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Compassionate Cultivation as a Method for Universal Inclusion in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Mary Shelley introduces a monstrous anomaly to the system of modern science to insist on the failure and restrictions of the masculine, Eurocentric ideal of pedagogy to accommodate those who are unfamiliar, and suggests that a successful and inclusive education would rather support and cultivate the individual's state of nature by being rooted in affection. James O'Rourke identifies the significant influence that both Rousseau and Wollstonecraft had on Mary Shelley's conception of human nature. Whereas Wollstonecraft ascribed reason as the distinguishing characteristic of human nature, arguing that "affections seem to have an animal capriciousness when they merely reside in the heart"(156), Rousseau privileged the "heart" over the "head" and further distinguished between the "natural" and good instinct of compassion, and conversely, the "bad" and artificial desires that arise from social influences, such as selfpreservation (O'Rourke 555). While O'Rourke observes that Shelley aligns herself with Rousseau when she states that "affections are actually the most characteristic part of human nature"(548), she collapses his division between the socially influenced instinct of selfpreservation and instinctual compassion, suggesting that the independence needed for selfdirected cultivation must be tempered by social influences based on compassion. Just as Shelley rejects the polarization of "natural" altruism and "artificial" narcissism, she effaces Rousseau's polarization of the faculties of the head and the heart by naturalizing reason and cultivation as an instinctual human impulse. O'Rourke also notes that the absence of a controlling deity in Frankenstein indicates its agreement with Rousseauean phylogeny, and Shelley establishes the continuity of an opposition between the state of nature and the state of civilization that characterized Rousseau's Romanticism(549). However, because she sees no division between the human capacities for compassion and reason, unlike Rousseau, the division between the state of
A Journey In Search Of Meaning For Existence In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science, 2018
All human beings have a desire to be alive and wish to survive or stick on to the environment they belong to. It is actually applicable to all living things in the world. The existence of a species is not solely dependent on the organism, but the habitat, proper living conditions and social relations also plays a pivotal role. In the novel Frankenstein, the creature had a quest for creating a meaning for its existence. We can consider it as a partial human being; it successfully acquires a space for itself in the living conditions of human society. The monster customizes itself and adopts the characteristic traits of human beings for its survival. But the society was not ready to accept the monster as a part of its social set up. Existential philosopher Albert Camus states that "I rebel; therefore I exist" (The Rebel, 15). Most human beings try to create a meaning for their existence in different stages of their life, starting from initial stages of life to till their end, and thinking, accept, and contradict with the worldly powers and ideas. As a result of this continuous evolution, each and every human being find own way and meaning for their existence. This paper tries to dismantle the psyche of the monster with a social as well as existentialistic perspective and attempts to signify the importance of habitat, peer groups and a society which are the integral components of existence.
International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) , 2022
The term “Other” is popular in cultural and literary studies. Edward Said proposed the idea of “the Other” in his work Orientalism (1978) . Othering is the occurrence in which some groups or individuals are labelled as not fitting in within the norms of a social group. They are excluded and discriminated to be ‘the other’. The concept of the “Other” can be found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . The creature is excluded by his representation as inhuman throughout the novel. The novel shows how society alienates anyone who does not suit its taste. By studying the creature’s appearance, the language and the creature’s interaction with other characters it can be understood how Victor Frankenstein’s creation is alienated and is denied the status of a human being. This paper focuses on the concept of the “Other” originally as the part of a post -colonial theory. This paper will analyse the idea of the “Other” within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein particularly in regards to the character of the creature.
Shelley's Frankenstein as a Book of Love and Despair
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 2019
Influenced by Enlightenment philosophes like Rousseau and Smith, Romantic writers, such as Coleridge and Percy Shelley, celebrate the sublime power of sympathetic love to merge the self and the other (be it human or inhuman) into a wondrous whole, thereby precluding the dangers of solitude and solipsism. Not all Romantic writers, however, share the same sanguine view of love. In Frankenstein, for instance, Mary Shelley offers an alternative to the optimistic perspective on the capacity of (mutual) sympathy. She shapes the novel into tales of bitter solitude, one caused by the lack of sympathetic understanding between Victor and nature, between the Monster and the De Laceys, and between the Monster and his father Victor. In these mutual relations, I argue, Shelley evokes elements of Enlightenment/ Romantic love, only to revoke its sublime power and furthermore turn it into despair. Rather than the Romantic joy of transcendent plenitude, the novel is shrouded in Gothic despair, the outright negation of redemption.
Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net (RaVoN). ISSN: 1916-1441, 2012
This article offers a criminological reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein based on the 1831 edition. It discusses the opposition between Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s physiognomic prejudice and the creature’s discourse designating social exclusion as the cause of its mischief. Frankenstein’s accusations rely mostly on its creation’s appearance, borrowing from Johann Kaspar Lavater’s principles. The monstrous creature counteracts its maker’s presumptions by interpreting its own criminal behaviour similarly to Christian Wolf’s self-analysis in Schiller’s short story “Der Verbrecher aus Verlorene Ehre.” A close reading of the circumstances of each of the monster’s four crimes demonstrates how deeply its criminality is interlocked with social rejection caused by its own external deformity. Both perspectives adapt tropes that can be found in criminal biographies still reprinted in the 1810s. Though both positions are credible, I argue that the storyline supports the creature’s view that the criminal might be a monster, but created by those it vengefully hurts. Throughout, I indicate when changes to Shelley’s 1816-1817 draft were made to arrive to the 1831 wording, paying also attention to who effected them.
Frankenstein's Creature: the Monstrous Tenor of Self-knowledge
2021
This paper brings forth an overview of the most important historical events that reverberated and introduced Europe to the 18th-century world. In addition, it provides substantial contextual information regarding the political climate in West Europe, states the reasons for the outbreak of French Revolution as well as touches on the American Revolution in the second half of the 1760’s. Furthermore, it is concerned with the theoretical aspect of Romanticism, names the era’s greatest authors and philosophers as well as literary achievements. As well as that, this paper provides an outline of innovative concepts and characteristic Romantic genres such as the gothic novel reinvented by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. However, the focal point of this thesis is to introduce the reader to several different approaches to reading Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, with emphasis on the feminist perspective by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. Except for that, the paper explains the Creatur...
Självständigt arbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen), 15 hp, 2017
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley and the characters within, tell a prominent story of the posthuman condition in a society where humanist thought is the only conception of subjectivity. The use of not only posthuman studies, but more specifically studies including subjectivity was needed, in order to analyse the relationship between the humanist and the posthuman subjects. Theories of posthuman subjectivity and subjectivity by Rosi Braidotti and Michel Foucault were used in order to examine the posthuman condition of “Frankenstein’s monster” and the role of humanist vs. posthuman subjectivity between Victor Frankenstein and the monster. The tension between Victor and the monster was analysed in order to investigate the monster’s struggle at acquiring subjectivity in a posthuman state, which revealed why it is impossible for the humanist and posthuman subject to peacefully coexist.