frankenstein world of upheaval essay

Worlds of Upheaval Essay – Frankenstein & All the King’s Horses

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1200 words, 20/20 marks, English Extension One, Worlds of Upheaval Module, 2022 Text: Mary Shelley\’s Frankenstein Related text: Kurt Vonnegut\’s All the King\’s Horses Question: Texts that represent worlds of upheaval often explore the interplay between motivation and integrity, and seek to activate change in the values of their respective audiences.

To what extent is this statement true of your understanding of Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and one related text of your own choosing?

By exposing the absence of integrity inherent to particular motivations or that arises from abandoning one’s motivations, composers have the ability to activate change within their audience’s values and to subsequently spur upheaval. To a significant extent, this notion is reflected in both Margaret Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein and Kurt Vonegut’s 1951 short story All the King’s Horses. Shelley challenges the integrity of pursuing 18th century Enlightenment aspirations, instead revealing the ability of Romantic values to restore integrity, particularly as they pertain to parental responsibility. Vonnegut reveals the hypocrisy of war, and subsequent lack of integrity within it, demonstrating how America’s callous Cold War military actions inherently betray many combatants’ compassionate, often personal motivations for participating in war. Through their exploration of the interplay between motivation and integrity within worlds of upheaval, both texts seek to activate change in their respective audiences, promoting Romantic parental duty and compassion respectively.

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A blog about teaching, History, English, History teaching, English teaching, travel, teaching and learning, grammar, assessment, literacy, and oxford commas.

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Saturday, September 12, 2020

Extension english: elective 2 - worlds of upheaval.

• 3 novels, 1 suite of poetry, 1 drama text, and 1 film.
• 3 female composers, 3 male.
• 2 English composers, 2 Irish, 1 German, 1 Chinese-Canadian.
• Overview of eras: 1 text from the 1820s, 1 text from the 1850s, 1 from the 1920s, 1 from the 1950s, 1 from the 1960s-1970s, and 1 text from the 2010s.

Prose Fiction Options

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell What is it: Margaret Hale is the only daughter of a village pastor who has separated from the Church of England for ideological reasons. In order to make a fresh start, the Hale family moves north to Milton in the newly industrialised textiles region known as Darkshire. Margaret gets to know John Thornton, a wealthy nouveau riche mill owner who is struggling against worker strikes and unionisation, and the two begin an antagonistic relationship that soon grows into something built on mutual respect and admiration. Over the course of the next 18 months, the Hale family experiences great hardships and Margaret comes to intimately know the character of the north.

