Agenda and Learning Targets.

Today we are going to

1. Discuss the literary basis of Frankenstein.
Students will discuss what they know about Frankenstein,
and the literary elements they will see in the text.
2. Prepare for next CC
Students will review the upcoming discussion topics and to
do list before Thursday’s CC.
This week’s schedule:

FULL GROUPS
MON – Intro Frankenstein
THUR– Franeknstein: Dr? Scientist? Mad Man?
MARY (Wollstonecraft) SHELLEY: Queen of the Goths
Frost, Adam. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – in Charts.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/jan/13/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-in-charts.
Frost, Adam. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – in Charts.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/jan/13/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-in-charts.
What is a Creation Myth? Examples.
 Accretion Or Conjunction: Accretion or conjunction myths involve
Creation Myth: a symbolic primordial elements (usually, the Classical four: earth, wind, fire, and
water.) coming together to form the world. “Happy little accidents”
narrative of how the world began and Secretion: In the secretion myths, A god creates by secreting
how people first came to inhabit it. something, like sweat, blood, semen, a parthenogenetic child or
a spun web.
Key Features: Sacrifice: In a sacrifice myth, a god or primordial being dies, is
1. considered sacred accounts dismembered, or falls asleep and the world is formed of their parts.
Division or Consummation: Consummation myth myths is one
2. can be found in nearly all known where creation occurred from the division of a "cosmic egg" or the
religious traditions consummation of earth and sky. Sometimes, the primordial couple
3. characters are either deities, human- births more gods, who then create the world.
like figures, or animals, who often Earth-diver: In Earth-diver myths, the creator has to retrieve the
items necessary for creation by diving into the earth or primordial sea.
speak and transform easily. Emergence: Emergence myths follow the idea that humanity or the
4. set in a dim and nonspecific past gods come from another world and enter our world. Often, the first
5. address questions deeply world is a representation of the womb.
meaningful to the society that Two Creators: The efforts or conflicts of two creators is the key
feature of a Two Creators myth. There may be a duality of Good and
shares them,
Evil, or some other difference between the two deities that leads to
6. reveal the central worldview of the cooperation or competition
society and the Deus Faber: Deus Faber or “Maker God” is the idea of a creator
7. framework for the cultural and craftsman, who forms the world with careful attention. A Deus Faber
creator god makes a work of art in the form of the world.
individual self-identity in a universal
Ex Nihilo: Ex nihilo means “out of nothing.” In an Ex nihilo creation
context. myth, the creator existence is brought into being ab mandato, e.g.
Wikipedia contributors. "Creation myth." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
3 Mar. 2024. Web. 27 Mar. 2024.
through speech, dream, breath, or pure thought.
Frankenstein is a Deus faber myth
What do you know about Frankenstein, the story?
The Text: When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could
I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and
guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my
mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie.
I saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision, —I saw the pale
student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had
put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched
out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show

*
signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.
Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the
effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous
mechanism of the Creator of the world. His success would
terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious
handywork, horror-stricken. He would hope that, left to itself,
the slight spark of life which he had communicated would
fade; that this thing, which had received such imperfect
animation, would subside into dead matter; and he might
• Published anonymously in London on sleep in the belief that the silence of the grave would quench
New Year’s day, 1818, for ever the transient existence of the hideous corpse which
• Shelley was just 21. he had looked upon as the cradle of life. He sleeps; but he is
• Percy wrote the original preface so
people gave him credit.
awakened; he opens his eyes; behold the horrid thing stands
• Shelley’s name did not appear on the at his bedside, opening his curtains, and looking on him with
text until the 1823 publication. yellow, watery, but speculative eyes. I opened mine in terror.
Gothic Elements in Frankenstein: The Setting
1. Mystery and Fear:
vague science
2.Unnerving
Atmosphere: grave
robbing
3.Supernatural and
Paranormal Activity:
resurrected/inanimate
being coming to life
(Frost and Vasiliev; Top 10 Elements )
Gothic Elements in Frankenstein: The Characters
1. Emotional Distress:
psychosis, mania,
obsession and isolation
2. A Villain: The creature ?
3. Anti Hero: Frankenstein -
driven by passion and
burdened by a horrific
tragedy
4. Romance: separation,
long engagements
5. Damsel in Distress:
Elizabeth
(Frost and Vasiliev; Top 10 Elements )
This is your
reminder to
look at the
PDF on the
OLS.
 Have you ever
played the game
“Telephone”?
Frame Story: a
story set within a
story, told by the
main or supporting
character

Epistolary novel:
a novel written as a
series of letters,
documents diary
entries and
newspaper
clippings.
 Henry Clerval

Robert Walton Elizabeth Levanza

Frankenstein's Viktor Frankenstein

Parents

Ernest

William

Justine Moritz
The Creature Safie
For next class…
Think about:
Mad Scientists
Consequences of defying nature
Misuse of power + seeking personal glory

Read: Pages 7-12

Do: Frankenstein Quiz 1