Transcript Document

Frankenstein (1818) – It’s Place in Gothic Literature
WHERE DOES THE GOTHIC
BEGIN?
The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western
philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural
life, centred upon the 18th century, in which
reason was advocated as the primary source for
legitimacy and authority.
The taste for Gothic fiction begins in the
Enlightenment period, when the truth claims of
religion were being questioned.
• Maidens fleeing from the rapacious hands of murderous monks
in the novels of Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of Udolpho 1794)
or Matthew Lewis (The Monk 1796) represents for many the
attempt to escape from the constrictions of Christian belief and
its oppressive institutions into secular freedom.
• Encounters with ghostly figures are taken as Kantian attempts to
test the limits of reason itself. (Immanuel Kant 1724-1804)
The Changing Role of Science in Gothic Literature.
Scientific Advancements - Galvanism
• During the 1790s, Italian physician Luigi Galvani demonstrated what
we now understand to be the electrical basis of nerve impulses when he
made frog muscles twitch by jolting them with a spark from an
electrostatic machine.
• When Frankenstein was published, however, the word galvanism
implied the release, through electricity, of mysterious life forces.
"Perhaps," Mary Shelley recalled of her talks with Lord Byron and Percy
Shelley, "a corpse would be reanimated; galvanism had given token of
such things."
By 1836, The Science of Galvanism has Changed
Electricity's seeming ability to stir the dead to life gave the word
galvanize its own special flavouring, as this 1836 political
cartoon of a "galvanized" corpse suggests.
• But in the 20th century, attention
moves to the horrors that lurk in our
own psyche.
• The unconscious comes to be a subject
of attention and exploration in stories
such as the celebrated Strange Case of
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert
Louis Stevenson.
Freud’s ‘The Uncanny 1919’
• Although the haunting by a second self may appear to confirm the
existence of the supernatural, ever since Freud this apparition has been
understood not as a true spiritual
presence but as a figure of repression.
• The eeriness of two selves where there should only be one is, Freud argued,
an irruption of disquiet caused by our separation from our origin in our
mother's womb.
• Uncanny is unheimlich in German, or "unhomely", and Freud
claims it is the home that we refuse to acknowledge and from
which we are estranged which causes the double among other
eerie manifestations.
• Freud's theory is used to account for the plethora of double
figures from Frankenstein and his Creature, Poe's William
Wilson, Dorian Gray and his portrait, and the tortured
protagonists of the Tales of Hoffman, all of whom play out the
horror of duality, of a subjectivity rendered uncanny.
Gothic scholars and Cultural Anxieties
The Gothic scholar aims to lift the veil on Victorian hypocrisy.
• Dr Jekyll, a highly respected physician, lives in a large and handsome house, and
moves in elevated professional circles.
• There is, however, a shady back door to his house, out of which the apish, squat
figure of Hyde emerges, to act out violent assaults with monstrous malice.
• He contradicts the moral behaviour of Dr Jekyll and questions the integrity of his
social persona.
Degeneration, Eugenics and The Gothic
• Gothic provided a space wherein to explore phenomena at the
borders of human identity and culture- insanity, criminality,
barbarity and sexual perversion. (Hurley 1996)
By the end of the 19th century, the term
Degeneration has become a full-blown social and
political belief system.
• The Deviant
• Nordau in 1895, linked Krafft-Ebing’s work to degeneracy, which he
described as:
• …a morbid deviation from an original type [whose] successors will not
resemble the healthy, normal type of the species...[but rather] morbid
deviations from the normal form. (Nordau in Luckhurst and Ledger
2000:15)
• Secrecy:
• The belief in the existence of degeneration… fostered a sense that
what might be happening to civilization, lay somehow hidden, buried
from sight… [and] installed an alternative myth which spoke to this
dark side of progress.
Degeneration and The Aesthetes
• Nordau pronounced it fact that the term ‘degenerates’ could be applied to the
originators of the new aesthetic tendencies in fin-de-siecle art and
literature…which could be proven through
• a careful physical examination of the persons concerned, and an inquiry into their
pedigree…[which included] a lack of the sense of morality and of right and wrong.
