http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/03/mary_mary_always_contrary.html
I stumbled across this article browsing the Guardian blogs.
It even mentions Aphra Behn!
Just loosely related and interesting.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Sunday, 24 February 2008
Frankenstein'08
Frankenstein opens with a series of letters written by the outer frame narrator, Richard Walton, to his sister, Mrs Saville. The fourth, and final letter at this stage of the novel, is in three parts, written on three separate days over a two week period. These letters represent a time span of approximately eight months, from the December of one year through to the August of the next, and take place during the final decade of the 18th century. This series of letters is then once again taken up at the end of the novel, when Walton resumes his narration of the events from his perspective.
These initial four, and then five final letters - the last one dated September 12th - 'bookend' the the inner narrations of Frankenstein and then the Creature, and then Frankenstein once more. Thus, the Creature's narrative is located at the heart of the novel, embedded within the framing narratives of Frankenstein and Walton.
In addition to the use of multiple narrators, Shelley also use letters within the text, thus giving a distinctive voice to other characters in the novel.
Through these techniques, Shelley enables the reader to view both Frankenstein and the creature (and their actions) from other viewpoints. (By restricting the use of the first person viewpoint to just one narrator, a novelist inevitably limits the reader's ability to make an informed assessment about narratorial reliability.) In Frankenstein, however, Shelley is inviting the reader to make judgements about Frankenstein and his actions, by presenting certain events and actions from opposing viewpoints.
Consider, for example, Frankenstein's view of the Creature's early life and the reasons why he abandoned his creation, and then compare these with the Creature's account of his upbringing:
"It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively, finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes, but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.
Consider the 'voice' that Shelley has created for the creature - what is the tone? How is his innocence and vulnerability portrayed? Compare this with the ways in which Frankenstein portrays his creation.
These initial four, and then five final letters - the last one dated September 12th - 'bookend' the the inner narrations of Frankenstein and then the Creature, and then Frankenstein once more. Thus, the Creature's narrative is located at the heart of the novel, embedded within the framing narratives of Frankenstein and Walton.
In addition to the use of multiple narrators, Shelley also use letters within the text, thus giving a distinctive voice to other characters in the novel.
Through these techniques, Shelley enables the reader to view both Frankenstein and the creature (and their actions) from other viewpoints. (By restricting the use of the first person viewpoint to just one narrator, a novelist inevitably limits the reader's ability to make an informed assessment about narratorial reliability.) In Frankenstein, however, Shelley is inviting the reader to make judgements about Frankenstein and his actions, by presenting certain events and actions from opposing viewpoints.
Consider, for example, Frankenstein's view of the Creature's early life and the reasons why he abandoned his creation, and then compare these with the Creature's account of his upbringing:
"It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half frightened, as it were, instinctively, finding myself so desolate. Before I had quitted your apartment, on a sensation of cold, I had covered myself with some clothes, but these were insufficient to secure me from the dews of night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.
"Soon a gentle light stole over the heavens and gave me a sensation of pleasure. I started up and beheld a radiant form rise from among the trees.*I gazed with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, but it enlightened my path, and I again went out in search of berries. I was still cold when under one of the trees I found a huge cloak, with which I covered myself, and sat down upon the ground. No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me; the only object that I could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure.
"Several changes of day and night passed, and the orb of night had greatly lessened, when I began to distinguish my sensations from each other. I gradually saw plainly the clear stream that supplied me with drink and the trees that shaded me with their foliage. I was delighted when I first discovered that a pleasant sound, which often saluted my ears, proceeded from the throats of the little winged animals who had often intercepted the light from my eyes. I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me. Sometimes I tried to imitate the pleasant songs of the birds but was unable. Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again."
Consider the 'voice' that Shelley has created for the creature - what is the tone? How is his innocence and vulnerability portrayed? Compare this with the ways in which Frankenstein portrays his creation.
Sunday, 6 May 2007
Vathek by William Beckford, published 1904
Vathek is a greatly powerful King, a "Caliph", who receives some sceptres with magical descriptions, which are translated by a mysterious stranger, the Giaour. Vathek realises that he posesses supernatural powers and worships him, by fulfilling his requests to receive a prize, the treasures of Soliman and the pre-adamite sultans. However, he ultimately ends up in Hell with a heart tormented by flames for eternity.
Lonsdale argues that Vathek is not a gothic text.
