Premium Essay

Significance Of Secrets In Frankenstein

Submitted By
Words 268
Pages 2
In Frankenstein,Victor has many secrets such as building the monster. In chapters seven through nine we see more secrets, such as the murder of his brother and the execution of his cousin, Justine. In chapter seven Victor receives a letter from his fathers, explaining to him what has happened to his younger brother, William. “ This picture is gone, and was doubtless the temptation which the murderer to the deed. We have no trace of him at present, although our exertions to discover him are unremitted; but they will not restore my beloved William”.(Shelley 47). This quote here is the first secret that is introduced. It explains how his father believes that he was murdered because the murder wanted the picture of his mother and how they have

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel

...Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is considered as a Gothic novel but it can be seen as a compilation of both Gothic and Romantic because of the significance of the sublime. Certain events and settings in the novel present the gothic themes. Shelley uses the different themes in her novel to evoke feelings of horror and terror in the reader. Frankenstein engages in a quest in pushing the realms of science to their limits which leads him to playing god and creating an unnatural being using science. One of the themes Shelley uses in the novel to create the gothic presence is the theme of Forbidden Knowledge. Mary Shelley introduces the ideas that science is capable of being very dangerous and has consequences through the character of Victor Frankenstein. Shelley’s time was described as the age of unprecedented scientific discoveries, which influenced her in writing of Frankenstein. The process of the creation of his creation was influenced by the Italian physician Luigi Galvani who discovered “animal electricity” which manifests with the twitching of nerves and muscles when an electric current is applied. Frankenstein seeks to find “the secrets of heaven and earth” to fulfil his quest. He calls them secrets; he is aware they are not to be known and should not be found. Frankenstein knows that acquiring such knowledge would not be easy as he states “how dangerous the acquirement of knowledge”. Frankenstein is aware of the uneasy task of seeking...

Words: 1561 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Frankenstein- Marginalisation of Women

...Frankenstein  Science AO2 Unrestrained scientific desire: ‘they penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places’ • ‘they ascend into the heavens’ ‘new and almost unlimited powers’ ‘penetrate’ ‘command’ ‘mimic’ • ‘with fervour’ • ‘performed miracles’ • ‘unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation’ • ‘secret’ ‘hidden laws’ • How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge’ Power: ‘as if my soul were grappling with a powerful enemy’ • ‘like a hurricane’ ‘pour a torrent of light’ • ‘pursued’ ‘unremitting ardour’ ‘clung’ ‘dedicated myself’ ‘secret toil’ ‘tremble’ ‘tortured’ • ‘one pursuit’ • ‘tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man’ • ‘I preferred glory’ • ‘until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me- a light so brilliant and wondrous’ Lack of Morality: Transgression against God he mocks the power of the creator ‘torrents of light’ ‘a new species would bless me as its creator and source’ ‘many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me’ • ‘eyes insensible to the charms of nature’ • ‘Labours’ scientist in being able to mimic and usurp traditional creation methods;  existence of an immortal soul? • Responsibility for creation image reinforced ‘inarticulate sounds’ Pursuit: ‘deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge’ • ‘Pursuit for discovery and wonder’ attracted to the tree of knowledge ‘eternal light’  back to biblical times, tree of knowledge...

Words: 2241 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Frankenstein

...Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Key facts full title ·  Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus author · Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley type of work · Novel genre · Gothic science fiction language · English time and place written · Switzerland, 1816, and London, 1816–1817 date of first publication · January 1, 1818 publisher · Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones narrator · The primary narrator is Robert Walton, who, in his letters, quotes Victor Frankenstein’s first-person narrative at length; Victor, in turn, quotes the monster’s first-person narrative; in addition, the lesser characters Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein narrate parts of the story through their letters to Victor. climax · The murder of Elizabeth Lavenza on the night of her wedding to Victor Frankenstein in Chapter 23 protagonist · Victor Frankenstein antagonist · Frankenstein’s monster setting (time) · Eighteenth century setting (place) · Geneva; the Swiss Alps; Ingolstadt; England and Scotland; the northern ice point of view · The point of view shifts with the narration, from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to Frankenstein’s monster, then back to Walton, with a few digressions in the form of letters from Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein. falling action · After the murder of Elizabeth Lavenza, when Victor Frankenstein chases the monster to the northern ice, is rescued by Robert Walton, narrates his story, and dies tense · Past foreshadowing · Ubiquitous—throughout...

