Transcript Frankenstein (3) The Monster’s Education and Rejection by Humans

Frankenstein (3)
The Monster’s Education and
Rejection by Humans
Outline
• Starting Questions
• Education and its Implication
– Allusions
– The story of De Laceys’
• Rejection and Regaining Hope in Nature
Starting Questions
• Is the monster human? How do you
characterize him? How is he educated?
• If Victor rejects him because he is ugly,
what about the others such as De Lacey’s
family, the little girl and Williams?
The Monster’s Education: From
Nature to Human Civilization
Human Mind as a blank slate; noble savage
(with natural goodness and without the
pollution of civilization)
– Physical Responses and Survival (fire, food,
shelter)  continued appreciation of nature
(moon 103; Spring 115, 116)
– Sensual appreciation of music and feeling
emotions (103 birds singing, music108-, pain+pleasure)
– Observation: 1) He chooses to learn from the
good but not the barbarous (chap 12: 110--)
– Language (112-)  learning the language like
Safie (117, 118-19)  Reading (later)
The Monster’s Education (2):
Society
Self and Other: a) observation of and sympathy for
the others helps and attempts to understand and
them help (115)
– housekeeping—the use of wood and tapers; human
interactions and connections;
– Two kinds of human beauty [108-109];
– human sadness and the motives behind (e.g. poverty)
(110-111)
– Human kindness – Felix and Agatha’s serving the
father food while they eat nothing.
– Helping them carry wood (111), clearing their paths
(114-15) ; sympathy (112)
The Monster’s Education (2)
Self and Other (2):
• b).Self-Knowledge: Sees himself (114) bitterness
 efforts in self-improvement  more selfunderstanding and questions (120-21)
(next)
The Monster’s Self-Doubt
(p. 120) And what was I? Of my creation and
creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that
I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of
property. I was, besides, endued with a figure
hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not
even of the same nature as man. I was more
agile than they and could subsist upon coarser
diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with
less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded
theirs.
The Monster’s Views on
Knowledge and Virtue in Isolation
• Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings
to the mind when it has once seized on it like a
lichen (青苔) on the rock. I wished sometimes to
shake off all thought and feeling, but I learned
that there was but one means to overcome the
sensation of pain, and that was death--a state
which I feared yet did not understand. I admired
virtue and good feelings and loved the gentle
manners and amiable qualities of my cottagers,
but I was shut out from intercourse with them…
For your Reference:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
in Human Development
– Physiological - The need for food, drink,
shelter, warmth and relief from pain
– Safety and security - The need to feel safe
and secure
– Social and affiliation (with the family of De
Lacey) - The need for friendship and
interaction with others
– Esteem - The need for self esteem and the
esteem for others
– Self-Actualization (source)
The Monster’s SelfImprovement: Finding Company
• c) connections and natural benevolence: hope
destroyed and re-built several times
– “I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when I
beheld my person reflected in water or my shadow in
the moonshine, even as that frail image and that
inconstant shade.” (131)
– Makes plans to approach them.
The Monster’s SelfImprovement: Readings
• [“ardent” learning of language as a “godlike science
applies his whole mind to it.”// Frankenstein but with
different purposes 112, 113)
• The Sorrows of Werter & Plutarch's Lives
“I learned from Werter's imaginations despondency and
gloom: but Plutarch taught me high thoughts; he
elevated me above the wretched sphere of my own
reflections to admire and love the heroes of past
ages”(128-29)
• The Sorrows of Werter –individualism and
sentimentalism
• Plutarch's Lives –heroes, wealth and social status
The Monster’s Education (2) –
Paradise Lost
• (first page) The monster as Adam, or Satan.
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?
(Paradise Lost)
• chap 10 (pp. 100)
"Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam,
but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from
joy for no misdeed."
Chapter 11(106)
"...and it presented to me then as exquisite and divine a
retreat as Pandemonium(地獄 ) appeared to the demons
of hell after their sufferings in the lake of fire."
,
The Monster’s Education (2) –
Paradise Lost
• Chap 15 (129) Reading Paradise Lost  the beginning of
rebellion and revenge.
“[…] Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any
other being in existence; but his state was far different
from mine in every other respect. [Adam] had come forth
from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy, and
prosperous, guarded by the especial care of his Creator;
[…]. but I was wretched, helpless, and alone. Many
times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my
condition, for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of
my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me."
The Monster’s Education (2) –
Paradise Lost
• Chap 15 (129) Reading Paradise Lost  the beginning of
rebellion and revenge.
(p. 131)"...to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to
fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my
feelings and cheering my gloom; their angelic
countenances breathed smiles of consolation. But it was
all a dream; no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my
thoughts; I was alone. I remembered Adam's
supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had
abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I
cursed him." ,
The Monster Rejected
By the marginalized and the weak
De Lacey Family
The Story of
De Lacey’s Exile
• Influences on the Monster:
– similar positions of being marginalized;
– the lack of justice (// Justine, Frankenstein
when Cherval is murdered)
• Parallel to the main story:
– The “rescue” motif; Safie as a gift to Felix
– her mother’s absence;
– examples of Orientalism
The Monster’s Need for
Companion
• A human need expressed by
– Walton  Victor,
– Felix  Safie
– Elizabeth  Frankenstein
• Part of his attempt to make peace and
solve his own problems when being
rejected.
Rejection and Regaining Hope
1) The villagers and discovery of his appearance 
learning the language to approach De Laceys’
2) De Laceys’ rejection 135  declares war (136) 
tranquility gained in sunshine  decides to return (137)
 the family gone  has the feelings of revenge (138)
3) To search for his creator (139-)  travels in autumn and
finds pleasure in nature (again 140)
4) Rejected by the little girl he saves and a rustic (141) 
vows eternal hatred and revenge to all mankind  fails
to appreciate nature (141-42)
5) Tries again to approach William (142) -> rejected  kills
the 1st victim  attracted and softened by the portrait
temporarily (143)  in rage again and seeking revenge
with Justine (143-44)
Frankenstein’s Respones
To the Monster’s Request
Next Week
• Revenge and the Learning of and in
Nature
• The contrast between Henry Clerval and
Victor Frankenstein in their responses to
Nature and natural philosophy
• Is Victor justified in breaking his promise?