Scope for Study: North and South presents the prototypical Worlds of Upheaval that is later mirrored in Fritz Lang's Metropolis . Students will be able to deepen their understanding of Gaskell's serialised narrative through a close examination of its historical context, the Industrial Revolution that would quickly transform England into the most powerful empire of the 19th century. This approach will help to illuminate the various themes at play - the growing sense of class consciousness, debates around the unsustainability of capitalism alongside fair payment of the working class, the rise of new concepts such as wages and market forces and worker strikes, and the birth of a 'working class' identity. NESA Annotations: There are no annotations for this text in any of the last three available NESA Annotations documents. Verdict: It's a massive novel, and not necessarily all that fun a reading experience. At times I found North and South to be too self-consciously melodramatic for my tastes; evidently very much a product of its time (EG. The serialised format, the Victorian values that underpin it). I love the history/context of the Industrial Revolution and the concepts explored by Gaskell within the novel, however, North and South is such a chore to read that I can't imagine it going down well with the majority of Year 12 students. 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley What is it: Frankenstein (yes, he's the scientist for which this novel is named - as most of us English teachers keep pedantically pointing out to our friends and families) is a mysterious frostbitten figure rescued by an Arctic explorer at the North Pole. After this framing device the reader begins to learn, through dual narratives, how Victor Frankenstein became grief-stricken in the wake of his mother's death. Burying himself at university in the rising disciplines of chemistry, biology, etc., Frankenstein develops a revolutionary way to give life to the flesh of the dead. He stitches together an eight-foot-tall abomination made from corpses and uses electricity to create 'The Creature', an intelligent child-like being who soon learns the cruelties of humanity through naive eyes.  Scope for Study: Students will need some grounding in regard to understanding the Gothic and Romantic genres, as well as Shelley's use of an epistolary structure, framing device, and the dual narratives of Frankenstein and the Creature in relating their parts of the tale. In terms of understanding context and thinking about Worlds of Upheaval , there's a lot to talk about, such as the development of an ideological antipathy between science and religion, the novel's claim to potentially being 'the first science fiction novel', and the text as an analogue for the Prometheus myth and all the historical connotation that carries. Attention can also be paid to Shelley's own personal context as the child of an anarchist father and a proto-feminist mother.    NESA Annotations: Annotations can be found in the 2015-2020 NESA document from when the text featured as part of Extension 1, Module B: Texts and Ways of Thinking . Areas of suggested focus include Shelley's use of characterisation and dialogue to elicit sympathy for the Creature, themes that arise from the novel's exploration of the tension between science and nature, and the role of the Romantic and Gothic genres in shaping the text and representing its concerns.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien What is it: A young Chinese-Canadian girl, Marie, gets to know Ai-Ming - a teenage girl and political refugee who has fled China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and now lives with Marie's family in Vancouver. The two bond over the 'Book of Records', a home-made text that contains the interwoven stories of their families from the days of China's tumultuous Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Several decades later, in the modern day, Marie becomes obsessed with tracking down Ai-Ming once again. Scope for Study: The narrative of Do Not Say We Have Nothing is complex and multi-tiered, essentially covering 70 years of Chinese history and the stories of ten different characters who interact within it. In a way the novel can be boiled down to two separate but not dissimilar threads - one centering on the Cultural Revolution and the other on the Tiananmen Square incident, with both stories involving a search for dissidents hiding within the vast population of China. Any students studying this text will need assistance in the form of character maps to untangle the complex dynamics that take place across separate time zones, and historical timelines to help them understand China's recent past. This difficulty aside, the language is often nothing short of beautiful and Thien cleverly uses motifs of art and music to represent the subversion of a regime that could be both stifling and chaotic. NESA Annotations: The most recent annotation document acknowledges the novel's focus on Chinese history and is quick to pull attention onto the "social, cultural and political upheaval" represented in Do Not Say We Have Nothing . Allusion and intertextuality are identified as key techniques used by the author, and the dense yet fractured structure is also highlighted as a reflection of the novel's themes. Verdict: I'm not going to lie, I think this novel would be incredibly difficult to teach. I don't dispute its reputation as a work of significant artistic merit, however, I think it would be very easy for students to get lost in the unfamiliar history and the multitude of characters who weave in and out of the story across such a great expanse of time. And I say this as someone who has a fairly developed interest in China's history from 1950 to 1989 - it's an extremely difficult time period that has challenged and continues to challenge historians and casual readers alike. Approaching this book as a piece of serious literature (from an English standpoint) would need more time than what might normally be allocated for Extension English 1. Poetry Options