"Potential melodrama and horror are almost invariably undermined and deflated by Beckford's detached, urbane and often comic tone. When Nouronihar pursues a strange light up a mountain and hears mysterious voices promising her infinite riches, if she will desert Gulchenrouz for Vathek, we may seem to be close to the 'Gothic'; but even here Beckford is less concerned to exploit the 'terrific' possibilities of the scene than to expound the choice facing Nouronihar. When Carathis and her companions visit a cemetary and its ghouls, the result is ludicrously grotesque comedy. The final scenes of the tale are serious enough, but the sudden sombre power and sustained intensity of this vision of damnation transcend anything achieved by the Gothicists."
I personally disagree with many of his comments, as the book has many of the typically Gothic traits andI do not feel that the tone is at all 'comic'.
- wild landscapes
To find the Giaour and his treasures Vathek traversed deserts and mountains, commanded not to enter any abode.
- ruined or grotesque buildings
The buildings are grand and opulent, such as the subterranean cavern, Carathis' tower and the five palaces of the senses "five wings, or rather palaces, which he destined for the particular gratification of each of the senses"p1.
- religious settings/concepts
There are many allusions to Alla and the Koran, which are praised by the "dwarfs" and some servants. Vathek is entranced into worship of the strange Giaour. The cavern of the Giaour and Soliman is implicitly Hell as a punishment for his evils, a moralistic and religious tone concludes (with great links to Shelley's message) -
"Such was, and such should be, the punishment of unrestrained passions and atrocious deeds! Such shall be, the chastisement of that blind curiosity , which would transgress those bounds the wisdom of the Creator has prescribed to human knowledge; and such the dreadful disappointment of that restless ambition, which, aiming at discoveries reserved for beings of a supernatural order, perceives not, through its infatuated pride, that the condition of man upon earth is to be - humble and ignorant."p120
- sensibility
The every whim of Vathek is catered for, to the extent of purpose-built palaces. The descriptions are senual and opulent, with lady witch Carathis having a very stormy and temperament!
- excess and extremity
Like in Frankenstein the emotions are extreme, everything in Vathek is the rarest, the grandest, numbered in thousands, scented with jasmine, sprinkled with gold dust.. It creates intense opulence, which would have been very exciting in 1904, but it is sustained throughout the novel and becomes a bit heady.
"From thence, she resorted to a gallery; where, under the guard of fifty female negroes mute and blind of the right eye, were preserved the oil of the most venomous serpents; rhinoceros' horns; and woods of a subtile and penetrating odour"p31.
- the supernatural and the ghostly
Carathis wakes the dead to find the whereabouts of Gulchenrouz and the Giaour is certainly supernatural. Vathek becomes obsessive with the magical treasure of Soliman, wanting to acqire their power.
- darkness, shadow, decay
The subterraneous cavern is described as a huge, dingy expanse. We have this section as an extract.
- the exotic, the oriental
The novel is based in a typically exotic, far-eastern setting and the names, such as Bababalouk, opulence and spices are certainly exotic and exciting to the 1904 reader especially.
- horror and terror
The Giaour's requests are disturbing,
"I require the blood of fifty children. Take them from among the most beautiful sons of thy vizirs and great men; or, neither can my thirst nor thy curiosity be satisfied"
And so is Vathek's willingness to fulfil them. The subsequent descent into Hell with the dancing dead make use of the fear of the suprnatural.
- isolation and loneliness
The Caliph is constantly surrounded by hundreds of slaves and beautiful wives, but when his love Nouronihar flees for Gulchenrouz, her teenage love, he has heartache.
- sanity/insanity
The reader may judge how moral Carathis and Vathek's actions and reasoning are
- sex/sexuality
Vathek was "much addicted to women"p1 and had many wives, which were kept in "cages" and disallowed to walk. There are many eunuchs in the story, showing demasculinisation and how it affects power. Imagery of towers and caverns.
- multiple narrators
there is a single omniscient narrator
- crime, lawlessness, abuse
Vathek murders innocent children and Carathis uses witchcraft.
- absolute power
Vathek abuses his power, for example making people give up their children and leading hundreds into the desert to perish. Yet still he wishes for supernatural powers.
- stock characters
Carathis is a cleopatra type seductress, who uses witchcraft.
- the devilish, the arcane
Vathek's lineage creates the first lines in the novel, showing its importance, and he seeks historical artifacts. He comes across demons in the subterraneous cavern.
- the historical past
the lineage of Vathek, his will to own treasures from before history (the pre-adamite sultans) showing excess and extremity.
- the outsider
the Giaour is a strange outsider
Lonsdale argues that Vathek is not a gothic text.
