Frankenstein

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?
-John Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 743-745 (1667)

How do we determine which traditions are worth keeping and which must be jettisoned for the sake of progress, and how do the old and the new overlap in the meantime?

Understandings:
Students will understand that...

When we don't take responsibility for our actions, we can impact others, possibly even on a global level.
Victor's lack of compassion for his creation causes the monster to seek revenge and cuts it off from any love or compassion it might have felt.
Scientific advancement can help us learn and prolong our lives, but when it clashes with moral issues and compromises our principles and our humanity, it is harmful.
This novel offers no answer to the question of the relationship between creator and creation; it can be a seen as metaphor for man's relationship to God, in which case, God is indifferent at best and cruel at worst. The novel does serve as a springboard to discuss such issues.
The relationship between nature and nurture is complex and remains the focus of debate as research shows both to be important in determining various aspects of humanity.

Essential Questions:

What consequences do we face when we don't take responsibility for our actions?
Can individuals transform society?
How can scientific advancement and exploration be both good and bad?
What happens when our ideals are realized?
What is the relationship between nature and nurture? Which is more important?
What is the tension between reason and intuition?
What is the ethical relationship between creator and creation?
In what ways can imagination and inspiration unleash the best and worst in man?
How do writers structure their work to reflect their message?
How is the feminist perspective demonstrated in Romanticism?

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

2022-2023 Reading Schedule with "Read By' Dates

Author’s Introduction and Letters 1-4 by Tuesday, October 25
Chapters 1 - 3 by Thursday, October 27
Chapters 4 - 6 by Monday, October 31
Chapters 7 - 9 by Wednesday, November 2
Chapters 10 - 11 by Friday, November 4
Chapters 12 - 14 by Monday, November 7
Chapters 15 - 16 by Wednesday, Novcember 9
Chapters 17 - 19 by Friday, November 11
Chapters 20 -21 by Monday, November 14
Chapters 22 - 23 by Wednesday, November 16
Chapter 24 by Friday, November 18
*Calendar is subject to change as needed

Proposed Assignment Due Dates - subject to change based upon instructor's whimsy and class assimilation of literary content :-)

Strunk & White: The Elements of Style

click on the book cover

This is a link to a classic writing refence book used in colleges and high schools to support higher level writing. Please read and use whenever you are inventing and composing a writing assignment and you have a question about grammar or mechanics.

Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds (The MIT Press-2017)

Click in the image above to go to the novel annotated for scientists, engineers, and creators of all kinds.

Frankenstein Podcasts (free)

Dramatic Reading - In this version, different actors read the different characters, making it sound like you are listening to a play.

Frankenstein Audio Book by Loyal Books (Librivox recording) - In this version, a single reader (female with a British accent) reads the entire novel.

Click on the image above to access a student recommended Apple Podcast audio reading of Frankenstein. Elena T. recommends listening at 1.25X or 2X speed. Thanks Elena!!

Downloadables and Resources

Click on Ada to explore "pen names"

In a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Philosophy Talk radio show hosts and Stanford philosophers Ken Taylor and Josh Landy were joined by Persis Drell, university provost and former dean of the School of Engineering, in a conversation about the responsibility of scientists to weigh the impact of their inventions.

In this event recording, Stanford faculty discuss Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, on the 200th anniversary of its publication. Panelists present the genesis of the book, cultural and media iconography, social issues of otherness, artificial intelligence, bioengineering and legal perspectives on personhood and creation.

Romanticism in Art

"The Raft of the Medusa" by Theodore Gericault

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818) by Caspar David Friedrich

Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix

The Kiss (1859) by Francesco Hayez

Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon (1818-1824) by Caspar David Friedrich

Third of May 1808 (1814) by Francisco Goya

The Nightmare (1781) by Henry Fuseli

Click the link above to read a thorough biography about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley from Oxford Dictionary National Biography.

Click the image above to go to a FASCINATING series of lectures, articles, scientific journals that Stanford University has gathered to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Click the image above to read the article, "What We Forget About Mary Shelley," from Shondaland.com.

Click on the image above to see the video clip of Frankenstein's Monster as audiences in 1931 would have first seen him.

"From biotech to climate change, advances in technology raise significant moral questions. To engage responsibly, our next generation of scientists need training in the arts and ethics." Click the image above to read, "STEAM not STEM: Why Scientists Need Arts Training."

Click the image above to read, "Man as God" from NPR's The Week's Best Stories from NPR Books.

Click the image above to go to The Paris Review's story, "Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's Own Hand."

Click the image above to read "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein" from The New Yorker Magazine

Click on the Creature's face to go to a list of topics tracked in the text of Frankenstein collected by Stuart Curran of UPenn.

Click the image above to read The New York Times' article, "Facebook's Frankenstein Moment."

Dr. Sparky Sweets AKA Thug Notes
(Trigger Warning!) - Frankenstein

Click on the image above to watch an SNL skit starring Helen Mirren as Mary Shelley.

Click on the image above to go to PhilosophyTalk.org and listen to brief audio discussion of the philosophical themes within Frankenstein.

Click the image above to read a Wikipedia entry for the X-Files episode, "The Post-Modern Prometheus".

->E-text of Frankenstein (1818)

->List of Critical Essays COMPREHENSIVE
Please click on Critical Commentary

->Frankenstein in Pop Culture - Wikipedia

Click on the image above for a history and explanation of Phrenology.

romanticism_v_realism.pdf
File Size:	64 kb
File Type:	pdf

Finding Ourselves inMary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clayTo mould me man? Did I solicit theeFrom darkness to promote me? -John Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 743-745 (1667)

How do we determine which traditions are worth keeping and which must be jettisoned for the sake of progress, and how do the old and the new overlap in the meantime?

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. ​- Nathaniel Hawthorne

2022-2023 Reading Schedule with "Read By' Dates

Proposed Assignment Due Dates - subject to change based upon instructor's whimsy and class assimilation of literary content :-)

Strunk & White: The Elements of Style

Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds (The MIT Press-2017)

Frankenstein Podcasts (free)

Downloadables and Resources

Romanticism in Art

Dr. Sparky Sweets AKA Thug Notes ​(Trigger Warning!) - Frankenstein

->E-text of Frankenstein (1818)

-> Commentary, Background and Allusions

->Prometheus Myth

﻿->The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

->The Victorian Web

->Disease and the Industrial Revolution

->BBC History-Victorian Medicine

->Public Health in the 19th Century

->List of Critical Essays *COMPREHENSIVE* Please click on Critical Commentary

->Frankenstein in Pop Culture - Wikipedia

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge

Professor Courtright Lecture Parts 1 to 4

Professor Courtright Lecture Parts 5 to 7

Frankenstein Document Resources

Frankenstein Assignments

Generic Handouts and Media Links

Finding Ourselves in
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?
-John Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 743-745 (1667)

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Dr. Sparky Sweets AKA Thug Notes
(Trigger Warning!) - Frankenstein

->The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

->List of Critical Essays COMPREHENSIVE
Please click on Critical Commentary