Opened Ground by Seamus Heaney

• The Strand at Lough Beg
• Funeral Rites
• Whatever You Say Say Nothing

What is it: Sampling a range of poetry from Heaney's output between 1966 and 1979, the suite selected from Opened Ground is unified by concerns relating to 'the Troubles', Northern Ireland's long period of unrest in the 20th century, and the relationship of the poet with his own context. The first poem, 'Digging', sees the poet and his pen contrasted with the traditions of the fathers beforehand; men who turned over the peat in search of potatoes, much as Heaney reflexively turns over the 'peat' of his mind by examining the role of the men in his family. The following poetry moves into looking at the Troubles, with 'Casualty' throwing stark light onto the violent juxtaposition between Irish domesticity and the impact of the unrest. 'Funeral Rites' delves further into this world torn apart, and 'Whatever You Say You Say Nothing' presents the silence and complication of the culture that grew from Northern Ireland's extended period of unrest. Scope for Study: Students will need to have a strong understanding of Heaney's context, both in terms of the situation in Northern Ireland and the critical conversations around this poetry and its willingness to deal with the Troubles. Not all of the poetry included here was critically acclaimed upon its initial release, which opens up room for conversations around the controversy Heaney courted by daring to tackle a political dimension within his art. Students will also benefit from examining Heaney's use of naturalistic speech patterns, an array of sound and poetic devices, the use of sensory language and imagery, and the local colour of Irish culture, geography, and history. NESA Annotations: The 2015-2020 Annotations feature some notes on Heaney's poetry in reference to its inclusion as part of a paired Advanced English study, where it was included alongside James Joyce's Dubliners . The focus here, in keeping with the paired study, is on the poetry's purpose in representing the lives and experiences of the Irish, and Heaney's use of traditional poetry forms alongside more modern approaches. It should be noted, however, that only two of the poems remain the same from this previous suite ('Digging' and 'The Strand at Lough Beg'). Verdict: Highly engaging and arresting, I think Heaney's poetry would work well as a stylistic and contextual counterpoint for any of the other Prescribed Texts in Worlds of Upheaval . Once the context is illuminated in enough detail by the teacher, students will have a lot to parse in their study of these poems as the language sits at just the right level - not too obscure, but also complex enough to reward repeated reading and careful analysis. Drama Options

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett What is it: Vladimir and Estragon spend their time waiting by a tree for the arrival of an enigmatic individual named 'Godot'. While waiting they meet Pozzo and Lucky, two passers-by, and a boy who delivers a message that Godot won't be arriving on this day. The two protagonists return again the next day, in which the same events transpire. Scope for Study: Famously referred to as a play where "nothing happens", playwright Samuel Beckett was famously reticent to provide anything in the way of an explanation for the strange narrative and characters, and rejected notions that posited metaphorical or allegorical levels of meaning. As far as students go, there will be, undoubtedly, discussions that arise from this. The power dynamics of people, demonstrated here without contextualisation or even the possibility of context, reveal certain absurdities that humans have created under the pretense that life has universal meaning. There are allusions to death, the Bible, and motifs of shoes and hats. What does it all mean? Is it about the absence or breakdown of meaning itself? Through Beckett's deliberate attempt to avoid a specific context, students are presented with a potentially fictional world of upheaval... or a metonym for every world of upheaval. There's a wealth of critical writing available on the play that will be helpful too. NESA Annotations: There are no notes for Waiting for Godot in any of the available annotation documents from the last three syllabuses. Verdict: Waiting for Godot is such a fascinating text and I think it provides a great canvas upon which students can test out their critical thinking skills. Vladimir and Estragon are almost like two shadows, humans consigned to immortality in a sort of purgatory world - going through the motions of trying to be human. In Act 2, the play itself seems to be resisting its own efforts to provide an internal context for what is happening; the characters are unable to even build their own 'world' in the absence of everything else. If it wasn't for Beckett's staunch rejection of the idea that the never-arriving Godot is really God, then I'd venture that this play presented a vision of Hell. Maybe it still does. Maybe it doesn't matter what Beckett says. Maybe this would be a great text to teach. Film Options