Words: 51140 - Pages: 205

Premium Essay

Frankenstein Mary Shelley Analysis

...In her 1818 preface to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley wrote that Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron sojourned into Nature leaving her behind at Villa Diodati near lake Geneva. After weeks of rain, the weather suddenly clears and she writes “my two friends left me on a journey among the Alps, lost, in the magnificent scenes…” (8) This would be the first of many excursions from which she would be left out. Though exceptionally educated and progressive, Shelley was a woman trapped by the mores of the nineteenth century. She was no stranger to the social constraints placed upon her sex. Her experiences as a woman of her time are mirrored in her portrayal of men and women and their relationship to nature in the novel. While creation, pregnancy and birth, were intrinsically the provenance of women, the quest for a rational, scientific method for understanding and conquering Nature was the objective of men. This...

Words: 3576 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Her Fearful Symetrey

...Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger Reading guide About the Book Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cosy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ... but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t seem to quite leave her flat.... With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, Her Fearful Symmetry is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity. Reviews for The Time Traveler’s Wife ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of those books where you read the first paragraph and you’re hooked – unmissable’ Irish Independent ‘Henry’s journeys back and forth are by turns slapstick noir and unbearably poignant, and Clare’s child and teen narrations disturbingly pitch-perfect. Philosophical speculation occurs in the most unlikely devices and...

Words: 1821 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Frankenstein History

...Reading Between the Lines: An analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus, using Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto as an example of male discourse about women Louise Othello Knudsen English Almen, 10th semester Master’s Thesis 31-07-2012 Tabel of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Historical Context .............................................................................................................................. 10 The View on Women and Their Expected Roles in the late 18th and 19th Century ....................... 11 - Mary Shelley disowns herself .................................................................................................. 11 - Mary Shelley’s Background .................................................................................................... 12 Women’s Role in Frankenstein ..................................................................................................... 13 Men’s Role in Frankenstein ........................................................................................................... 13 - Women in Society and Women as Writers .........................................................

Words: 30015 - Pages: 121

Free Essay

Old English Literature

...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE • Palaeolithic nomads from mainland Europe; • New inhabitants came from western and possibly north-western Europe (New Stone Age); • in the 2nd millennium BC new inhabitants came from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine (Stonehenge); • Between 800 and 200 BC Celtic peoples moved into Britain from mainland Europe (Iron Age) • first experience of a literate civilisation in 55 B.C. • remoter areas in Scotland retained independence • Ireland, never conquered by Rome, Celtic tradition • The language of the pre-Roman settlers - British (Welsh, Breton); Cornish; Irish and Scottish Gaelic (Celtic dialect) • The Romans up to the fifth century • Britain - a province of the Roman Empire 400 years • the first half of the 5th century the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (N Germany, Jutland) • The initial wave of migration - 449 A. D. • the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) • the Britain of his time comprised four nations English, British (Welsh), Picts, and Scots. • invaders resembling those of the Germans as described by Tacitus in his Germania. • a warrior race • the chieftain, the companions or comitatus. • the Celtic languages were supplanted (e.g. ass, bannock, crag). * Christianity spread from two different directions: * In the 5th century St Patrick converted Ireland, in the 7th century the north of England was converted by Irish monks; * in the south at the end of the 6th century Aethelberht of Kent allowed the monk Augustine...

