Frankeinstein in Context

Rigoberto Vidaña
Cline
ENG102
16 October 2011

   Frankenstein: social and cognitive ideas that influenced Shelley writing

One of the main reasons that moved victor to create “the monster” was curiosity, the search for information, and of course the fantasy of exceeding the human limits is what this book presents. In the other hand it seems that Marry Shelley touches different feminine subjects in a subtle manner. Subtle as it was, femininity and reproduction was a reoccurring theme through Marry Shelley novel Frankenstein.  Marry Shelley’s beliefs are focused on the aspects of a female being innocent, dependent and unpredictable.  She portrays these characteristics through the women in the novel being weak, emotional and only useful to the procreation of future generations.

             Although Mary Shelly’s mother was a strong feminist, she herself believed that a women’s place was to be subordinate and dependent on male figures.  In the letter to Victor from his mother she explains that Elizabeth cannot coupe without him, “Come, dearest Victor; you alone can console Elizabeth. She weeps continually, and accuses herself unjustly as the cause of his death; her words pierce my heart. We are all unhappy; but will not that be an additional motive for you, my son, to return and be our comforter” (Shelley 45), after the death her son.   Even in paintings of Frankenstein’s mother, that his father had commissioned, his mother was depicted as dependent upon her father, “It was an historical subject, painted at my father’s desire, and represented Caroline Beaufort in an agony of despair, kneeling by the coffin of her dead father” (Shelley 49).  These almost insignificant portrayals of women really capture the way Mary Shelley believed refined women should act in accordance to femininity. 

            Innocence is a strong characteristic of femininity. 

Photo: http://www.pollsb.com/polls/literature

Summary of a Critical Response

In the Analysis that Marilyn Butler performs on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein she starts mentioning that the book Invites speculation due to the fact that the authors opens the podium for different interpretations, for example she was mentioning that Frankenstein could be interpreted as the Mad scientist, or a man who wants to have a baby without a women. After reading this book it’s seems that she is making a good point, the book does not exactly specify the entire reasons that drove the creator of Frankenstein. 

She also describes how the author was influenced by several other Writers.  I believe the controversy that Mary Shelly created with her masterpiece kept this book alive for centuries, but also this masterpiece has been criticized by media. The 1818 Frankenstein, which had drawn nourishment, energy, importance from lectures and journals, had lived by the media, and after a year might well have died by the media due to the public controversy that it created. And in fact like Marilyn said this was not created by Marry Shelly’s ideas but by the assumptions and ideas that the readers had, that Frankenstein became a substantially different and less contentious novel when reissued in popular from in 1831.

We tend to acquire ideas and protocols from other people, and is like a natural manner. And in this case Butler was pointing out that the friendship of Shelly’s physician who was William Lawrence had a big influence in her writing accuracy instead of speculation in scientific matters. In fact Lawrence contributed for a portion and ideas that Shelly presented.   

Photo From: http://tommach.tumblr.com/post/6397877885/an-attempt-to-analyze-poetry-objectively

Blog post # 6

There has been moments in which my lack of time interferes with the revision and edition of a paper. And instead of paying more attention into editing the essay I tend to spend more valuable time correcting the spelling and grammar rather than the entire structure and flow of the essay. This has become a problem, because a paper without a revision tends to be tedious and disorganized.

            My writing process began with a clear idea of the assignment, I really need to re-read the assignment requirements in order to get a clear description of what needs to be accomplished . If it is a research paper that I need to write, I began by looking for more than five web documents or articles that relate to my research topic. If it is a poem analysis I read the poem at least three times, looking for key words and for the main authors idea that would aloud me to comprehend the poem even better. After doing my free write and rough draft I start by revising my paper by reading it over and over again until it makes sense for me. Sometimes I procrastinate leaving revision for the next day, that also brings me some problem because revision is a key process in which I can refocus on the main topic of my essay. I try to keep in mind the idea that my paper can always be improved, I can always go back and reshape those ideas in order to make much more clear statements. After I have done those steps I try to go to the learning center so I can improve the Essay.

            For this Essay I'm planning to apply certain techniques that I wasn't putting in use. First of all I'm going to be focused on the theme and the logistic of the paper I know that a paper without those elements becomes tedious, Im also willing to revise it over and over at least five times before I turn it in. While revising my previews essays I realize that sometimes I don't have a Clear title that captures attention, and finally I need to work in my grammar and spelling.