Metropolis , directed by Fritz Lang What is it: Freder, the son of a powerful industrialist in the futuristic city of Metropolis, discovers class consciousness after his path crosses with the Madonna-like leader of the city's underground-dwelling proletariat. Meanwhile, the mad scientist Rotwang is enlisted by Freder's father to help infiltrate and sow dissent among the burgeoning revolutionary workers' movement. He does this by creating a robot impersonator, which unexpectedly becomes a symbol of wanton sexuality and hedonistic chaos after replacing the workers' leader Maria. Gradually, as Rotwang's own vengeful agenda subsumes his original mission, the opposing ideological forces that underpin the city begin to threaten this society's sense of order. Scope for Study: Metropolis , in the tradition of most great science fiction, presents both a general view of a world in upheaval and reflects a specific context in which Germany and the rest of Europe were rapidly facing multiple crises. Fritz Lang (the left-leaning director) embraces the socialist ideals of class warfare in his depiction of workers who toil in drudgery and organise for revolution, whereas Thea von Harbou (the writer, who would later become a Nazi) could perhaps be seen as the influence behind the Art Deco grandeur of the city's architects. Coming at the more creative end of the silent film era, Metropolis does not fit the trope of the earliest static silent films, and is a visually dynamic experience that should hold up surprisingly well for modern students if context is suitably explained beforehand.  NESA Annotations: Notes for Metropolis can be found in the 2015-2020 document from when the film formed part of an intertextual study with Nineteen Eighty-Four for Module A of Advanced English. The annotations focus on Metropolis 's function as a dystopian text that explores the impact of technology and totalitarianism. Note is also made of other contextual elements: the Weimer republic, German expressionism, the Art Deco and Modernist movements of art and architecture, the groundbreaking special effects utilised by Lang. Aside from a few cursory connections to Nineteen Eighty-Four the annotations are still fairly useful within the framework of the Worlds of Upheaval Elective.  Verdict: A fantastically-made film that's so ahead of its time that it's managed to stay relevant for nearly 100 years. As with most English Prescribed Texts, the mileage of this (in terms of appealing to students) will be dependent on the enthusiasm of the teacher. I would no doubt teach this text if I found myself teaching this particular elective as I find it to be so worthy of study; the shot composition, the way it reflects its context, the fascinating Biblical allusions that verge on the baroque, and - of course - the appallingly decadent robot Maria. 

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ENG 12 - Extension 1: Frankenstein

• Common Module - Literary Worlds
• Worlds of Upheaval
• Frankenstein
• Waiting for Godot

• National Geographic: How A Teenage Girl Became the Mother of Horror Born on a dark and stormy night, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is a true masterpiece of terror that began as a fireside ghost story and grew into a worldwide phenomenon. Its teenage author, the future Mary Shelley, drew upon her nightmares to come up with a story as challenging as it is chilling. The story took shape during the year without a summer, as 1816 came to be known. The 1815 eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano on the island of had released vast amounts ash, rock, and sulfuric dust into the air, which dramatically lowered temperatures across many areas of the globe the following year, and resulted in odd weather events from around the world.
• Frankenstein's Impact: Lessons for the Modern World As an intellectual in the early 19th century, Mary Shelley couldn’t help but be influenced by the Enlightenment, a cultural movement that was characterized by the weight it placed on scientific enquiry, reason, and intellect. But, like her husband Percy Bysshe, she was also a Romantic, and believed in the importance of nature and emotion. The tussle between scientific progress and the “natural order of things” was something the two discussed at length with their friends—and that conflict takes centre stage in Frankenstein.
• Frankenstein at 200 – why hasn't Mary Shelley been given the respect she deserves? Shelley’s Frankenstein has spoken to technological and cultural anxieties from the Enlightenment to #MeToo. Her novel has become the go-to journalistic shorthand for technological interventions in human biology or medical science: Dr Frankenstein and his creature make their way in the mainstream of modern life. They reappear in our fantasies and nightmares more consistently than most fictional or historical characters. CONTAINS IDEAS FOR RELATED TEXTS

The real experiments that inspired Frankenstein

Scholarly Articles

To access these journal articles, you must log into  JSTOR via the State Library of New South Wales  using your own State Library card number.

