STRUCTURE - The two stories are
told by different narrators and the reader shares different points of
view. Mary Shelley's work is an epistolary novel with three narrating
voices, whose narration doesn't follow a chronological sequence. It
is also designed as "Chinese boxes"
Stevenson's "Jekyll and Hyde", too, has a multi - narrational
structure: four different narrators and a series of different points of
view are proposed to the reader: 80% of the story is told by a third person external narrator but Enfield's, Lanyon's and Jekyll's
contributions are necessary, essential, to the completeness of the
puzzle Mr Utterson is trying to re-compose.
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HYDE
 4. THE DOUBLE - In Frankenstein we can recognize two examples of
these fascinating theme. Captain Walton can be considered Victor
Frankenstein's "alter ego", his double, since they manifest the same
ambition. Walton and Frankenstein try to go beyond human limits and are
punished in the end as are all overreachers: Walton's punishment is the
imprisonment in the ice and the rebellion of his crew; Frankenstein's
punishment is definite, it is death.
 The second example of double is Frankenstein and the
creature/monster he created. Why can the latter be considered the alter
ego of the first? What does Frankenstein recognize of himself in the
wretched creature he brought to life? That monstrous being is the
embodiment of his horrible guilty ambition, of his monstrous plan for
usurping the female role and defy the basic natural laws of life.
 The theme of the double in Stevenson's mystery story is based on the
double identity / personality of a single human being. As Henry James
said: "It deals with the relation of the baser parts of man to his nobler - of
the capacity for evil that exists in the most generous nature..."
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10.2 FRANKENSTEIN & DR. JEKILL & MR. HYDE
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 5. GOTHICISM - Gothic elements characterize both novels:
• the monster, exoticism, nocturnal gloomy scenes, bloody crimes, fear and
terror in FRANKENSTEIN
• mysterious, foggy, dark setting, evil crimes, ugly devilish Mr Hyde, fear
and terror in JEKYLL AND HYDE
 6. RELATION TO MYTHS OF THE PAST - If Shelley's herself
defined her Frankenstein a modern Prometheus, can't respectable Dr
Jekyll be considered a modern Faust?
 7. SOCIAL CRITICISM - Though not realistic stories meant to be
social novels, they convey the attempts of their authors to criticize
contemporary society, both books contain in fact critical messages in that
direction. Frankenstein highlights the social injustice which transforms an
innocent creature into a murderous monster by marginalizing him for his
ugly aspect.
 Jekyll and Hyde, instead, attacks the hypocritical duplicity of the
respectable Victorian society
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