Wednesday, 11 April 2007
Frankenstein controversy
An interesting controversy is currently raging in academic circles about the authorship of Frankenstein. In brief, John Lauritsen is about to publish (May 1st)his thesis that the real author was Percy Shelley. The whole debate makes most intriguing reading and is linked to Lauritsen's gay activism! To check it out and to start forming your own responses, search for his name with Frankenstein on google where you will also see an interesting (if questionable) article by Germaine Greer.
Monday, 9 April 2007
"Villette" by Charlotte Bronte
I don't know if anyone else is going to use this site to share information on other texts they read over the Easter break, but as everyone's going to read this at some point I thought I may as well.
WARNING: SPOILERS
Aspects of the gothic present (or absent) in "Vilette"
"Villette," by Charlotte Bronte, is based on Charlotte's time in Brussels, although she fictionalises the city to "Villette" and the country of Belgium to Labassecour. The protagonist, Lucy Snowe, stoically undergoes trials whislt watching other people gain success and love, and the ending is ambiguously happy or tragic.
There are no wild landscapes, as the action of the novel is set inside a city, but it does have a very old, crooked tree which Snowe nicknames "Methusaleh"
The square where the priest lives, has a church whose "dark ruinous turrets" overlook the houses."Antiquity brooded over this region"
Religious concepts/settings are definitely used in Vilette. The school in which Snowe lives is an old convent which is said to be haunted by a nun who was buried alive. There is a conflict throughout the book between Snowe's Protestantism and the Catholicism of the inhabitants of Villette. The priest, Pere Silas, starts off as Lucy's ally, and a kind ear to her troubles, but soon becomes a barrier between her and the (Jesuit) man she loves. There is oe particularly unnerving scene when one of Snowe's very young students comes up to her desk and tells her she's going to hell.
In Villette, as in Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, fear and depression lead to "nervous disorders." Lucy is abandoned with a mentally disabled child whilst pining and this causes extreme depression - she ends up going slightly mad and runs around Villette, before being rescued by Pere Silas who takes her to the doctor's. This is again repeated later when she is sneakily sedated by the headmistress of the school - but the drugs go wrong and produce in Snowe a fevered, semi-hallucinatory state, "excited from head to foot" so she runs out of the school and goes wandering, spying on people she knows. Paul Emmanuel is constantly portrayed as irrationally grumpy and prone to violent outbursts of irriation at anyone - until we discover his seret other life! There are plenty of other examples of extreme emotion. For example, the young Paulina on being left behind by her travelling father:
she moped,: no grown person could have performed that uncheering business better...she seemed growing old and unerathly
The supernatural and ghostly - the school is supposedly hauted by a nun who has been buried alive, but the visions that Lucy and Paul Emmanuel have have a slightly more mundane reason behind them.
Darkness, shadow and decay are seen in the alleyway that Lucy has to clear to sit in it, for privacy.
Exotic and Oriental, travel. Whilst France and the Low Countries may not, at first, seem obviously exotic, the culture clash, and the foreign language (which Lucy is not educated in prior to moving to Villette) pose many probelms which Lucy must overcome. In additon, the final obstacle to Lucy's happiness is that Paul Emmanuel must go to the West Indies to sort out his dependent's estate.
Terror, but not horror, tends to come in the shape of the ghostly nun, or the extreme opression of the environment.
Isolation and lonelinessis a major theme. The first example is when Paulina is left by her father. Then Lucy is abandoned by her father dying, and must live as an old lady's companion. Then she is isolated by her inability to speak the language of Villette, then by her religious differences. Then she is literally isolated and alone as every teacher and student goes off on holiday and leaves her alone with a quiet servant and a mentally disabled child in the school. Lucy is an outsider.
The conflict between Rationalism (reason) and Romaticism (imagination) is best expressed in chapter 21 (Reaction):
"But if I feel, may I never express?"
"Never!" declared Reason...Reason may be right; yet no wonder we are glad to defy her, to rush from under her rod and give a truant hour to imagination...depsite the terrible revenge that awaits our return...reason is as vindictive as the devil.
Deception and espionage is a key theme in "Vilette" as well. Everyone goes through everyone elses stuff - espionage is used as control, and people have to find ingenious ways (like dressing up as a nun) to defy this.