I also found a Web page that can help anyone who wants to improve An essay: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/revise.html

Photo: http://www.essay.tv/mla-format-checklist/

            

Mary Shelly Frankenstein B#5

In modern society we know there is nothing we can do to resurrect the dead.  Back in the eighteen hundreds when this book was written the common beliefs of the time included myths and mysticism to explain the unexplainable phonemes that occurred.  The unanswerable questions of death that plagued scholars and common citizens of the time lead to speculations and stories of resurrections, the mysterious forces of nature and the heavens.

Victor Frankenstein grew up in a family with a firm grasp of reality and a strong belief in education.  His parents, especially father tried to enforce the importance of reality and not the supernatural or mystical belief prevalent of the time.  His parents’ even demonstrated restraint to exposing him to classic horror stories; as a result, “In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors. I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition, or to have feared the apparition of a spirit.”  (Shelly P. 30) Creating a creature by the resurrection of an exhumed body stems from his fascination of the superstitious and gothic ideas of the time, and not from his factual upbringing.  The character’s curiosity and obsession with death and dying is apparent in this next passage; “My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life…that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret” (Shelly P. 33) The author does not mention how the death of Victor’s mother affected him, or if her death may have triggered his allure towards death; as in the prior passage the author eludes to his urge to be able to control death.  Although the character, Victor, was brought up without belief in the supernatural, he is unable to control his urge to make sense of the unexplained.  The character’s captivation with how the body withers away as it ages and going through the stages of dying, to some readers may be distasteful, but it demonstrates the normal curiosities people have towards explaining the unknown through a scientific, fact based, method.        

Photo from:http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley

Shelley, Mary. Frankesnstein. a norton critical edition. 1. New York: W.W. Norton Company, Inc, 1996. 335. Print.

Poetry of Witness

 I grew up with stories that not necessarily were the classic “story before sleep” in fact my grandmother use to tell me stories that weren’t for kids, but my point is that I’ve always wondered a lot, even when the stories where about horrible creatures and people with mental problems who used to effectuate  terrible crimes. I must say, while I was reading Luis Erdrich Poem called “Windigo” I felt like more questions appeared in my mind with every stanza, because it seems that she is describing how a patient with a mind disorders, schizophrenia or a psychiatric condition are feeling inside. Karen Louise Erdrich is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage, I can really see how evident Native American heritage is reflected in her poetry, describing the “Windigo” who is a demon who eats flesh, It seems that she has been marked in a positive way by native American stories; Erdrich chooses her wording in a very carful manner, transmitting a sense of fear. A lot of her assumptions are reflected in her writings. I like the way she interacts with the reader, I can see the vast experience she has and the amount of talent she reflects.  In the first stanza she starts describing one of the deepest fears of all humans that sometimes is called the “inevitably happening”: “You knew I was coming for you” This stanza can be interpreted in many Ways, but suddenly patients who suffer off schizophrenia have sometimes the same idea of someone inside of them who tells them horrible things, tormenting them, this creates a picture that sometimes becomes a reality in most societies because some societies call this issue “psychiatric condition” but native Americans used to say that they were possessed by demons. 
Erdrich, Louise. "Windigo." Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept 2011.
Photo From:
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/erdrich.html

Summary vs analysis

http://www.slideshare.net/Rigobertovidana/analysis-vs-summary-8357784

http://www.bizconsulting.org/consultancy/business-analysis

Good Readers Good Writters

Vladimir Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Monument_Nabokov_Montreux_23.12.2006.jpg

Vladimir Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer.

Nabokov points out in is shorts story “Good readers and good writers” that a good reader has as he calls: Impersonal imagination, artistic delights and as well has to be a re-reader. Therefore the reader must know when and where to curb his imagination. At the end one of the things that I really liked and I really agree with is that he ends up saying that a good reader reads the genius not with his heart nor with his brain but with his spine.

I really agree with the assumptions of Nabokov because sometimes we as readers don’t have an open mind or sometimes we have something in our brains that don’t let us completely understand the author’s ideas and assumptions. In the other hand if we read with the spine we will actually understand a lot more and also the author it’s going to have the ability of transporting the reader into his world. In my own opinion a good reader has different characteristics, first he has to acquire the habit of reading constantly, he needs to have an open mind, imagination, sense of humor and also to read with the spine. To be honest I don’t consider myself a good reader, I have some of the qualities but I still need to work on others, it seems that sometimes my mind goes away or I get distracted by something else, also due to my first language but I’m working on my reading skills and comprehension.