Professor: Frances Torres
Class: INGL3222
University: University of Puerto Rico, Ponce Campus
The Gothic Movement: It
merges to the popular culture at the 18th century as a subgenre of
the Romantic period, going against the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment with
are the never ending search of perfection and complete happiness. Such utopian
ideas gave the gothic and romantic writers the inspiration to create and pursue
the perfect things in an incredibly imperfect life. Knowing this, the escape
from reality is imminent and the stories take you to an ideal world, where the
characters take the reader away from the pain and suffering(maybe through death
or perhaps, to another time and place). Some stories might take matters into
their own hands and take the role of a divinity and twist, create or destroy
life in their search to make a better world or to obtain the secrets and divine
knowledge for what humans are so forbidden to have.
Mary Shelley was a
teenager when she wrote the novel “Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus” in
which she tells the story of a young man, whose search for knowledge drove him
to create a “monster” he later hated and
repented giving him life for the rest of his living days. The novel was
published in 1818 for the first time and became an iconic tale in the gothic
movement. As well as the first science-fiction work known to men. Many other
stories were published afterwards with the concept of men who dared to become God
and create living creatures; most of the time, these stories had quite a tragic
end. But, how is this so? This is due to the fear of science and its advance in
technology that had quickly started a domain in human lifestyle. It was
believed that, eventually, men would like to take the place of the omnipotent
Christian god and the human race would be damned for doing so. A few decades
later, Nathaniel Hawthorne rose to fame with his stories in which we can find
some of Shelley’s influences. He published a story called “The Artist of the
Beautiful” in 1845; the story talks about a young man who was always fascinated
in beauty and to create beauty himself. This man is frequently pushed down by
those around him because of his lunatic ideas and inventions, which he later
forgets and takes the odds of creating a mechanical butterfly after he lost his
chance at love. Both stories share the same concepts and many similarities, but
just as many differences. It is shown the worries of the authors about
knowledge, society, technology and happiness. Along with the loss of faith in
religion and taking matters into their hands and what are the consequences to
this. Two iconic figures, two outstanding stories and how they connect to each
other with the same inspiration and message.
Frankenstein
The story begins with
Robert Walton writing to his sister Mrs. Margaret Saville about his new
traveling place, the North Pole, and how much he is looking forward to do so,
he gets a ship and a crew and sails off, only to find his ship iced in after a
few weeks and a sick man chasing a huge figure who traveled with a dogsled. His
name was Victor Frankenstein and was nursed by Walton, only becomes his only
friend and advisor. It is then, that the letters become a documentary of
Frankenstein’s life and the events that led him to where he is now.
He explains how Victor
told him of his Genevian origins, how his mother and father met and how happy
they were throughout their marriage while helping poor families to prosper, like
his mother did when she found his father. Victor becomes really attached to
this adopted girl, Elizabeth Lavenza, who he felt he should protect since they
met and how close he was with her and Henry Clerval, his best friend. The
family grew with the addition of two younger brothers for Victor and the
Frankenstein family was a peaceful and joyful clan. Victor later explains his
passion for the mysteries of life and how it works. At the age of thirteen, he
submerges in the studies of outdated theories in the quest of getting the logic
between heaven and earth. One day, he sees a lightning who falls on a tree and
decimate it; it was then when he learned about galvanization-which explains how
electricity can give life to an unanimated object- and abandons his early
studies.
At the age of 17,
Victor’s mother died of scarlet fever because she was nursing Elizabeth and got
contaminated with it. On her deathbed, she says to Victor and Elizabeth her
wishes of marrying them, but afterwards, Victor leaves to study to Ingolstadt
alone, because Henry was not allowed by his father to go. He then meets Mr.
Waldman, a chemistry professor, and becomes involved with the studies he left
behind once again. After two years, he decides to leave college because he
couldn’t learn anymore there thanks to his advance studies; it is then when he
reveals he found the source of giving life and starts creating a human being
out of corpses’ parts, with tremendous strength and height. He loses any
contact with family and friends for a year or so, in which he obsessed himself
to finish his creation, even with his poor physical state of overwork.
After so much hard
work, he finally brings his creation to life. To his surprise, he felt horror
and disgust by the sight of his monster, so he ran away from home, hoping to
escape his creation. He later stomps into Henry, his best friend who found
himself there because he was going to study at the same place as Victor, and
forgets about every painful and horrific memory once he was with a familiar face.
After some time, he gets ill from his lack of care and excessive work and stays
like that for several months, being nursed by Henry with no questions asked
about why he was so devastated. Victor and Elizabeth write to each other after
he gets better and Henry and he go on a tour to the college and to the places
within Ingolstadt.
Victor’s nightmare
begins when he received a letter from his father, notifying that his little
brother, William, was murdered. Many believed it happened because he was assaulted
to take away a necklace he had from his dead mother. Sometime later, they found
the necklace under the possession of Justine, a maid and loved character in the
Frankenstein house. Elizabeth believed her innocence, but many disapproved of
this and she was executed for the murder. Victor knew his nightmare was all
caused by his creation, which he saw in the outsides of his hometown, but kept
silent for no one would believe his tale. The grief and depression fell upon
the family as their health weakened; Victor considered countless time to commit
suicide, but left to Chamounix to escape his guilt.