WARNING: SPOILERS
Aspects of the gothic present (or absent) in "Vilette"
"Villette," by Charlotte Bronte, is based on Charlotte's time in Brussels, although she fictionalises the city to "Villette" and the country of Belgium to Labassecour. The protagonist, Lucy Snowe, stoically undergoes trials whislt watching other people gain success and love, and the ending is ambiguously happy or tragic.
There are no wild landscapes, as the action of the novel is set inside a city, but it does have a very old, crooked tree which Snowe nicknames "Methusaleh"
The square where the priest lives, has a church whose "dark ruinous turrets" overlook the houses."Antiquity brooded over this region"
Religious concepts/settings are definitely used in Vilette. The school in which Snowe lives is an old convent which is said to be haunted by a nun who was buried alive. There is a conflict throughout the book between Snowe's Protestantism and the Catholicism of the inhabitants of Villette. The priest, Pere Silas, starts off as Lucy's ally, and a kind ear to her troubles, but soon becomes a barrier between her and the (Jesuit) man she loves. There is oe particularly unnerving scene when one of Snowe's very young students comes up to her desk and tells her she's going to hell.
In Villette, as in Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, fear and depression lead to "nervous disorders." Lucy is abandoned with a mentally disabled child whilst pining and this causes extreme depression - she ends up going slightly mad and runs around Villette, before being rescued by Pere Silas who takes her to the doctor's. This is again repeated later when she is sneakily sedated by the headmistress of the school - but the drugs go wrong and produce in Snowe a fevered, semi-hallucinatory state, "excited from head to foot" so she runs out of the school and goes wandering, spying on people she knows. Paul Emmanuel is constantly portrayed as irrationally grumpy and prone to violent outbursts of irriation at anyone - until we discover his seret other life! There are plenty of other examples of extreme emotion. For example, the young Paulina on being left behind by her travelling father:
she moped,: no grown person could have performed that uncheering business better...she seemed growing old and unerathly
The supernatural and ghostly - the school is supposedly hauted by a nun who has been buried alive, but the visions that Lucy and Paul Emmanuel have have a slightly more mundane reason behind them.
Darkness, shadow and decay are seen in the alleyway that Lucy has to clear to sit in it, for privacy.
Exotic and Oriental, travel. Whilst France and the Low Countries may not, at first, seem obviously exotic, the culture clash, and the foreign language (which Lucy is not educated in prior to moving to Villette) pose many probelms which Lucy must overcome. In additon, the final obstacle to Lucy's happiness is that Paul Emmanuel must go to the West Indies to sort out his dependent's estate.
Terror, but not horror, tends to come in the shape of the ghostly nun, or the extreme opression of the environment.
Isolation and lonelinessis a major theme. The first example is when Paulina is left by her father. Then Lucy is abandoned by her father dying, and must live as an old lady's companion. Then she is isolated by her inability to speak the language of Villette, then by her religious differences. Then she is literally isolated and alone as every teacher and student goes off on holiday and leaves her alone with a quiet servant and a mentally disabled child in the school. Lucy is an outsider.
The conflict between Rationalism (reason) and Romaticism (imagination) is best expressed in chapter 21 (Reaction):
"But if I feel, may I never express?"
"Never!" declared Reason...Reason may be right; yet no wonder we are glad to defy her, to rush from under her rod and give a truant hour to imagination...depsite the terrible revenge that awaits our return...reason is as vindictive as the devil.
Deception and espionage is a key theme in "Vilette" as well. Everyone goes through everyone elses stuff - espionage is used as control, and people have to find ingenious ways (like dressing up as a nun) to defy this.
Monday, 5 March 2007
Paralleling mythology
Romanticism often uses mythological references, using figures directly and inventing new ones to appear in the traditional stories. Parallels to both the Christian and Greek mythological stories of creation place it alongside revisionist Romantic fiction. This is to show alternative sequences of events and new potentials, that opposing the traditional ideology of 'destiny', fate can be altered. In consequence, Frankenstein's emotive statement that 'nothing can alter my destiny' is questioned.
'Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction'(P.43)
In mythology, Prometheus, the intelligent supporter of mankind, has fire taken from Earth as a punishment for being cheeky to Jupiter. He then outwits Jupiter again by stealing it back. As a second punishment Jupiter makes a clay woman, Pandora, with a box of catastrophe to marry Prometheus, but does not succeed as Prometheus' brother marries her and unleashes catastrophe. Prometheus' final punishmemt is being tied to a mountaintop for eternity and having his liver pecked out by vultures.
Frankenstein, subtitled 'The Modern Prometheus', illustrates a huge feeling of necessity to use his intelligence to aid humanity. The first irritation to nature, connoting Jupiter, could be his continuous probing into science and the second, the attempt to steal the vital fire of life. The punishment for Dr. Frankenstein could be Elizabeth, whose catastrophe was causing his mother's death by passing her illness, which spurred on the nightmare about Elizabeth turning into his dead mother. Alternatively, the monster could be the catastrophe because he was the direct consequence of creating artificial life.
The final punishment is, connoting the mountaintop, a life of isolation ending finally at the remote North Pole. The monster burns himself there, which relates to the stolen fire. Frankenstein lives as a solitary being weighed down by the guilt of his actions, which relates to the albatross in Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', to which there are many explicit references.
'Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction'(P.43)
In mythology, Prometheus, the intelligent supporter of mankind, has fire taken from Earth as a punishment for being cheeky to Jupiter. He then outwits Jupiter again by stealing it back. As a second punishment Jupiter makes a clay woman, Pandora, with a box of catastrophe to marry Prometheus, but does not succeed as Prometheus' brother marries her and unleashes catastrophe. Prometheus' final punishmemt is being tied to a mountaintop for eternity and having his liver pecked out by vultures.
Frankenstein, subtitled 'The Modern Prometheus', illustrates a huge feeling of necessity to use his intelligence to aid humanity. The first irritation to nature, connoting Jupiter, could be his continuous probing into science and the second, the attempt to steal the vital fire of life. The punishment for Dr. Frankenstein could be Elizabeth, whose catastrophe was causing his mother's death by passing her illness, which spurred on the nightmare about Elizabeth turning into his dead mother. Alternatively, the monster could be the catastrophe because he was the direct consequence of creating artificial life.
The final punishment is, connoting the mountaintop, a life of isolation ending finally at the remote North Pole. The monster burns himself there, which relates to the stolen fire. Frankenstein lives as a solitary being weighed down by the guilt of his actions, which relates to the albatross in Coleridge's 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', to which there are many explicit references.
adjectives used in setting
At Lausanne, Victor 'contemplated the lake: the waters were palcid: all around was calm; and snowy mountains, 'the palaces of nature', were not changed'. firstly Victor does not appear to be truly comfortable as he considers his surroundings, we know that he fears the monster is close yet when he carries on contemplating the surroundings he becomes relaxed seeing it as a more 'heavenly scene', 'the palaces of nature'. in true gothic style darkness came with night and Victor falls back into his state of fear 'the picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil'.
The effects on Victors mind are triggered by light and dark in this scene reflecting back to Bookbird's insight into dualism. like our past experience in To the Ligthhouse teh light-dark atmosphere across the sea and the families life. Victors inability to see the calmness of the mountains makes him feel the 'impenetrable darkness'.
Shelly relies on the stereotypical view that dark is evil - hell and light is good - heaven, this stereotypical view is what gothic literature relies on.
The effects on Victors mind are triggered by light and dark in this scene reflecting back to Bookbird's insight into dualism. like our past experience in To the Ligthhouse teh light-dark atmosphere across the sea and the families life. Victors inability to see the calmness of the mountains makes him feel the 'impenetrable darkness'.
Shelly relies on the stereotypical view that dark is evil - hell and light is good - heaven, this stereotypical view is what gothic literature relies on.
Apart vs together
"The boo from which Felix instructed Safie was Volney's Ruins of Empires."
In 1791 Volney wrote Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires, an essay on history and philosophy, containing a vision which predicts the final union of all religions by the recognition of the common truth underlying them all.
By contrast, in Paradise Lost, the other instruction on religious philosophy for Frankenstein, not even two elements of the same religion are able to coexist.
