Name: Vaishali Hareshbhai Jasoliya
Roll No. : 28
Enrollment no.:
PG14101019
Topic: Cultural Studies
in practice: ‘Frankenstein’
Paper No.: 8-C The
Cultural Studies
Submitted to: MAHARAJA
KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI
BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
∎Introduction:
The novel “Frankenstein is written by Marry Shelly.
Her novel has morphed into countless forms in both height brow and popular
culture. Her creation teaches us not to underestimate the power of youth
culture. It is truly captivating powerful novel that analyzes ‘Monstrosity’
with regard to ‘humanity’. However without a sound understanding of the
context, in which the text was written one couldn’t completely comprehend the
themes, ideas and references did not present nor can the apparent link between
monstrosity and humanity be completely fathomed.
In the novel Victor
Frankenstein is the first character, who makes a cultural discourse and who
occupies our attention, a character for whom his desire to create life is
everything while to accept that life is not important. For him the creation
‘Monster’ is not his child and responsibility now. In below given quote we can
see his hunger for knowledge and to create a life through that knowledge:
“The world was to me a secret which I desire
to divine. Curiosity earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature,
gladness akin to rapture, as they were earliest sensation I can remember”
Humanity which sees the moral or ethical consent of the novel and
by this I also want to prove my point that why Marry Shelley wants to create a
male monster? But by this regard I can say through observing all aspect the
aspects of novel and its study that I have, and naturally this clear when its
shows the power of men and in other hand the ugliness of the monster that the
she wants to show and also we can say in cultural studies of this novel that,
“A message on the Irony and Danger in the Quest for power” cause the generation
is what that creates or challenge.
Firstly we cannot say clearly but by the further reading its shows
the harsh face of society and its look towards the “new born baby” by that the
situation starts that also shows the other facts and the influenced by the
Romantic period, the scientific inquiry of her time, and her own life that’s
also examination point here. By investigating the novels scientific and philosophical
context one can discern the reason behind Mary Shelley depicting the creature’s
creation and development in the manner she chose to researching into the
literary context provides one with superior appreciation of inter- textual
references, the style in which the novel has been written and the novel’s
secondary title ‘The Modern Prometheus’. Similarly an understanding of the
historical context grants one the ability to identify the allegory of the
industrial revolution.
The creation was made of human parts. It was in essence human can
on judge this as being monstrous. Bearing in mind that the historical context
and allegory of the industrial revolution. Electricity was another monumental
scientific discovery of the time. One those many viewed with awe and wonder.
The creature saw characteristics of himself in both Adam and Satan. Just as
human that created the monster. Victor can be seen as the god who has created
Adam and Eve and Satan. In Milton’s paradise lost’ god created all human being
but some human did not under control of him so god departed them and theme they
had become Satan. In this epic we can see Satan wants to be king. The same
thing happened in the present novel victor Frankenstein has made the monster
and then he wants to become the emperor of world.
Victor Frankenstein can be seen as the modern Prometheus. Again,
with greater knowledge of the context the “spark of being” (electricity) is
further clarified. Shelley ideally represents electricity as the modern heavy
fire”. The main influence on Frankenstein avoid had been through the
presentation of the Promethean legend. The individual and his quest can be
interpreted as Frankenstein or the creature whose journey to achieve revenge.
But after all majority people see a monster looks on Frankenstein.
∎ The Modern facts:
What is today’s
generation see towards this creation? The answer is maybe a irony and power. With
regard to the text “historical context”, Frankenstein is interpreted as
allegorical of the industrial revolution. Hence, from the knowledge of the
novels scientific context one experiences a greater understanding of firstly
where the text predominant idea had its origin, and also elucidates the
creation. As it was human influence that converted the creature into an “evil” being.
Some negative aspects can be seen as monstrous if they resulted from humans
from the texts scientific context one can see that victor Frankenstein
achievement was the objective for many scientists of that time. References to
Milton “paradise lost” reoccur throughout the novel. Sound knowledge of
paradise lost one is able to identify the parallels between paradise lost and
Frankenstein. However the Gods Frankenstein punished Prometheus was punished by
his own creation.
Frankenstein’s rejection of his Monster can be interpreted to be a
representation of man being ironically disgusted at sin his own sin. He can be
likened to a man who has condemned fornication in public. He keeps going to
motels and sex clubs in secret. What Frankenstein created in his Monster is in
one way a mirror of his own soul. He made the Monster through his rejection,
not through the lab experiments. His ‘evil side’ was transferred or loneliness.
Frankenstein and Monster were both lonely in the world.
(1). Revolutionary
Births:
Hardly a day goes by without our seeing an image or illusion
to Frankenstein, from CNN descriptions of Saddam Hussein as an
“American-created Frankenstein.” Born like its creator in an age of revolution,
Frankenstein challenged accepted ideas of its day. As it has become
increasingly co modified by modern consumer culture, one wonders whether its
original revolutionary spirit and its critique of scientific, philosophical,
and political and gender issues have become obscured instead its continuing
transformation attests to its essential oppositional nature. Hardly a day goes
by without out seeing an image or allusion to Frankenstein, from CNN
descriptions of Saddam Hussein as an “American created Frankenstein” to
magazine articles that warn of genetically engineered “Frankenstein”, test-tube
babies, and cloning.
