Alienated Characters and Society

1. Alienated Characters and Society By: Neal Whetstone, Brittnie Smithley, Josie Blackburn, Regem Biyo, and Daniel Hayes, Thomas Milbrath

2. “Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and show how the character’s alienation reveals the surrounding society’s assumptions or moral values.” -Some AP Writer Literal Meaning of the Prompt

3. Relationship with Frankenstein The creature is alienated because of his horrific appearance. Victor was also alienated in the process of making The Creature Guilty! Of being ratchet!

4. Example “I paused. This, I thought, was the moment of decision, which was to rob me of, or bestow happiness on me forever. I struggled vainly for maining strength; I sank on the chair and sobbed aloud. At that moment I heard the steps of m younger protectors. I had not a moment to lose but, seizing the hand of the old man, I cried, ‘Now is the time!– save and protect me! You and your family are the friends whom I seek. Do not you desert me in the hour of trial!’ ‘Great God!’ exclaimed the old man, ‘who are you?’ At that instant The cottage Door was opened, and Felix, Safie, and Agatha entered. Who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me? Agatha fainted; and Safie, unable to attend her friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung: in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick.”

5. Another Example “My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement” (Shelley 32). “At these moments I took refuge in the most perfect solitude. I passed whole days alone on the lake alone in a little boat” (Shelley 108).

6. Pivotal Moment One Frankenstein creating his monster • This moment is significant with our prompt because not only did the creature turn out to be alienated by society, but Victor alienated himself in the process.

7. Pivotal Moment Two The Creature, sore after his rejection by the cottage family, chooses to save a drowning girl. The Creature saves the Drowning Girl

8. First Person Point of View “It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct” (Shelley 70).

9. Foreshadowing • “He had apparently been strangled; for there was no sign of violence, except black marks of fingers on his neck." [Chapter XXI, page 128, bottom of second paragraph]

10. Metaphor • "Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source"

11. Oxymoron “I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph” (Shelley 102).

12. Thesis! • The monster was. • The grotesque monster was ironically good. • In Frankenstein the grotesque monster was ironically good among a judgmental society. • In Frankenstein the grotesque monster, Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creation, was ironically good among a judgmental society. • In Frankenstein the grotesque monster, Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creation, was ironically good among a judgmental society until he was twisted into the monster that was expected. • In Frankenstein the grotesque monster, Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creation, was ironically good among a judgmental society, until he was twisted into the monster that was expected by his master abandoning him, his treatment after rescuing a girl from drowning, and finally the abortion of his equally hideous mate.

13. Sources • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REvTuEqXXs