One day, hiking a
mountain on his vacations, the monster encounters Victor demanding a hearing
with him and agreeing that he would leave him and his family in peace if he
were to agree to make him another like him, a woman, for both to be miserable
together away from the human world. If he refused to do so, his creation would
destroy his family. He explained how he gained sight, food, knowledge and how a
family he used to watch over helped him learn language, along with some books
he found of them. He watched how their lives developed, the drama they went
through and also, their happy moments. But, when we had the courage to meet
them, they were scared of him, except for the blind old man, and chased him
away. He then rages against humanity, burns the family’s cottage and sets off
to find his creator. He admits his crimes of killing his little brother and
blaming the maid for his wrongs. Victor agrees to create this woman after
hearing his story, with the promise of peace after the nightmare.
He flees to England
with Henry and the excuse of looking for some research and studies there,
Elizabeth’s hand is requested in marriage for Victor when he returns home and
after leaving Henry around England, he starts working on his second monster in
solitude from humanity, being watched over by his creation. Once he was almost
finished, he regrets the making of another creature with the fear of more
monsters to be procreated from them and fearing humanity’s faith; he destroys
the woman in front of his monster. He is then threaten by the “monster” of him
being at his wedding night and to destroy his peace and happiness. Victor then
takes the female creature’s remains and throws then in a lake, where he falls
asleep on a boat and wakes up being charged of murder of a man, he later finds
out it was his best friend, Henry.
Victor becomes ill once
more for his only friend was killed by the monster and he was the mayor suspect
of such act. Eventually, the authorities believe his innocence and request
Victor’s father, Alphonse, to take him back home. He later renews himself, and
marries Elizabeth, expecting the monster to come and take his life on his
honeymoon, but killed Elizabeth instead. The news strike the old Fankenstein
senior so hard, he died a few days later. Victor, knowing the only person left
that he cared for was his other brother, vows to search his creation and kill
it. He then devotes his life to it.
It is then that Walton
gets the explanation of Victor chasing his monster up to the North Pole,
getting them to meet each other, and now, nursed and dying in Walton’s
presence, he asks for Walton to kill his creation if he doesn’t make it. Some
short time later, he dies; the monster finds his way up to Walton’s ship and
explains how his meaning for living is already done, for his creator is now
dead and there is no other need for him on Earth. The creature flees to the
waters before Walton can attempt anything against it.
The
Artist of the Beautiful
Peter
Hovenden gets irritated by his former student, Owen Warland, because he is
positive that he won’t be able to let go of his habit of creating and
recreating good clocks and other things. Annie, his daughter, defends him but
Peter does not accept nor believes he is good at any other thing besides
ruining good clocks. Owen has always had a curiosity about the
hidden mysteries in Nature. Owen preferred the Beautiful Idea to the useful;
and was more interested in working with small things than large. Therefore, his
family decided to take him to a watchmaker to make him his apprentice.
Hovenden, found him quick to understand ‘professional mysteries,’ but also that
Owen didn’t care about the measurement of time at all. When Hovenden’s eyesight
started failing a lot, he turned the shop over to Owen which went down quite
fast after several incidents. For example, he was given family clocks to repair
and he embellished them with moving figures that represented the twelve hours.
Besides the disapproval of his fixing methods, he would take time to work on a
secret project.Owen finds himself admiring Annie, for he thinks she would be
the only person that can understand him and worships her. However, his feelings
are quite opposite towards Robert Danforth, and old schoolmate and owner of a
store nearby. Owen worries about how his “passion for the Beautiful” seems
worthless whenever he meets with Danforth and after a visit from him to Owen’s
shop, his sense of worth goes lower destroys his precious project, he then
later becomes a craftsman.
He
succeeds and is commissioned to work on the town clock. Hovenden comes to the shop
to rejoice over the success of his apprentice but Owen gets discouraged and
screams to his master that he is his evil spirit, along with the hard, coarse,
world.
Time passes by and Owen gets the
idea of creating a physical machine to make his ideas real. So he starts
working on this new project. One day Annie enters his shop to ask him to repair
her thimble. She jokes if he would help her fix it when he might have more
important stuff to do. Owen thinks she would understands and reveals his
project to her, but she touches it and it gets ruined. He gets down about the
whole situation, until his inspiration kicks in again and starts another
project. He is heartbroken later on when he finds out of the engagement of
Annie to Robert Danforth. When his health returns, he becomes fleshy, becomes
social, he loses his faith, and is proud that he has become wise. He then
starts to work on another idea with the fear that death might take him without
his dreams becoming reality. This time, he succeeds. He brings his project to
Annie and Robert Danforth as a gift for their son. When Annie opens the box, a
beautiful butterfly comes out. After flying around the room and to each person
in the room, it flies to the baby boy but seems to recognize that the child is
heartless and alternately grows bright and then grows faint. It then attempts to
fly to Owen but it cannot return once he had released it. Suddenly the child
snatches it from the air and destroys it. This time, Owen doesn’t get upset
because he recognizes that when an Artist has the ability to create true
beauty, the symbol of that beauty, which he gives to the world doesn’t create
his happiness because he now owns the source of Real Beauty.
