ENG 102--Rice

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Prometheus

--The subtitle of the novel is "the Modern Prometheus." See if you can keep track of allusions to the Prometheus story in the novel. Hint: look at all the images of fire, and the use of fire and light imagery to describe knowledge. The first question you might ask is: to whom does the subtitle refer, Victor or the creature?
--Here is Bulfinch's version of the Prometheus story (and Pandora, too). Thomas Bulfinch published his version in 1855, well after Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Prometheus was an important figure for Romantic authors. Mary's husband, Percy, described him as representing "the highest perfection of moral and intellectual nature impelled by the purest and the truest motives to the best and noblest ends" (Prometheus Unbound, Preface).

Text

Your textbook (Norton Critical Edition) contains plenty of information about the two main versions of the novel, the 1818 first publication and the heavily revised version of 1831. See especially the chapters by MK Joseph and Anne Mellor. We are using the 1818 version, so avoid any editions based on the 1831 text. Unfortunately, most of the available cheaper editions use the later text.

Thematic Issues

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mold me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?"

This quotation from Milton's Paradise Lost appears on the title page of Frankenstein. Like much else from the novel, it is susceptible to a variety of readings. Considering that our focus this semester is bioethics, do you think this epigraph speaks to any of the ethical issues at play in the novel?

--Make a list of the different bioethical issues that you find represented in the novel. For example, the most obvious one is the choice Victor faces of making a mate for the Creature.

Food for Thought

--What are Victor's relationships with the women of the novel like? Do you think that his relationships with women might affect his thinking about creating a mate for the monster?
--On page 57, Victor says "I bore a hell within me, which nothing could extinguish." Do you recognize this image from anywhere? Do you think that Victor has made a deal with the devil in order to achieve his goal?
--A central theme of the novel is the role of education in society. Who is responsible for educating children? What should be the primary goals of education? What are the results of 'miseducation'? How is reading the novel part of an education for the reader?

Writing Topics:
1) It is often observed that our conception of the "mad scientist" has its origin in Mary Shelley's depiction of Victor Frankenstein, a character who in turn owes much to Marlowe's Dr. John Faustus. Compare and contrast the characters of Dr. Faustus and Victor Frankenstein, perhaps with an eye toward identifying a prototype of the mad scientist.

2) This semester we have spent some time examining the characteristics of ethical argumentation. In Frankenstein, the creature presents Victor with a fine example of a bioethical dilemma. Describe Victor's dilemma and analyze either the creature's pursuasive argument or Victor's solution. You may decide that Victor's first solution is better than his second (or you may not!).

Links to:
Some Resources for the study of Frankenstein
Mary Godwin's Remonstrance (psychoanalytic reading by Nelson Hilton)