Main Characters in Frankenstein

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  • Created by: Emily
  • Created on: 14-05-13 14:37
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  • Main Characters in Frankenstein
    • Justine
      • Beth Newman - 'variable voice' makes her unreliable
      • Introduced briefly in Elizabeth's letter then 'condemned to death'
      • Alphonse says they must 'rely on the justice of our laws'
        • YET - 'justine was conndemned'
        • Irony of name  'Justine' connected to justice
          • Whenever courts are involved, it is unjust
            • Victor 'doomed to live' in what he calls a 'dungeon'
            • DeLacey family 'thrown into prison' on account of brother's crimes
      • Anne K  Mellor 'passive female' 'social construct of gender' that places the 'male above the female'
        • Elizabeth
          • 'pretty little present' - objectification of women
          • 'celestial stamp on all her features'
            • Anne K Mellor - V has aggressive desire to 'dominate the female sex object'
          • 'cherub'
          • 'my more than sister'
            • Peter Brooks - 'quazi incestuous nature of his union with elizabeth'
              • In dream, Elizabeth becomes 'corpse' of V's 'dead mother'
            • Calls wedding 'union'
              • Indicating he sees it as a marriage of convenience -  'miserable marriage'
          • 'elizabeth seemed happy'
            • Does Victor even know her?
    • Elizabeth
      • 'pretty little present' - objectification of women
      • 'celestial stamp on all her features'
        • Anne K Mellor - V has aggressive desire to 'dominate the female sex object'
      • 'cherub'
      • 'my more than sister'
        • Peter Brooks - 'quazi incestuous nature of his union with elizabeth'
          • In dream, Elizabeth becomes 'corpse' of V's 'dead mother'
        • Calls wedding 'union'
          • Indicating he sees it as a marriage of convenience -  'miserable marriage'
      • 'elizabeth seemed happy'
        • Does Victor even know her?
    • Victor
      • Ambition
        • V 'almost frantic impulse'
        • 'breathless eagerness'
        • 'unhallowed arts'
        • 'secret toil'
          • (taboo, perversive nature of his studies - playing God)
      • Narcissism
        • Joseph Kestner - V seeks himself as 'love object'
        • Freud notes Narcissistic people invest 'large amounts of libido of an essentially homosexual kind' to form a narcissistic ego ideal.
        • Kestner - 'homosexuality latent in his narcissism'
        • Peter Brooks - 'performs ultimate gesture of castration on monster'
        • homosexual? Joseph Kestner - FS grins through monster when E is killed- preents separation of ego libido and object libido.
      • Spiritual, though not 'impressed by any supernatural horrors'
        • Yet, becomes interested in 'Cornelius Agrippa'
          • 'philosophers stone'
          • 'elixir of life'
        • YET, uses words like 'fate' 'fatal' 'omen' 'destiny'
          • Monster's creation manifestation of desire to create life? Alphonse - 'sad trash'
      • emotional, describes emotions in great detail
        • 'more miserable than man ever was before'
      • Neglects friends
        • 'forgot those friends'
        • They become 'uneasy' at his 'long silence' when in Ingoldstadt
      • Madness
        • 'enthusiastic madness'
        • 'delirium'
        • 'gnashed my teeth'
        • 'unremitting ardour'
        • 'I am the blasted stump'
        • 'loud, unrestrained' laughter frightens Clerval
    • Monster
      • 'I am an abortion'
        • Mary Shelley had miscarriages and struggled to conceive
          • calls novel  'my hideous progeny'
      • Biblical references
        • Comparisonsto creation of  Adam
        • 'lifeless clay' - parallels to many creation stories
        • Paradise Lost
          • 'guarded by the especial care of his creator'
          • M 'I was wretched, helpless and alone'
        • 'I ought to by thy Adam' rather 'fallen Angel'
          • V called 'archangel' - similar?
      • 'unhallowed arts' -unholy creation
        • Biblical references
          • Comparisonsto creation of  Adam
          • 'lifeless clay' - parallels to many creation stories
          • Paradise Lost
            • 'guarded by the especial care of his creator'
            • M 'I was wretched, helpless and alone'
          • 'I ought to by thy Adam' rather 'fallen Angel'
            • V called 'archangel' - similar?
      • made from 'decaying parts' of 'human frame'
        • epistolary structure, Beth Newman notes mimics monster, stitched together from different people but speaks with one voice
          • but 'fails to provide significant differences' in tone, diction and sentence structure'
      • creation of monster linked to Luigi Galvani experiments in Galvanism -
        • 'convulsive motion'
          • Galvani used electricity to make frogs leg twitch, giving rise to Galvanism
            • Mary Shelley friends with a bunch of cutting edge scientists
      • Judged quickly
        • 'children shrieked' one woman 'fainted'
        • 'monstrous machinations
        • 'hideous'
        • 'filthy mass that moved and talked'
        • 'wretch'
          • V is called wretch
        • 'I am alone'
      • Eroticism and sexual desires
        • 'that being you must create'
          • theme of power - addressed V as 'slave'
        • 'portrait of a most lovely woman' - fixates on beauty
          • Peter Brooks 'becomes ****** object'
            • Inspires want for companion?
        • 'Awake, thy lover is near'
          • Beth Newman 'a perverse fantasy of ****'
          • 'I am forever robbed of all that she could give me'
        • desire for 'mate' 'companion'
        • 'no eve soothed my sorrows'
        • 'consumed by a burning passion which you alone can gratify'
        • 'you must create a female for me'
        • 'we shall make our bed of dried leaves'. sun 'will ripen our food'
          • edenical image
          • watches window of laboratory with 'ghastly grin' - Peter Brooks calls it a 'phallic gaze' making him realise the 'bodily potential of a sexed pair'
      • Clerval
        • 'how kind and very good you are to me'
        • 'my dear Henry'
        • 'the voice of Henry soothed me'
          • Untitled
        • 'lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched out before me'
        • homosexual?Appears more traumatised ('why did I not then die?' ) by Henry's death than Elizabeths
          • Kestner - 'homosexuality latent in his narcissism'
        • 'clerval had always been my favourite companion'

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    Light Theory

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    Oh my word. I love you.

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