"Potential melodrama and horror are almost invariably undermined and deflated by Beckford's detached, urbane and often comic tone. When Nouronihar pursues a strange light up a mountain and hears mysterious voices promising her infinite riches, if she will desert Gulchenrouz for Vathek, we may seem to be close to the 'Gothic'; but even here Beckford is less concerned to exploit the 'terrific' possibilities of the scene than to expound the choice facing Nouronihar. When Carathis and her companions visit a cemetary and its ghouls, the result is ludicrously grotesque comedy. The final scenes of the tale are serious enough, but the sudden sombre power and sustained intensity of this vision of damnation transcend anything achieved by the Gothicists."
I personally disagree with many of his comments, as the book has many of the typically Gothic traits andI do not feel that the tone is at all 'comic'.
- wild landscapes
To find the Giaour and his treasures Vathek traversed deserts and mountains, commanded not to enter any abode.
- ruined or grotesque buildings
The buildings are grand and opulent, such as the subterranean cavern, Carathis' tower and the five palaces of the senses "five wings, or rather palaces, which he destined for the particular gratification of each of the senses"p1.
- religious settings/concepts
There are many allusions to Alla and the Koran, which are praised by the "dwarfs" and some servants. Vathek is entranced into worship of the strange Giaour. The cavern of the Giaour and Soliman is implicitly Hell as a punishment for his evils, a moralistic and religious tone concludes (with great links to Shelley's message) -
"Such was, and such should be, the punishment of unrestrained passions and atrocious deeds! Such shall be, the chastisement of that blind curiosity , which would transgress those bounds the wisdom of the Creator has prescribed to human knowledge; and such the dreadful disappointment of that restless ambition, which, aiming at discoveries reserved for beings of a supernatural order, perceives not, through its infatuated pride, that the condition of man upon earth is to be - humble and ignorant."p120
- sensibility
The every whim of Vathek is catered for, to the extent of purpose-built palaces. The descriptions are senual and opulent, with lady witch Carathis having a very stormy and temperament!
- excess and extremity
Like in Frankenstein the emotions are extreme, everything in Vathek is the rarest, the grandest, numbered in thousands, scented with jasmine, sprinkled with gold dust.. It creates intense opulence, which would have been very exciting in 1904, but it is sustained throughout the novel and becomes a bit heady.
"From thence, she resorted to a gallery; where, under the guard of fifty female negroes mute and blind of the right eye, were preserved the oil of the most venomous serpents; rhinoceros' horns; and woods of a subtile and penetrating odour"p31.
- the supernatural and the ghostly
Carathis wakes the dead to find the whereabouts of Gulchenrouz and the Giaour is certainly supernatural. Vathek becomes obsessive with the magical treasure of Soliman, wanting to acqire their power.
- darkness, shadow, decay
The subterraneous cavern is described as a huge, dingy expanse. We have this section as an extract.
- the exotic, the oriental
The novel is based in a typically exotic, far-eastern setting and the names, such as Bababalouk, opulence and spices are certainly exotic and exciting to the 1904 reader especially.
- horror and terror
The Giaour's requests are disturbing,
"I require the blood of fifty children. Take them from among the most beautiful sons of thy vizirs and great men; or, neither can my thirst nor thy curiosity be satisfied"
And so is Vathek's willingness to fulfil them. The subsequent descent into Hell with the dancing dead make use of the fear of the suprnatural.
- isolation and loneliness
The Caliph is constantly surrounded by hundreds of slaves and beautiful wives, but when his love Nouronihar flees for Gulchenrouz, her teenage love, he has heartache.
- sanity/insanity
The reader may judge how moral Carathis and Vathek's actions and reasoning are
- sex/sexuality
Vathek was "much addicted to women"p1 and had many wives, which were kept in "cages" and disallowed to walk. There are many eunuchs in the story, showing demasculinisation and how it affects power. Imagery of towers and caverns.
- multiple narrators
there is a single omniscient narrator
- crime, lawlessness, abuse
Vathek murders innocent children and Carathis uses witchcraft.
- absolute power
Vathek abuses his power, for example making people give up their children and leading hundreds into the desert to perish. Yet still he wishes for supernatural powers.
- stock characters
Carathis is a cleopatra type seductress, who uses witchcraft.
- the devilish, the arcane
Vathek's lineage creates the first lines in the novel, showing its importance, and he seeks historical artifacts. He comes across demons in the subterraneous cavern.
- the historical past
the lineage of Vathek, his will to own treasures from before history (the pre-adamite sultans) showing excess and extremity.
- the outsider
the Giaour is a strange outsider
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.
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