For them there exists no law, no decency, no modesty…(Nordau in Ledger and
Luckhurst 2000:16).
• William James in his review of Nordau’s Degeneration hit back with a vengeance,
calling him an ‘idiot’, ‘imbecile’ and an ‘erotomaniac of the prudish sort, haunted
by horror of other people’s sexuality…[with an] inability to see a joke’ and
referred directly to his tirade of criticism of Oscar Wilde’s epigrams (James in
Ledge and Luckhurst 2000: 19).
Frankenstein and Degeneration
• The monster's own comment on his degeneration,
• "'But it is even so, the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil,'"
THE GOTHIC THEME OF : HUBRIS
Germany, Switzerland and Northern Italy are popular
locations for the gothic novel which became a veritable
craze in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century.
Gothic Themes:
• A fascination for the past, often but not exclusively, the Medieval era.
The past is associated with simplicity and harmony in contrast to the
turmoil of modernity.
• An interest in the supernatural, eccentric, magical, sublime, where
‘supernatural’ means something beyond nature and beyond the
rational.
• Developed characterisation, often psychological.
• A focus on the sinister, dark, horrific and terrible.
• Grand settings, or conversely, simple settings (‘domestic’ gothic).
Ruins, dungeons, castles, darkness, wilderness, heavy weather etc.
THE GOTHIC THEME OF : HUBRIS
'Hubris' means god-like arrogance, dangerous
ambition - or excessive pride. Think of 'pride goes
before a fall'.
Gothic Architecture
Spot the Difference!
The Gothic in Architecture:
• was a response to the anxieties of the incipient
Industrial and Scientific revolutions that picked up
pace in the mid eighteenth century. This shift was
as traumatic as it was violent. People did not want
to be catapulted into a dangerous, unknown future.
They wanted the security, romance and magical
qualities of the past. Architecture began to copy
much older, medieval styles.
The Gothic in Art
Francisco Goya (1746 –
1828) offers visionary
works of horrific and
nightmarish proportions
which come to embody
the supernatural and
macabre in the human
psyche and the human
world.
William Blake (1757 –
1827) overtly challenges
the political, monarchic
and religious establishment
in his work which seeks to
expose the oppressive
nature of rationalism and
reinstate the liberty of the
mind.
What kinds of novels were written before this?
• Not many. Novels are a relatively late
form of literature. The first novel in
English is often said to be Robinson
Crusoe (1719)
• The popularity of novels increased as
literacy rates grew, mechanised printing
made mass production possible, and
lending libraries circulated vast numbers
of texts at low cost.
• The amount of women reading grew
exponentially at this time.
Frankenstein (1818)
• Frankenstein’s theme is hubris, and it is one of the first Science
Fiction novels written, dealing with the dangerous power of scientific
discovery.
• This makes it very different to the pseudo-medieval novels, as it is
forward-looking, dealing with the cutting edge of science at the time,
in galvanism, anatomy and the most modern philosophical thought
about the status and rights of man.
Can anyone think of any texts and/or films that
relate to the idea of Hubris? You can go back
before the Bible right up to the present day……
Clue: Frankenstein, or, the
Modern Prometheus, (1818)
This links to the Greek myth of Prometheus.
• Prometheus created people out of
clay. Then he stole fire from the gods
and gave it to humans.
• Fire, here, symbolises knowledge,
science and technology (fire is the first
human invention. You could even
argue the invention of fire is when we
became 'human', not 'animal').
• In this story, it's Prometheus who is
punished.
“How dangerous is the acquirement
of knowledge and how much
happier that man is who believes his
native town to be the world, than he
who aspires to be greater than his
nature will allow.”
• Knowledge is Power
• Almost the first story in the Bible (in
Genesis) is about Hubris. In the
beginning, God made creatures out
of clay, 'in his own image' - Then the
people ate from the tree of
knowledge and became clever, so
God punished them by evicting
them from Eden (paradise).
• “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am
rather the fallen angel...”