Words: 9579 - Pages: 39

Premium Essay

Negotiation

...Negotiation: the Chinese style Tony Fang School of Business, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Abstract Purpose – To examine the nature of Chinese business negotiating style in Sino-Western business negotiations in business-to-business markets involving large industrial projects from a social cultural point of view. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual approach developed from personal interviews. Findings – This study reveals that the Chinese negotiator does not possess an absolute negotiating style but rather embraces a mixture of different roles together: “Maoist bureaucrat in learning”, “Confucian gentleman”, and “Sun Tzu-like strategist”. The Chinese negotiating strategy is essentially a combination of cooperation and competition (termed as the “coop-comp” negotiation strategy in this study). Trust is the ultimate indicator of Chinese negotiating propensities and role choices. Research limitations/implications – The focus of this study is on Chinese negotiating style shown in large B2B negotiations with Chinese SOEs. Originality/value – Differing from most other studies on Chinese negotiating style which tend to depict the Chinese negotiator as either sincere or deceptive, this study points out that there exists an intrinsic paradox in Chinese negotiating style which reflects the Yin Yang thinking. The Chinese negotiator has a cultural capacity to negotiate both sincerely and deceptively and he/she changes coping strategies according to situation and context...

Words: 11190 - Pages: 45

Free Essay

Miaws

...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSICS EDITION OF G EORG E B E R N A R D S HAW ’S PYGMALION By LAURA REIS MAYER BUNCOMBE COUNTY SCHOOLS, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA S E R I E S E D I T O R S JEANNE M. MCGLINN, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Asheville and W. GEIGER ELLIS, Ed.D., University of Georgia, Professor Emeritus 2 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion TABLE OF CONTENTS An Introduction .......................................................................................3 Synopsis of the Play .................................................................................3 Prereading Activities .................................................................................6 During Reading Activities ......................................................................13 After Reading Activities .........................................................................21 About the Author of this Guide .............................................................29 About the Editors of this Guide .............................................................29 Full List of Free Teacher's Guides...........................................................30 Click on a Classic ..................................................................................31 Copyright © 2007 by Penguin Group (USA) For additional teacher’s manuals, catalogs, or descriptive brochures, please email academic@penguin.com or write...

Words: 11837 - Pages: 48

Free Essay

Up from Slavery

...contradictions of his life make his autobiography intellectually intriguing for advanced readers. To some he was known as the Sage of Tuskegee or the Black Moses. One of his prominent biographers, Louis R. Harlan, called him the “Wizard of the Tuskegee Machine.” Others acknowledged him to be a complicated person and public figure. Students of American social and political history have come to see that Washington lived a double life. Publicly he appeased the white establishment by remaining cautious in his charges and demands. Privately he worked tirelessly to undo the effects of institutional and cultural racism. Although he seemed to have made a grand compromise, first with the white south and then with white America, he worked in deepest secret to undermine the compromise and advance the social and economic position of blacks. No doubt exists as to his greatness....

Words: 13713 - Pages: 55

Free Essay

Hist

...Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China Ezra F. Vogel REFERENCES American Rural Small-Scale Industry Delegation. Rural Small-Scale Industry in the People’s Republic of China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. Atkinson, Richard C. “Recollection of Events Leading to the First Exchange of Students, Scholars, and Scientists between the United States and the People’s Republic of China,” 4 pp. Bachman, David. “Differing Visions of China’s Post-Mao Economy: The Ideas of Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping, and Zhao Ziyang,” Asian Survey, 26, no. 3 (March 1986), 293-321. Bachman, David. “The Fourteenth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.” New York: Asia Society, 1992. Bachman, David. “Implementing Chinese Tax Policy.” In Lampton, ed., Policy Implementation in Post-Mao China, pp. 119-153. Backhouse, E. and J.O.P. Bland. Annals & Memoirs of the Court of Peking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914. Bainian chao (百年潮) (Hundred Year Tide). Monthly. Beijing: Zhongguo zhonggong dangshi xuehui, 1997 -- . Barfield, Thomas J. Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989. Barman, Geneviève Barman and Nicole Dulioust. “Les années Françaises de Deng Xiaoping,” Vingtième Siècle: Revue d’histoire, no. 20 (October-December 1988), 17-34. Barman, Geneviève and Nicole Dulioust. “The Communists in the Work and Study Movement in France,” Republican China, 13, no. 2 (April 1988), 24-39. Barnett, A. Doak, with a contribution...

