Miss McLaughlin
Monday - May the 4th – was Star Wars Day (it’s a pun, say it aloud…). So, this week we are going to give some time to science fiction.
Monday - May the 4th – was Star Wars Day (it’s a pun, say it aloud…). So, this week we are going to give some time to science fiction.
Over two centuries ago, Mary Shelley started writing Frankenstein at the age of 18. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant scientist, who wishes to create the perfect man and finds himself filled with horror and disgust when it comes into being. Teaching the important lesson: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!
Shelley’s novel, exploring ideas around power and responsibility and the tension felt about the reach of technology and the role of religion, has stood the test of time and remains popular all these years later.
2. We are told that the monster reads three novels – Plutarch’s Lives, Goethe’s Werther, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. We might consider these as covering the public, private, and cosmic realms and three modes of love. How can these be applied to and used to aid our understanding of this novel?
3. In 2011, the National Theatre put on a sell-out production based on the play. Directed by Danny Boyle, this production sees Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller alternating between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
As well as considering how the novel transfers to a play, try watching half the production with one actor as the monster and the other half with the roles reversed. What does this add to your experience?
You can watch the acclaimed National Theatre production if you follow the links here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/nt-at-home-frankenstein
Frankenstein is the sort of novel you may well have already come across, perhaps even studying it at some point in school, so here are a few things to consider which may afford some fresh thought:
1. When reading the novel, it is worth considering the use of frame narratives- there is an elaborate series of these employed in the novel – and how these shape meaning. In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness there is a cautionary metaphor offered for reading such narratives. We are told that the meaning of a story ‘was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze…’. If we are not looking for a single ‘kernel’, what then can be understood from tracing the narrative through the frames offered and considering the dialogue between them?
1. When reading the novel, it is worth considering the use of frame narratives- there is an elaborate series of these employed in the novel – and how these shape meaning. In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness there is a cautionary metaphor offered for reading such narratives. We are told that the meaning of a story ‘was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze…’. If we are not looking for a single ‘kernel’, what then can be understood from tracing the narrative through the frames offered and considering the dialogue between them?
2. We are told that the monster reads three novels – Plutarch’s Lives, Goethe’s Werther, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. We might consider these as covering the public, private, and cosmic realms and three modes of love. How can these be applied to and used to aid our understanding of this novel?
3. In 2011, the National Theatre put on a sell-out production based on the play. Directed by Danny Boyle, this production sees Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller alternating between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
Their summary of the story reads: 'Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the increasingly desperate and vengeful Creature determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
As well as considering how the novel transfers to a play, try watching half the production with one actor as the monster and the other half with the roles reversed. What does this add to your experience?
You can watch the acclaimed National Theatre production if you follow the links here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/nt-at-home-frankenstein
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