Write about 2 passages or lines from pages 108-111 that take on a new meaning in light of our discussion today. Remember we were looking at Frankenstein and his monster being two halves of the same being, and we discussed repression. Do you see anything related to these themes? Any hidden conflicts for Victor?
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Something I read that caused me to view the monster and Frankenstein differently is how interconnected they are with each other.They both want happiness and they both want companionship. Victor wants his family to be safe and happy, and he wants to marry Elizabeth and have her as a companion. Similarly, the monster wants a companion. Victor says, “Once commenced, it would be quickly achieved, and I might be restored to my family in peace and happiness. My promise fulfilled, the monster would depart forever” (110). If Victor refuses to make a companion for the monster, the monster will remain unhappy and he will harm Victor’s family members. This would ultimately cause misery for Victor. It is up to Victor to decide not only the monster’s fate, but also his own. If he keeps his promise to the monster, they will both live with companionship and they will both be able to put the past behind them and move forward happily.
ReplyDeleteMindy said that Victor should make a companion for the monster because the monster will leave him alone if he does. I agree with this point because the monster wants nothing besides a companion. When Victor talks about Elizabeth he says "I love my cousin tenderly and sincerely. I never saw a woman who excited, as Elizabeth does, my warmest admiration and affection" (109). This side of Victor reminds me of the monster because it shows his love and compassion and the side that is like Eros. This is exactly how the monster wants to feel with the companion. Victor says "I must perform my engagement, and let the monster depart with his mate" (110)which reminds us of the Prometheus side of him. The monster is so fixated on getting a companion from Victor that he begins to act like a Prometheus because he is very greedy, even though he is excited. Both of the characters have different sides of themselves that make up one person when put together.
ReplyDeleteWhether these two figures or actually two different characters or they are just one figure with alter egos is a very debatable topic. I agree with Aimee on how the monster mainly wants the Eros side and Victor is more of a Prometheus figure, but at times they both show the opposite side further supporting the idea that it is one figure. The monster could just be a symbol for Frankenstein's inner conflict that he has; which is trying to find a happy medium between the Eros and Prometheus ideals. To suppress this inner monster Victor must learn to balance family and work which is a theme that many people can relate to. In the opening lines of Chapter 8 Victor says, "Day after day, week after week, passed away on my return to Geneva; and I could not collect the courage to recommence my work."(108) This shows that Frankenstein is quite scared of dealing with either the real life monster or his "inner-demon". Either way he ponders on whether to suppress this monster and forget it or provide it the little wants it needs and then it will be gone.
ReplyDeletelike^
DeleteContinuing my post... On page 110 Victor says, "The feelings dictated my answer to my father. I expressed a wish to visit England; but concealing the true reasons of this request, I clothed my desires under a guise which excited no suspicion, while I urged my desire with an earnestness that easily induced my father to comply." This quote showed that Victor was hiding his evil from his father and society in general. He is saying he hid it in a "guise". He says he "clothed" his desires which means he had to suppress them to finish this project of suppress this evil in him. What he doesn't know is that he needs to find a medium between his desires and satisfying his evils.
DeleteI agree with Taylor when he said that Doctor Frankenstein wanted compassion and love in his life. Doctor might seem more like a Prometheus at times, but secretly wants to be more like an Eros. He wants what his creation, the monster, wants, love and compassion. On page 131, Frankensteins is replying to his father about the marraige between himself and Elizabeth.This is a difficult question for the Doctor. Though he is in love with Elizabeth and wants to marry her, he promised the monster that he would create a companion for him. He also knows that the monster might hurt Elizabeth if he did forget about the monster's proposal. They both want love and compassion. The monster and the doctor seem to be like Ying and Yang, yet in this instance, the doctor shows some of the monsters characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with aimee in that the monster and Victor both share a sensitive side when it comes to loving another. And I also agree with Chris, I definitley think the mosnter is a reflection of Victor in more then one way. On page 108, Victor says, "A change indeed had taken place in me: my health, which had hitherto declined, was now restored; my spirits, when unchecked by the memory of my unhappy promise, rose proporionably". These changes start happening to Victor after he had given the monster hope by agreeing to make a companion for him. When the monster became positive and hopefull, so did Victor. Another sort of similar example of this is on page 110; Victor says, "I must preform my engagement, and let the monster depart with his mate, before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace". Victor wants to make the monster happy before himself because the monster represents the parts of himself which he is not happy with.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my colleague Chris when he says "the monster could be a symbol for Frankenstein's inner conflict." I think this is true, for we discussed in class how Frankenstein is the reflection of the monster. Yet taking a different approach, besides the monster I think that there are other things that are inhuman or immoral to do, such as marrying your own cousin if I am interpreting correctly. We all know that it's a bit unhuman like to marry someone on your family tree, unless it's by accident. Frankenstein reflects and he says "But through the whole period during which I was the slave of my creature, I allowed myself to be governed by the impulses of the moment.."(153) This is quite interesting, although Frankenstein longed companion, his father was the one who really urged the union of he and Elizabeth. He repressed the reality of marrying his own cousin and because he feared the monster, he repressed happiness in the ways that he wished to pursue it. Frankenstein and the monster are inextricably bound to each other, for they repressed each other off of impluse. It can be dangerous.