• Vital matters: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Romantic science The state of science was thrillingly speculative and open at the historical moment in which Mary Shelley was writing. It was of course her 'prescient' genius in the book to throw the visionary gaze of this moment into a vertiginous reverse by having what she later called the 'speculative eyes' of the created monster gaze expectantly back at his shattered and now impotent creator. But this 'moral' of the story is matched in interest by the kind of 'detached' language that Mary Shelley uses to tell it, particularly when read in its 1818 first edition and against the background of ideas, concerns and disputes which were being thrown up by science in the early decades of the century.
• Reading the Cyborg in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" Often cited as a founding text of science fiction as well as the touchstone for any text on the creation of wholly or partially artificial beings, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has yet to be considered fully in the light of Haraway's radical cyborgology or belief that the man/machine dichotomy of the cyborg destabilises and transgresses boundaries, embracing the free play of fluid identity. The Creature, assembled from the parts of humans and animals and animated through the miracle of modern science, appears in many ways to be just the sort of boundary-confusing cyborg Haraway finds so liberating.
• Monsters of modernity: Frankenstein and modern environmentalism This paper offers a reading of Frankenstein as a critical questioning of both anti-Enlightenment Romanticism and anti-Enlightenment science that provides a framework for evaluating contemporary ecobiocentric ideals. Frankenstein is not an outdated tale. Shelley's novel is characterized and punctuated by a subtle and sophisticated appreciation of the vital role of social relations in determining the nature, direction, products and consequences of science and technology. The tale of Frankenstein presents a challenge to the usual anti-modernist, anti-science, pro-nature alignments of the Frankenstein myth, drawing our attention instead to important questions about what kind of socio-nature we want produced, by whom, for what purposes and under what conditions.
• Frankenstein's Monster and Images of Race in Nineteenth-Century Britain It is now commonly accepted that the Gothic literary genre of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries represents, if remotely and unconsciously, the central tensions of an age of social liberation and political revolution. The dilemmas of identity facing the liberated which permeate Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, obviously resonate with the events of an age that, as Chris Baldick has finely observed, witnessed humanity seizing responsibility "for re- creating the world, for violently reshaping its natural environment and its inherited social and political forms, for remaking itself". In contrast, this essay will offer a racial reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a third level of interpretation which meshes with the Marxist and the feminist location of the novel in the social and psychological context of the times.
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English: Worlds of Upheaval (Ext I)

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Worlds of Upheaval

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• Worlds of Upheaval Weebly - author unknown
• Worlds of Upheaval PREZI by Julia Kim

Related Texts - in CBL

Drama - Waiting for Godot

• LitCharts: Waiting for Godot

Non-Fiction - Related Texts

Wyndam Lewis' Blast Manifesto (1914-1915)

• Blast - Manifesto

George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant (1936)

• Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
• LitCharts: Shooting and Elephant
• Bloom's Literature: Shooting an Elephant

Poetry - Related Texts

• The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
• All the Dead Soldiers by Thomas McGrath
• Waste by Afaa Michael Weaver
• Anthropecene by Nomi Stone
• The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
• The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi

Film - Related Texts

Poetry - Seamus Heaney

Photo credit:  BBC 

• Bloom's Literature: Seamus Heaney
• Poetry Foundation: Seamus Heaney
• The Nobel Prize: Seamus Heaney Biographical

Prose Fiction - Frankenstein

• Bloom's Literature: Frankenstein "Mary Shelley"

• Frankenstein at 200 - why hasn't Mary Shelley been given the respect she deserves? Article from The Guardian13/01/2018

Related texts - Short Stories, Novellas, Essays

Related Text - Picture Books

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• Last Updated: Apr 10, 2024 3:08 PM
• URL: https://library.riverview.nsw.edu.au/english

State Ranker Essay Guide: Shakespearean Plays (Macbeth)

State Ranker Guide: How to Write a Full Mark Reflection

State ranker guide: related texts for worlds of upheaval (english extension 1).

• Uncategorized
• extension english 1
• related texts
• worlds of upheaval

How to best structure the elective essay while effectively incorporating related texts is a question that many students frequently ask. Being able to integrate ideas and arguments from your chosen related texts with your main texts is a skill that will require to practice by completing many essay questions. Even drafting out a plan to sample questions can help create a framework that will help you determine whether you have a strong enough understanding of all your texts. It is important to remember that being able to dissect certain parts of your related texts when linking them to your main texts is very important as without a flow to your essay, you could lose marks easily.

Here are some key questions to answer yourself throughout your studies of your texts to ensure you are well-equipped for any essay question that is thrown at you:

·      How do your chosen related texts explore the key ideas within your chosen elective?

·      In what ways have the different types of context (historical, political, social, literary etc.) impacted your related texts?

·      What are some examples of how literary forms and features have helped in portraying notions of upheaval and activated change?

TIP 1: Use the paragraph linking technique to your advantage to create flow and cohesion

One technique that you can implement to improve the cohesiveness and create more of flow of your essay is to mention the text and the key idea explored at the end of the main text paragraph. For instance, if your first paragraph after your introduction is for Waiting for Godot (main text), the last sentence could include a simple yet catchy link to the next paragraph (related text).