In 1791 Volney wrote Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires, an essay on history and philosophy, containing a vision which predicts the final union of all religions by the recognition of the common truth underlying them all.
By contrast, in Paradise Lost, the other instruction on religious philosophy for Frankenstein, not even two elements of the same religion are able to coexist.
Parallels between Frank and his monster
As well as foreshadowing the reactions to the monster, this observation of Walton's also establishes the first of many parallels between Frankenstein and the monster. The two are inextricably linked as creator and creation and, despite their subsequent relationship as 'enemies', their similarities are clearly identifiable (as set up in this passage).
Evidently, they share a loneliness that seems inescapable - Frankenstein struggles to make friends, having long been absorbed in and obsessed by his work, and the monster (obviously) is universally rejected and outcasted. It is interesting that the two exacerbate one other's feelings of isolation. Frankenstein is the first person to reject the monster, thus building the foundations for his future as a complete outsider, and the monster gradually eradicates the few companions Frankenstein has in the world, killing his dearest family and friends.
They are both culpable for their loneliness and their enemity is caused by their blame of one other for their misfortunes. For this reason, the parallels drawn between them, even at this early stage before we've met the monster, highlight the dualistic nature of their relationship - they are bound together inextricably but they strive to destroy one other.
Evidently, they share a loneliness that seems inescapable - Frankenstein struggles to make friends, having long been absorbed in and obsessed by his work, and the monster (obviously) is universally rejected and outcasted. It is interesting that the two exacerbate one other's feelings of isolation. Frankenstein is the first person to reject the monster, thus building the foundations for his future as a complete outsider, and the monster gradually eradicates the few companions Frankenstein has in the world, killing his dearest family and friends.
They are both culpable for their loneliness and their enemity is caused by their blame of one other for their misfortunes. For this reason, the parallels drawn between them, even at this early stage before we've met the monster, highlight the dualistic nature of their relationship - they are bound together inextricably but they strive to destroy one other.
Dualism and Conflict - Conflict between classicism and romanticism
It seems that all major movements in literature are rejections of what came before and Romanticism is no different. Romanticism is a rejection of "classical values" and Frankenstein shows the conflict between the two.
Classicism came out of the "Enlightenment period" which valued "reason" as the primary basis of authority. The reason it's called "classical" is that the writers tended to emulate the rational philosophers of Ancient Greece.
Romantic elements:
Nature, Wilderness
Classical elements:
Cities, particularly academic ones
(Oxford, London, Ingolstad)
Science
There exists, in Frankenstein, a dualism between science and nature which can be seen as an example of the conflict between rationalism and romanticism in the artistic world at this time. In every circumstance, however, nature wins -
Frankenstein does not manage to defy death - his creation overpowers him, both creator and created end up dead and Walton sees Frankenstein as a sum of body parts which parallels what has come before.
Walton does not manage to overcome the Pole
Even the monster, who is male counterpart to the overwhelmingingly female representation of Nature, has his own little battle versus nature. Logically, he should fit in fine with the De Lacey family, but his appearance outweighs his mind in how the De Laceys see him.
If you want a Wuthering Heights link, Lockwood is "rational" and Heathcliff is "romantic"
Classicism came out of the "Enlightenment period" which valued "reason" as the primary basis of authority. The reason it's called "classical" is that the writers tended to emulate the rational philosophers of Ancient Greece.
Romantic elements:
Nature, Wilderness
Classical elements:
Cities, particularly academic ones
(Oxford, London, Ingolstad)
Science
There exists, in Frankenstein, a dualism between science and nature which can be seen as an example of the conflict between rationalism and romanticism in the artistic world at this time. In every circumstance, however, nature wins -
Frankenstein does not manage to defy death - his creation overpowers him, both creator and created end up dead and Walton sees Frankenstein as a sum of body parts which parallels what has come before.
Walton does not manage to overcome the Pole
Even the monster, who is male counterpart to the overwhelmingingly female representation of Nature, has his own little battle versus nature. Logically, he should fit in fine with the De Lacey family, but his appearance outweighs his mind in how the De Laceys see him.
If you want a Wuthering Heights link, Lockwood is "rational" and Heathcliff is "romantic"
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