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Hannah in that Victor can be happy if makes the monster happy by creating a mate for him, but even though Victor hasn't created the mate yet, you can still see a change in him as being happier. "I met the salutations of my friends with a readier smile and more cheerful heart."(134)this shows that Victor has become happier in some way but still not the happiest he can be. It might be because he finally figured out what his inner monster was, in which it was his creation and since he has a way of bringing happiness to his creation by making a mate, he might be able to bring happiness to himself; in which this can prove that Frankenstein and the monster are more than just creator and creation, they are more deeply connected in a sence they are part of the same person. The creation of the monster's mate might be the only solution for bringing peace into their lives; the monster will run off into the wild with his mate and Frankenstein could get back to is family values.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hannah in that the moster is a reflection of Victor, but his reflection is more of a mental reflection. The monster is apart of Victor's simple part of his mind. There is still something in Victor that is being repressed, the monster is not his repression. I beleive that he is repressing his love for Elizabeth, and i don't mean as just his sister. Whenever he is home, he becomes relieved from his fever and illnesses that he usually gets. He has a "more cheerful heart" he says on page 108. His father adddressed Victor saying, "you have resumed your former pleasures, and seem to be returning to yourself, and yet you are still unhappy, and still avoid our society(109)." Even Victor's father knows that Victor is hiding feelings inside that is causing him to still be unhappy. He is hiding the fact that he can be in love with a woman and get married. His repression is marriage. He even says, "to me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay(110)". Being married to Elizabeth would just cause more problems, because his other half, the monster, is still alive and he wouldn't live in peace if he wed with Elizabeth right away. His monster half has to be destroyed in order for Victor and Elizabeth come together as a couple.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with Jorden that Victor can gain happiness for the monster and himself by creating this mate for the monster, and that by doing this he will then be able to return to his family life again. However while addressing the situation of creating the mate Victor mentions his connection to the monster as a form of slavery, which, if Victor and the monster are two seperate halves, implies that he is somewhat of a slave to the other half of himself. "My promise fulfilled,the monster would depart forever. Or some accident might meanwhile occur to destroy him, and put an end to my slavery forever."(110) this shows that all Victor wants is to be free of the monster, so much that if by creating the mate does not free him, he's hoping for some kind of accident to kill the monster and "put an end to his slavery forever."
ReplyDeleteI believe what Katherine said in her post that she thinks that Dr. Frankenstein's most simple emotions are boradcasted to the reader through the monster that he created. But, I also believe that the monster is the primal side of all human beings which is now masked by the developed conscience which all humans have acquired and honed over time in order to make decisions that are not savage and natural.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my colleague Chris when he says "the monster could be a symbol for Frankenstein's inner conflict." I think this is true, for we discussed in class how Frankenstein is the reflection of the monster. Taking a different approach, the monster conducted an experiment. This experiment involved the cottagers in the woods. The habitat and the people were already set in order, the monster just had to “observe, record data, and make a conclusion.” He observed how they behaved saying “I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of the hearers (111). The reality of it is that not many humans take the time to realize the power of language and the power of engagement. Here the monster examined the reaction and emotions of the cottagers. Not only is the monster repressed of human interaction, but society is repressed of this monster. Repressed in a sense that society shakes it off, thinking that people like the monster don’t exist. The cottagers may have taken for granted the bond that they have because it’s an everyday bond, but the monster who’s on the outside looking in, he knows the value of this bond. Although they suffer from “poverty” (110), he knows a certain form poverty as well. Poverty when you can’t receive a smile from a being, poverty when one lacks love from the world, poverty when even his creator doesn’t even wish to partake in his existence. Still repressed, he felt connected to them. He says “When they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys (111). We see an effort to feel human from the monster. Very desperate he is, to gain what he has been denied of, life. In a sense, life isn’t just breathing. To the monster, life is having these simple, yet grand pleasures and feelings. The monster and Victor are deprived of life.
DeleteI agree with Hannah in that Victor can be happy if he makes the monster happy by creating a mate for him, but even though Victor hasn't created the mate yet, you can still see a change in him as being happier. "I met the salutations of my friends with a readier smile and more cheerful heart."(134)this shows that Victor has become happier in some way but still not the happiest he can be. "Once commenced, it qould quickly be achived, and I might be restored to my family in peace and happiness."(136) This shows that Victor can't be at his happiest because of the fact he hasn't had that much time with his family since he has been in the lab. Since Victor might have finally figured out what his inner monster was, in which it was his creation and since he has a way of bringing happiness to his creation by making a mate, he might be able to bring happiness to himself; in which this can prove that Frankenstein and the monster are more than just creator and creation, they are more deeply connected in a sence they are part of the same person. The creation of the monster's mate might be the only solution for bringing peace into their lives; the monster will run off into the wild with his mate and Frankenstein could get back to is family values.
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