Below are examples of the last sentence of the main text’s paragraph showing how this could be implemented:

( Main : Frankenstein, Related : Doctor. Faustus)

“Similarly, Doctor Faustus explores the implications of knowledge through diametrically opposing ideological and historical discourses.”

( Main : Waiting for Godot, Related : The Waste Land)

“Correspondingly, Eliot’s The Waste Land maintains the impetus of adopting subversive forms to contribute to its didactic exegesis’, exploring life after World War I through a modernist lens.”

TIP 2: Remain analytically consistent even for texts you haven’t studied as much for in class

A lot of the time, students tend to compose very strong paragraphs for their main texts, then fail to remain consistent with this when writing their related text’s paragraphs. It is always important to remain on top of the analysis even for a text that isn’t studied as much in class. The main reasoning for this is that it shows your knowledge for texts beyond those required by the syllabus and also expresses your motivation to look for links between texts that share similar or disparate ideas.

Although the length of your paragraphs doesn’t need to be the same for the main and related texts, the depth and complexity of the analysis should nonetheless be of substantial quality. Seeking feedback from teachers or asking classmates to review your paragraphs will help offer a new perspective.

Below is a sample structure of an essay that can be used:

1.   Introduction (mention main text 1, related text 1, main text 2, related text 2 in that order).

2.   Main text 1 paragraph (idea 1)

3.   Related text 1 paragraph (idea 1) – linked to paragraph 2

4.   Main text 2 paragraph (idea 2)

5.   Related text 2 paragraph (idea 2) – linked to paragraph 4

6.   Conclusion (summarise key ideas from main and related texts)

Consider some of the below related texts for the Worlds of Upheaval elective:

·      The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

·      Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

·      Anthropocene by Nomi Stone

·      Waste by Afaa Michael Weaver

At JP English, our state rank and high Band 6 tutors provide students with student exemplars, resources and detailed, individualised feedback so that they can easily write sophisticated essays under timed conditions. Contact us to see how we can help you today!

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Percy Shelley: Poems

Social and political upheaval: a comparison of frankenstein and mutability talia stewart 12th grade.

Contextual literature representative of the surrounding world is reflective of the challenges to traditional social and political stances, each showcasing an ideological progression towards transformed societal thought and unified perceptions. This is characterized through the embellishment of individual aspirations and contrasting attitudes of the collective, illuminating the altered values of the period and its defining movements. These ideals bring forth captivating tales and imaginative compositions encapsulating contextual customs of cultural constriction and the interest of strengthened social realization, bringing depth and unity to the connections between humanity and the imaginative desire of activated change. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein illuminates the division from tradition with a complex intertwined tale of God like fixation on creation and its consequences as well as emotional discipline and tragedy. It characterizes the contrasts of religion, social progression and the strength of Romantic connections to the natural world and its sublime in the illumination of altered desire and the longing of restoration following periods of intense change. Similarly, Percy Shelley’s poetic tale, Mutability, reveals the...

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WORLDS OF UPHEAVAL ESSAY

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Frankenstein: a Brief Summary

This essay about Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” explores the central themes of ambition, the quest for knowledge, and the consequences of usurping the role of God. It begins with the story’s framework, introduced through the letters of Arctic explorer Robert Walton, who encounters Victor Frankenstein as he pursues his monstrous creation across the icy wilderness. The essay describes Victor’s tragic tale of creating life from assembled body parts, only to be horrified by his own creation. Rejected by society, the creature becomes vengeful, leading to a cycle of tragedy and revenge that consumes both him and his creator. The narrative examines the ethical implications of scientific exploration and the responsibilities of creators. Highlighting its status as the first true science fiction novel, the essay underscores the timeless relevance of its themes about human ambition, ethical boundaries in science, and the profound effects of isolation and rejection.

How it works

Within the intricate tapestry of literature, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” emerges as a riveting saga that plumbs the depths of ambition, the quest for enlightenment, and the moral quandaries inherent in the pursuit of god-like powers. It is intriguing how this seminal work, birthed in the early 19th century, continues to reverberate through the corridors of modern consciousness, offering a profound exploration of humanity’s essence and the treacherous trajectories of unbridled scientific inquiry.