(2).The creature as proletarian:
We recall from earlier chapters that Mary Shelly lived during
times of great upheaval in Britain, not only was her own family full of radical
thinkers but she also met many others such as Thomas Paine and William Blake,
P.B.Shelley was thought of as a dangerous radical bent on labor reform and was
spied upon by the government. Shelley also met many others such as Thomas Paine
and William Blake. Mary Shelly’s creature and moral paradox, both an innocent
and cold-blooded murderer. Not only are the eternal questions about the ways of
God and man in Paradise Lost relevant to the Creature’s predicament, but in
Milton’s epic poem, as Timothy Morton puts it, as a “seminal work of
republicanism and sublime that inspired many of the Romantics.” We can take
help of the example from Milton’s “paradise lost”. In this epic God governed
Satan. He thought it is better to rule in hell rather than heaven.
(3). A RACE OF DEVILS:
Frankenstein may be analyzed in its
portrayal of different “races”. Though the creature’s skin is only described as
yellow, it has been constructed out of a cultural tradition of the threatening
‘other’ or giant, gypsy or Negro.
Though the abolitionists wished to portray the black man or woman
as brother or sister, they also created an image of the African as a childlike,
suffering and degraded being. To turn him (the slave) loose in the manhood of
his physical strength, in the maturity of his physical passion but in the
infancy of his uninstructed reason. The labors are not educated people and this
concept we can see in the present novel.
(4). FROM
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY TO CYBER:
Today in the age of genetic engineering, biotechnology and
cloning, the most far-reaching industrialization of life forms to date.
Frankenstein is more relevant than ever. Developments in science were
increasingly critical to society during the Romantic period when a paradigm
shift occurred from science as natural philosophy to science as biology, a
crucial distinction in “Frankenstein”. Mary Shelley attended public demonstrations
of the effect of electricity on animal and human bodies, living and dead. Has
science gone too far? According to cultural critic Laura Kranzler, Victor’s
creation of life and modern sperm banks and artificial worms show a “masculine
desire to claim female productivity”. ‘Luigi Galvani’s frog leg experiments’
Today we are constantly confronted with new
developments in fertility science and new philosophical conundrums that result
from genetic engineering, in vitro fertilization, cloning and the prolongation
of life by artificial means. Couples taking fertility treatments sometimes have
to face the difficult choice of “selective reduction” or the possible adverse
results of multiple premature births. People wonder, has science gone too far?
According to cultural critic, victor’s creation of life and modern sperm banks
and artificial wombs show a masculine to claim female reproductively”.
“Frankenstein” and its warnings about the hubris of science will be with us in
the future as science continues to question the borders between life and death,
between viability and selective reduction between living and life support. We
can take example of a doctor who lives in Anand. He knows about the surrogate
mother.
(5). Archetype of Frankenstein in
popular culture:
Timothy Morton uses the term Frankenstein, drawn from sonic elements
of language, as used in structural
linguistics and visual elements as “elements of culture that are derived from
“Frankenstein”. We end with a quick look at some of the thousands of retelling,
parodies and other selected Frankenphemes as they have appeared in popular
fiction, drama, film and television.
(A)Fiction:
Frankenstein’s fictions peter Haining, editor of the indispensable
Frankenstein omnibus has called Frankenstein “the single greatest horror story
novel ever written and the most widely influential in its genre”. The first
story about a female monster is French author Villiers de Lisle Adam’s “the
future Eve”, an 188 novelette not translated into English until fifty years
later, in which an American inventor modes on Thomas Edison makes an artificial
woman for his friend. Jack London’s early story, “A thousand Deaths” (189), is
a gruesome science fiction tale of a scientist who stays at sea on his
laboratory ship, repeatedly killing then reviving his son, until the son has
enough and kills his father.
(B)“Frankenstein” on the stage:
From his debut on the stage, the creature has generally been made
more horrified and victor has been assigned less blame. Most stage and screen
versions are quite melodramatic, tending to eliminate minor characters and the
entire frame structure in order to focus upon murder and Mayhem. Dramatist
would not want to try for all of the complexities of the novel. In stage
versions only a few key scenes, the creation of the creature are used. On the
nineteenth century stage, the creature was a composite of frightening makeup
and human qualities. He could even appear clownish, recalling Shakespeare’s
Cali ban.
The first theatrical presentation based on “Frankenstein” was “The
fate of Frankenstein” by Richard Brinsley Peak; performed at the English Opera
House in London Mary Shelley herself attended the play and pronounced it
authentic. But this “serious” drama immediately inspired parodies, first with
“Frankenstein” in 1823, a burlesque featuring a tailor, who as the “Needle
Prometheus” sews a body out of nine corpses.
(C)Film Adaptations:
In the “Frankenstein omnibus” readers can study the screenplay for
the 1931 James whale film “Frankenstein”, the most famous of all adaptations.
It was loosely based on the novel with the addition of new elements, including
the placing of a criminal brain into the monster’s body. Thomas Edison in 1910,
a one, however produced the first film version of “Frankenstein” –reel tinted
silent. Early German films that were heavily influenced by this “Frankenstein”
were the cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920). The golem (1920) and Metropolis
(192).In whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) there is a return to the frame
structure but this time we begin with Mary Shelley discussing her novel with
P.B.Shelley. She is played by Elsa LAN Chester, who also plays the female
creature, with her during black eyes a queen; this one tends toward comedy,
parody and satire rather than pure horror.
(D) Television Adaptations:
“Frankenstein has surfaced in hundreds of television adaptations,
including “Night Gallery, The Addams family, The Munster, star trek. The next
generation, notable television creatures have included Bo Swenson, Randy quad,
David Warner and Ian Holm. Perhaps the most authentic television version was
“Frankenstein” The true story (192) with script writing by Christopher
Isherwood and acting by James Mason.
In this novel we can see many cultural elements. I just want to
say that it’s really interesting to study with the purpose of cultural facts.
There some element of worker or labor. We can study some cultural aspect with
the help of Milton’s “Paradise lost”.
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