•
GENESIS 3:15
THE PROTOEVANGELIUM OR "FIRST GOSPEL"
DR. FAUSTUS by Christopher Marlowe (1590)
• The myth of Faustus, tells the story of Dr. Johann
Faustus, who makes a pact with the devil
Mephistophilis in order to gain ultimate knowledge
under the condition that he surrender his being to
the devil after twenty-five years.
• Faustus, of course, ignores the responsibility
gained with such power, and abuses his gift for the
entire twenty-five years until he loses his soul to
Mephistophilis.
• The irony within this myth is that despite his vast
knowledge, Faustus never realized the error of his
ways, nor did he repent for what he had done.
“Beware; for I am
fearless, and
therefore powerful.”
• Almost instantly, similarities between Dr.
Frankenstein and Dr. Faustus are clear:
both of them became blinded and guided
by their own ambitions. At one point,
Frankenstein even admits both his
recklessness and his stupidity concerning
his plight, which is intentionally similar to
that of Faustus':
"...I ardently desired the acquisition of
knowledge... now my desires were complied with
and it would have, indeed, been folly to repent.”
Hubris in Macbeth?
• Hubris can be considered more than excessive pride in a person.
Hubris can also be too much ambition or even over confidence in a
character....
• Macbeth’s ‘vaulting ambition’……..
Forbidden Knowledge or Power
Forbidden knowledge/power is often the Gothic protagonist’s goal. The Gothic
"hero" questions the universe’s ambiguous nature and tries to comprehend and
control those supernatural powers that mortals cannot understand. He tries to
overcome human limitations and make himself into a "god." This ambition
usually leads to the hero’s "fall" or destruction; however, Gothic tales of ambition
sometimes paradoxically evoke our admiration because they picture individuals
with the courage to defy fate and cosmic forces in an attempt to transcend the
mundane to the eternal and sublime.
THIS IS KNOWN AS HUBRIS
What's the Difference Between 'Terror' and
'Horror' and Also, Why Should I Care?
•
Because Ann Radcliffe wrote a very famous Essay called 'On the
Supernatural in Poetry', and this is going to give you something to argue
against in your Lit B exam, that's why. This is especially handy for any essay
with 'supernatural', 'terror', 'horror', 'fear' or 'frightening' in the title.
And yes, I did say argue against. Quoting critics is nice, but a bit C-B
grade(ish) if all you do is vomit up someone else's opinions onto the page.
So - Ann Radcliffe got fairly obsessed about the difference between these
two words. To us mere humans, 'terror' and 'horror' may seem to mean the
same thing, so here's the difference as explained by Radcliffe:
• Terror 'expands the soul' (i.e. is good for you) and draws us closer to
the 'sublime'. It creates uncertain apprehension (tension) that leads
to a complex (therefore interesting) fear of strange and dreadful
elements. Terror stimulates the imagination and often challenges
intellectual reasoning to find a plausible explanation of this
ambiguous fear and anxiety. Resolution of the terror provides a
means of escape.
• Horror is just scary. It ‘annihilates’ (utterly destroys) the soul.
Works of horror are crafted from a maze of
alarmingly concrete imagery designed to induce fear, shock,
revulsion, and disgust. Horror appeals to lower mental faculties, such
as curiosity and voyeurism. Elements of horror render the reader
incapable of resolution and subject the reader's mind to a state of
inescapable confusion and chaos. The inability to intellectualize
horror inflicts a sense of obscure despair.
Entrapment, Imprisonment and
Escape: Claustrophobia
• It's every Gothic writer's favourite scenario: someone's trapped - either chained
up, strapped down, or tucked away in some dank cell, castle, cellar or cloister. The
physical entrapment and claustrophobia symbolises psychological limitation - of
narrowness, or theconfines of society, and the expectations of others. The
physical claustrophobia symbolises the psychological limitations which cause
mental pain.
Obviously, if the character is trapped by someone else - as in Carter's 'The Bloody
Chamber' or Cathy's self-imposed exile to her room in Thrushcross Grange,
in Wuthering Heights, then it's also about control and power.
• If you're going to write about this, make sure you also pick up on the reverse: of
release into wild, open spaces - as where the creature in Frankenstein escapes.