Frankenstein Letters

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Letters 

1, 2, 3 & 4

How do Walton's letters illustrate the tension between eighteenth-century rationalism (enlightenment) and nineteenth-century Romanticism?

Answer (an example)

How do Walton's letters illustrate the tension between eighteenth-century rationalism (enlightenment) and nineteenth-century Romanticism? 

Walton's letters indicate a belief that humankind (via science) can and will ultimately conquer nature, contrary to the Romantic belief that Nature was ultimately unknowable and unconquerable. 

Contextual background

Contextual background

Characterisation

Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. Characterization is revealed through direct characterization and indirect characterization. 

Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character is.

Indirect Characterization shows things that reveal the personality of a character; for exampe through speech, thoughts, effects on others, actions, looks. 

Indirect characterisation

Find extracts/lines in letters 1 and 2 that correspond with the following adjectives (character attributes of Walton).

idealistic                                passionate                                  adamant                       

courageous                          ambitious                                    resilient

considerate                          gentle                                            perseverant                

obsessed                               determined                                 naive                

                                                    lonely

Ponder upon ...

Walton yearns for a friend, much like Victor Frankenstein's creature does (later in the book). What does this tell you about human nature? Is it in our nature to want companionship, someone to confide in, and someone to care for? 

Extract 1: The shipmaster's failed love story 

Read The Shipmaster's failed love story starting from 'The master is a person of an excellent disposition, and is remarkable in the ship for his gentleness and the mildness of his discipline. ..... his conduct the more astonishing, detracts from the interest and sympathy which otherwise he would command.' (Letter 2)

Question: Explain how the shipmaster's failed love story adheres to the ideals of Romanticism.

Extract 2.

Yesterday the stranger said to me, ‘You may easily perceive, Captain Walton, that I have suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes. I had determined at one time that  the memory of these evils should die with me, but you have  won me to alter my determination. You seek for knowledge  and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the  gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting  you, as mine has been. I do not know that the relation of my disasters will be useful to you; yet, when I reflect that  you are pursuing the same course, exposing yourself to the  same dangers which have rendered me what I am, I imagine that you may deduce an apt moral from my tale, one  that may direct you if you succeed in your undertaking and console you in case of failure. Prepare to hear of occurrences which are usually deemed marvellous. (Shelley, Letter IV)

Extract 2:questions

1. Wy does the stranger (Victor) want to share his story with Walton?
2. In the extrcat 2, Victor is foreshadowing the creation of his monster and how it went quickly awry. Are there any other instances of foreshadowing in the letters (1-4)? 
3. In the extract 2, the themes of knowledge and wisdom are introduced. Often, knowledge and wisom are seen as interchangable, or as going hand-in-hand, but are they really the same? Pay attention to how knowledge and wisdom are portreyed in the book. 

Preface

The event on which this fiction is founded, has been supposed by Dr Darwin, and some of the physiological writers of Germany, as not of impossible occurrence.

The opinions which naturally spring from the character and situation of the hero are by no means to be conceived as existing always in my own conviction; nor is any  inference justly to be drawn from the following pages as prejudicing any philosophical doctrine of whatever kind.

It is a subject also of additional interest to the author, that this story was begun in the majestic region where the scene is principally laid, and in society which cannot ceased to be regretted.