Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1. Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Gothic Novel

2. Romantic • Romantic elements • Existentialism – reason to exist • Childhood/innocence • Stopping/reflecting – enjoying life • Byronic hero – mysterious, nameless guilt

3. Gothic • Gothic elements • Weather – wind, clouds, fog, thunder, lighting • Supernatural • Lots of emotion – fear, terror, sorrow, guilt • Ancient tales • Mysterious/unknown places • Women in distress • Monotony of gloom and horror – footsteps, wind, hard rain • Houses beyond repair • Late night aspect • Gigantic, enormous, large

4. Frankenstein • Written by Mary Shelley in 1816 • Subtitled “The Modern Prometheus” • Criticism that she didn’t/couldn’t write such a horrifying ghost story • Monster = Victor’s feelings externalized • A doppelganger – double/second self

5. Frankenstein • Romantic – nature aspect, monster and feels safe in nature, Victor returns to nature, both feel isolated • Gothic – cold, fog, ice, isolation • The summer Frankenstein is written is the coldest recorded

6. Mary Shelley • 1797 – born daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, both prominent writers • 1814 – Mary meets Percy Bysshe Shelly, they leave for France • 1816 – Mary gives birth to William, begins writing Frankenstein as a novella, encouraged by Percy to create novel

7. Frame Tale • More engaging, listener embodies reader, makes it seem more realistic • Wraps ordinary story in “ghost” story • Makes story more credible, believable, verisimilitude • Provides didactic function – instruction and entertainment • Universalizes story

8. Correlation to Birth/Gestation • Confinement – laying in for birth • Novel took 9 months to write, takes place over 9 months (pages of novel) • “Dilation” of novel – dilation of cervix during birth • Mary had four miscarriages before 25 which almost killed her

9. Themes and Allusions • The dangerous pursuit of knowledge • Prometheus (gives fire to man, painful – liver pecked out daily) • Adam and Eve - eat and suffer the consequences (childbirth) • Paradise Lost – “And now with the world before me” • Plato’s Symposium – “we are unfashioned creatures” • Globular man, split

10. Motifs and Symbols • Lack of mothers • Meaning of names • Lightning/storm (weather) • Texts/books • Fire • Nature

11. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde • Written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 • Significance of names • Jekyll = “I kill” • Hyde = hiding • Jekyll says he can “be rid of Hyde” whenever he wants • Tragic flaw – Jekyll lets Hyde continue to take over • Will uses word “disappearance” to describe Jekyll going away

12. Unreliable Narrator • Utterson • Narrates novella, receive all info through him • Trusted with secrets and wills • Reader does not get details because Utterson does not know everything • Inquisitive (plays Sherlock)

13. Themes and Symbols • Doppelganger – Jekyll and Hyde • Symbols – night, houses, documents, cane • Themes – duality of man, consequences of the pursuit of knowledge