Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Mary Shelley Frankenstein. Some initial thoughts about it

I have decided to post some thoughts about the novel. The story is something completely different from the Mansfield Park and the poetry that we have discussed in the class. I am not a big fan of science fictions, but this one seems to be very interesting so far.
The preface of every book is very important for a reader. It is something that the author wants you to know before you start reading the story. Usually it contains a purpose, an author’s approach and a method he or she uses in the book. He or she tries to put a reader into a right direction. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is not an exception.
The event that has occurred in the book is not impossible from the scientific point of view, but the author describes her work as a product of imagination. I believe that some events in science have contributed to Shelley’s decision to create a novel like Frankenstein. It almost sounds like she is apologizing for creating something that contradicts the rules of human nature. The novel could be interpreted as imagination vs. reality. It was created to amuse the readers. She seems to be tired of novels describing every day life, marriage market and attempts to originate the literature of the Romantic period. She reminds me Coleridge and his desire for supernatural forces and powers, only this time it is not a poetry, but fiction.
The letters at the beginning of the book are intended to lead the readers into the beginning of the novel. It also could be introduced as a preface to it. The whole story is flashback of a stranger that Captain Walton met.
The location and social status of the protagonist is distinguished in the first lines of the novel. The story is going to be about a family and events that will occur within it.
The content of the story is not only interesting from the literary and scientific perspectives, but also from the religious point of view. I mean the reaction of Christian world on the production of a human kind using only methods of science. It probably took a while for the readers to recognize this novel as a great example of fiction writing.

2 comments:

Ariel Benoit said...

So I agree with what you're saying about how this is very different from what we've read. This whole idea of creating life is against the idea of nature that we read about in poetry. It's something that is not natural and sounds inhumane. It is an idea of immagination, but our world is not far from anything. These days the impossible is the possible and for Mary Shelley to think of something like, a very advanced idea for that time, is amazing. It shows how unlimited our imaginations can be.

jenna said...

I too agree. I also believe that at the time and period in which Mary Shelley was writing, she was "thinking outside of the box." Also for her to be a woman and a writer, and to come up with this amazing science fiction novel it is great. It is also interesting to me the story behind coming up with this book. I think it is very neat how it was almost a competitition between all the great writers at the time, to come up with the most scary story, and hers came in a dream. This novel has an interesting background and orgin and I think that is what made it more exciting to start it.