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Walton and Frankenstein – two peas in a pod

Walton and Frankenstein – two peas in a pod.

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Walton and Frankenstein – two peas in a pod

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  1. Walton and Frankenstein – two peas in a pod • Both are ambitious, scientific-minded men; both are left to be self-educated; both find studies that interest them (for Robert it is Arctic voyages, for Victor, it is natural philosophy); both have few people in who they confide and trust; both see their scientific pursuits as a higher calling.

  2. Rime of the Ancient Mariner • Victor = The Mariner (tells his tale as a warning and as a confession) • “Learn from me…how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge ” (52). • Robert = the Wedding Guest • Initially, Victor seems to want to warn Robert about his ambitious pursuits – Where will he go with this?

  3. Secret to life? • Frankenstein purposely leaves out one crucial detail in the story of his process of creating the Creature – how he infuses the spark of life – he notes Robert’s interest, but refuses to tell him, instead warning him off.

  4. Rime allusions cont. • Walton in the Letters: “I am going…’to the land of mist and snow’ but I shall kill no albatross” (20). • going to unexplored regions; attributes fascination of sea to Coleridge • “Or should I come back to you as worn and woeful as the Ancient Mariner” • creature = albatross (pg. 22-23)

  5. Rime Cont. • My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear, and I hurried on with irregular steps, not darning to look about me; Like one who, on a lonely road, doth walk in fear and dread And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.

  6. Significance of quote? • Victor is a coward • Lack of responsibility towards his creation • Addresses Creature as his ENEMY – hasn’t had any relationship / cause to do so.

  7. Paradise Lost Allusions • Garden of Eden and Tree of Knowledge • “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, and I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (28) • Promethean Ambition • Serpent = temptation / consequences • Foreshadowing

  8. Paradise Lost Allusions Cont. • “I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation” (47). • “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely and I should deserve theirs” (52)

  9. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes… were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs” (57). Parent’s Responsibility to a Child

  10. Frankenstein’s Journey to becoming a Creator • Impetus: Thunderstorm when he was 15 • “I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak…and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump” (40). • Lightening symbol for nature’s mysterious power • Introduces Victor to awesome power of electricity • Becomes a disciple of Waldman (feels contempt for Krempe)

  11. Creation • “To examine the causes of life, we must first examine the causes of death” • “I was forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses” (50) • “The dissecting room and the slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials” (53). • “As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance…I resolved to make the being of a gigantic stature…eight feet in height” (52).

  12. Creation • “I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived” (57). • It is difficult to believe that a man who could spend hours watching the process of decay, watching worms crawling through eyeballs, can’t stand the sight of a being whose presence he acknowledged was ugly even while he was working on it…

  13. Several things Victor fails to consider…. • The moral implications of his work as creator of life. Should I be doing this? • His responsibility toward the monster. • During the entire process of creation, Frankenstein also neglects to ask himself one critical question: What happens if I succeed? (What next?)

  14. Fate and Destiny • Frankenstein continuously attributes the events that take place as being a matter of “fate” or “destiny” – he is reluctant to take responsibility for his actions / choices. • “nothing can alter my destiny” (29). • “Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction” (41).

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