The narrative commences with Robert Walton, an intrepid voyager, embarking on a quest for a new maritime route from Russia to the Pacific Ocean via the Arctic expanse.

In the course of his expedition, Walton corresponds with his sister, providing the narrative frame for “Frankenstein.” Through Walton’s missives, we learn of his encounter with Victor Frankenstein, who, amidst the desolate Arctic wilderness, pursues a colossal being. Walton extends his hospitality to the enfeebled, ailing Victor, who proceeds to divulge his tragic tale, subsequently documented in Walton’s letters.

Victor Frankenstein, a prodigious youth hailing from Geneva, becomes consumed by the pursuit of unlocking the enigma of life itself. His fervent exploration of chemistry and allied sciences propels him toward a singular and ominous objective: the creation of life through artificial means. Victor dedicates months to the meticulous assembly of his creation, piecing together fragments of humanity scavenged from tombs and abattoirs. The zenith of his labor arrives in a pivotal moment tinged with horror and remorse as he bestows life upon his creation. However, the outcome deviates starkly from his envisagement. The grotesque visage of the creature repels Victor, prompting his flight from the abomination he has wrought.

Thus initiates the creature’s odyssey of darkness. Shunned by society, haunted by solitude, the creature metamorphoses into a figure steeped in resentment and retribution, vowing vengeance upon his creator for thrusting him into a world that recoils from his existence. The creature’s eloquence and erudition, cultivated through solitary education, juxtapose starkly with his monstrous countenance. His poignant articulations of solitude and yearning for companionship evoke empathy, complicating the facile categorization of him as a mere monstrosity.

The ensuing narrative unfurls as a tale of torment and tragedy, fraught with the specters of vengeance and remorse. The creature implores Victor to fashion a mate for him, pledging to vanish into the recesses of South American wilderness if his entreaty is granted. Torn between compassion for his creation and apprehensions regarding the consequences of his endeavors, Victor accedes initially but later annuls the creation of the female counterpart. This act incites the creature’s wrath anew, catalyzing a chain of tragic repercussions for Victor and his kin.

The apex of the tale is both climactic and elegiac, with Victor vowing to pursue his creation to the ends of the earth, plunging into the desolation of the Arctic, thus forging a connection between the narrative’s inception and denouement. The tale concludes with Walton continuing his voyage post-Victor’s demise, and the creature vanishing into the obscurity of the Arctic gloom, leaving behind an indelible legacy of thematic motifs and ethical conundrums regarding the limits of scientific inquiry and the moral obligations attendant upon the act of creation.

“Frankenstein” is oft hailed as the progenitor of the science fiction genre. Beyond its pioneering status, it serves as a profound admonition against hubris and the unchecked pursuit of knowledge. Its ethical interrogations resonate across epochs, sparking discourses encompassing realms as diverse as scientific ethics, existential inquiry, and the parameters of parental and creator accountability.

In sum, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” transcends the confines of a mere horror narrative, emerging as a multi-layered chronicle that probes the fundamental essence of existence, accountability, and the reverberations of human actions. Its perennial allure resides in its capacity to provoke contemplation on the nature of humanity and the toll exacted by our aspirations. As a narrative of genesis, it encapsulates the perennial struggle between humanity’s quest for dominion and the imperative of compassion—themes as germane today as they were over two centuries past.

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Frankenstein: A Brief Summary. (2024, Apr 29). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/frankenstein-a-brief-summary/

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PapersOwl.com. (2024). Frankenstein: A Brief Summary . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/frankenstein-a-brief-summary/ [Accessed: 30 Apr. 2024]

"Frankenstein: A Brief Summary." PapersOwl.com, Apr 29, 2024. Accessed April 30, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/frankenstein-a-brief-summary/

"Frankenstein: A Brief Summary," PapersOwl.com , 29-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/frankenstein-a-brief-summary/. [Accessed: 30-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Frankenstein: A Brief Summary . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/frankenstein-a-brief-summary/ [Accessed: 30-Apr-2024]

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