Comparing
both stories and finding the similarities and differences
Both stories perform an
epic tale which gets engraved in the reader’s mind; however both are different
in as many aspects as they are alike. For starters, we have the most obvious
difference, the length of the story. While Hawthorne’s tale takes a few pages,
Shelley’s Frankenstein tale becomes a whole book, emphasizing in way more
details than Hawthorne’s and other side stories. The material used to create
the “monster” was human parts taken from corpses that Victor would visit and
steal at cemeteries; on the other hand, the butterfly Owen made on the other
story was mechanical but it is never said if he bought, created or stole them. Although, curiously enough, both creations’
fate was the same, the butterfly exploded after being released by Annie’s boy
in Hawthorne’s story, while Frankenstein’s creation fled to nothingness willing
to die after serving his purpose of living, revenge.
“Frankenstein” it is
far darker in my opinion, compared to “The Artist of the Beautiful”. But it is
not only the name of the later who gives a relief to the reader, but also,
besides many other things, the survival of Hawthorne’s characters in the story.
None of Owen’s close friends nor enemies die throughout the tale; meanwhile, on
Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, we presence the death of every closed person Victor
had. These are provoked by his creation, whether directly or indirectly, he
kills them. However, both main characters have a miserable life and none finish
the story with the beautiful lady who they loved. Also, it can be found that
both main Victor and Owen are quite young and smart, with an incredible thirst
for knowledge and an outstanding creativity, being their gift and curse. Eager
to learn more about the methods of bringing something to life and fulfill a
dream, they become so persistent in finding their calling and avoid any contact
to others who won’t understand their points of views.
Shelley’s message on
the novel is to create an impact to the people about how science advances
quickly and how it starts taking the center front place of religion in society.
These new and daring ideas made men more arrogant and powerful. With
technology, they become free from the chains of humans’ rightful place in God’s
world. Shelley’s fear of a human taking the place of God with the new found
material and concepts reflects perfectly in her novel. She portrays Victor
Frankenstein as the new era, the technology, the ideas and the arrogance; while
Frankenstein’s “monster”-later to be named Adam by Shelley herself on an
interview- symbolizes the consequences of such sinful ways and the rage of God
upon those who dare to take his place and those who are loved by them. Even
though, the “monster” is portrayed with much more care and kindness than the
creator himself, he rages against his “father” because of the life he gave him
with no chances of chances of making it better for the poor and misunderstood
creature. This gives the “monster” the right to be mad at the world and it will
become his excuse to punish those who made him miserable; it is exactly what
it’s thought of the Christian God and why does this deity enrages from time to
time, but at the same time can be kind, compassionate and full of love.
However, Hawthorne’s
story is brighter and even though he has several stories with the theme of a
person creating or experimenting until certain point of lunacy, his main
character is not damned by creating the butterfly, but therefore relieved. Owen
becomes positive about the whole situation, even when his butterfly gets
destroyed, because he says that he now owns the source or true beauty, the one
thing he always wanted to achieve. Therefore, Hawthorne shows us a creator who
does not feel ashamed of making a living thing, on the contrary, he feels
fulfilled because he finally got to have what he wanted most: the secret of
true beauty. Owen becomes a quite positive character throughout the tale
because he finally figures you only live once and you should work to get what
you want. Even if the whole world turns against you, when everyone lost their
faith in you and you have to start all over again. I admire and love his
persistence and stubbornness because he reminded me of myself. I believe
Hawthorne’s character stayed in my thoughts because he would fight to get his
dream, even if he didn’t got complete happiness in the end of the story, he was
satisfies with what he gained. Making the message more positive and showing
that, compared to Shelley’s story, some do not regret their actions. Shelley’s
story stayed present within me because the total shock of damnation coming to
the character, and even though you feel it is bound to happen, you have that
hope, that thrilling chill that keeps the hope when there was none. Victor
became a quite negative person through the story after its first half, engraving
in his mind that things would never get better and how we just ran away from
his problem, instead of facing it and creating a solution with a calm head.
They shall always be with me and their stories will forever live on.
Bibliography:
http://www.literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein/
http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1767/
http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/59420.html
http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/lewis.html
http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/
http://www.duluth.lib.mn.us/programs/frankenstein/shelleybio.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/frankenstein/summary.html
http://www.litquotes.com/quote_title_resp.php?TName=Frankenstein
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/nathaniel_hawthorne_2.html
Frankenstein Power point made by Prof. Katia Chico
Frankenstein book thanks to Prof. Michael Campbell
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