Frankenstein Article
Ellen Moers’ “Female Gothic: The Monster’s Mother” brings to light how Mary Shelley used the parent-child relationship within the story of Frankenstein and how Mary Shelley was comparing the monstrous creation that Frankenstein had made, to the birth of her first child. I’m not sure when Ellen wrote this article but I’m assuming it was in 1976 for the “New York Review of Books”. Ellen goes in depth with Mary’s relationship to Shelley. That Mary was a “daughter, mistress and a mother” as well as a Gothic writer and that Frankenstein is women’s literature. Even with the horror and grotesque details in the story, Frankenstein is still considered woman’s literature. Also how Gothic writing styles where used more often in women writers and that the most gruesome tales were indeed written by women.
I feel that Ellen Moers focused more on the parent-child relationship in Frankenstein where I spent more time wondering who exactly was going to die next. I wanted to know more about what was going in Victor’s mind whereas Ellen wanted to know more about Mary Shelley herself and how this book related to her own personal life in a way. I saw that there was the abandonment of Victor from the creature and how the creature wanted to be accepted by the family that he watched everyday but I believe that’s the closest that I came to being similar in my reading to Ellen Moers. Yes, I did learn something from the article but it wasn’t about the book and it wasn’t about writing an literary article, I learned more about the author herself Mary Shelley. I learned that she had lost her first born child, a little girl, and that this had influenced her in her writing of Frankenstein. Writers are often known to use personal experiences in their stories but I feel that this was something that is not seen too often, meaning something so personal to the author herself. Yes this would make a good article to use in Essay #3 because of the in-text citations that could be used to explain and relate to the book itself.
http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/mshelley.html
I chose the same article as you and I feel that you had a better grasp of what it was about. Your summary is strong and covers everything that was in the article. I also agree with you that the article doesn't cover much information about the story, but that it is more of a history of Mary Shelley's life. It does make sense to me that her life could have influenced why Frankenstein was written the way it was.
ReplyDeleteGood Post!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that this article did not provide much information about the book itself. However, I thought that this article would be very useful in helping write essay three. It has so much information about the author and how certain things in the novel are so closely related to the events that happened in Mary Shelley's life. I never even would have thought that some of the events would have been taken from reality and made into fiction in this book.
Yeah I had the same thoughts. I knew none of his family members were safe and that all of Frankenstein’s family would die. I was just wondering how it would happen. The context of the author’s background didn’t register as being important in my mind. With Ellen Moer the background of Shelley’s experience of giving birth was unique in female writers at the time. With this article though it seems that Shelley’s background had a large influence in her work. Until I read the article I didn’t realize the significance.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I can see the link between Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. The parent-child relationship Victor had with his creation. Even at the beginning of the book in the preface, it written that Mary lost her mother within weeks after Mary birth. I wonder if the yearning of a relationship with her own mother was another big factor contributes to parent-child relationship.
ReplyDelete