Words: 14725 - Pages: 59

Premium Essay

Cyrus the Great

...critical theory today critical theory today A Us e r - F r i e n d l y G u i d e S E C O N D E D I T I O N L O I S T Y S O N New York London Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN © 2006 by Lois Tyson Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑10: 0‑415‑97410‑0 (Softcover) 0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑415‑97410‑3 (Softcover) 978‑0‑415‑97409‑7 (Hardcover) No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Tyson, Lois, 1950‑ Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide / Lois Tyson.‑‑ 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0‑415‑97409‑7 (hb) ‑‑ ISBN 0‑415‑97410‑0 (pb) 1. Criticism...

Words: 221284 - Pages: 886

Free Essay

Gre Vocabulary 3000

...Made By Jason & Franklin. This Document Is Strictly Prohibited For Commercial Purposes Without Authorization. List 1 GRE Verbal 750 Quantitative 800, AW 5.5 2008 10 Princeton, MIT, M. Fin Unit 1 ABANDON A B D I C AT E ABASE ABERRANT ABASH ABET A B AT E A B E YA N C E A B B R E V I AT E ABHOR abandon [ 1 n. ] carefree, freedom from constraint added spices to the stew with complete abandon unconstraint, uninhibitedness, unrestraint 2 v. to give (oneself) over unrestrainedly abandon herself to a life of complete idleness abandon oneself to emotion indulge, surrender, give up 3 v. to withdraw from often in the face of danger or encroachment abandon the ship/homes salvage 4 v. to put an end to (something planned or previously agreed to) NASA the bad weather forced NASA to abandon the launch abort, drop, repeal, rescind, revoke, call off keep, continue, maintain, carry on abase [ 1 v. ] to lower in rank, office, prestige, or esteem was unwilling to abase himself by pleading guilty to a crime that he did not commit debauch, degrade, profane, vitiate, discredit, foul, smirch, take down elevate, ennoble, uplift, aggrandize, canonize, deify, exalt abash [ 1 vt. ] to destroy the self-possession or self-confidence of ,disconcert, embarrass Nothing could abash him. discomfit, disconcert, discountenance, faze, fluster, nonplus, mortify embolden abate [ 1 v. ] to reduce in degree or intensity / abate his rage/pain taper off intensify 2 v. ...

Words: 139628 - Pages: 559

Premium Essay

Learning Theory

...Beginning theory An introduction to literary and cultural theory Second edition Peter Barry © Peter Barry 1995, 2002 ISBN: 0719062683 Contents Acknowledgements - page x Preface to the second edition - xii Introduction - 1 About this book - 1 Approaching theory - 6 Slop and think: reviewing your study of literature to date - 8 My own 'stock-taking' - 9 1 Theory before 'theory' - liberal humanism - 11 The history of English studies - 11 Stop and think - 11 Ten tenets of liberal humanism - 16 Literary theorising from Aristotle to Leavis some key moments - 21 Liberal humanism in practice - 31 The transition to 'theory' - 32 Some recurrent ideas in critical theory - 34 Selected reading - 36 2 Structuralism - 39 Structuralist chickens and liberal humanist eggs Signs of the fathers - Saussure - 41 Stop and think - 45 The scope of structuralism - 46 What structuralist critics do - 49 Structuralist criticism: examples - 50 Stop and think - 53 Stop and think - 55 39 Stop and think - 57 Selected reading - 60 3 Post-structuralism and deconstruction - 61 Some theoretical differences between structuralism and post-structuralism - 61 Post-structuralism - life on a decentred planet - 65 Stop and think - 68 Structuralism and post-structuralism - some practical differences - 70 What post-structuralist critics do - 73 Deconstruction: an example - 73 Selected reading - 79 4 Postmodernism - 81 What is postmodernism? What was modernism? -...

Words: 98252 - Pages: 394

Premium Essay

Harold Bloom

...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...

Words: 239932 - Pages: 960