Monsters at the Margin

VIRTUE IS FOUND at the margins of society more often than at its centre. If this is so, Mary Shelley's Monster is a real find! Her creature is an isolate of great sensitivity, kindness, and insight. Contrary to James Whale's 1931 film of the Creature as a lumbering dolt, Mary Shelley's Monster was modeled on Rousseau's notion of humanity as the "noble savage." The nobility of the Creature is evident as he unveils his chronicle to Victor Frankenstein upon the icy crags of Mount Blanc. Meet Frankenstein's Creature

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Passions of Prometheus

I DON'T THINK that it is inconsequential that my heroes are men.... It is not because women are not as passionate, creative, or in any way undeserving that they don't make my short list of heroes. Rather, it is because I share with most men an inclination toward "Prometheanism". I don't know why it is not as prevalent in most women. Perhaps it is the hard wiring of centuries of birthing and caring for life (if I am allowed that stereotypical explanation). I do not think it is because women are morally superior to men, only that

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What is the Cental Theme of Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley's work is symbolic. Symbols are meant to be explored with ever increasing depth rather than simply defined. What you envision as the central theme of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus will likely be governed by the interpretive lens you view the novel with rather than some unquestionable meaning revealed by the text itself. Instead of advocating any one theme, I would suggest that you explore your critical and imaginative abilities so that you can see the text in a multitude of ways. In this manner you will be attempting to see the most it can mean

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How did a Literary Classic Become a Horror Flick?

Beginning with the first dramatic version of Frankenstein on the London stage in the 1820's until Hollywood began churning out Frankenstein monster films (42 titles at last count), the general spirit of Mary Shelley's original has significantly shifted. What was once a literary classic about parental abandonment of human creations, or about the character distortions that arise when we deny a relationship to the feminine "Other", soon became a narrowly focused presentation of a mad scientist and a grotesque monster. The different mediums of the stage and screen of course had its effect. Playwrights and movie directors, in the hope

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Brides of Frankenstein

WHILE I SAT at the breakfast table, I felt the blood drain out of my face and into my stomach as I listened to her ramble. It wasn't the scattered content that made me so uncomfortable. The content itself was a disconnected diatribe of sy gossip and trivia, punctuated by misplaced maxims that in their popular form might have actually meant something. Despite the dogmatism, moral superiority, and intensity that was expressed through her tone and bodily gestures, I felt humiliated, embarrassed. Although outwardly there was nothing to be afraid of - I experienced dread. I looked sideways at my

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Encountering Horror and the Holy

KIRK SCHNEIDER IS an existentialist- psychologist interested in the transformative effect of horror literature on readers. He advocates a form of bibliotherapy using horror literature and cinema as a means of exploring our human condition, its limitations and its responsibilities. His book Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale separates horror into two categories: those tales like Dracula that constrict and imprison the consciousness, reducing it to a microcosm, and tales like Frankenstein that expand the consciousness, mirroring the macrocosmic dimension. In many horror stories there are elements of both tendencies but usually one or the other predominate.

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Marriage and Mary Shelley

I WAS SITTING in Merk's restaurant out on Pembina Highway with Bev in 1990 when I solemnly swore that if I were to do it again, I definitely would not want to be married. At the time I k that marriage left a very sour taste in my mouth. It wasn't only that I hadn't taken care of my marriage of seventeen years well enough to make it worthwhile, it was the whole idea of being married that irked me. I joked about marriage being a socio-economic relationship which was merely functional to get a mortgage

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The Value of Fright

I imagine that I live in a shadowy theatre where an unbelievably frightening scene is about to overwhelm me. I have the choice of putting my hands in front of my eyes or looking directly into the gruesome screen. "If it scares you so much, why look?" you might ask. I look because there are eye-opening benefits in being horrified. To confront horror enables me not only to test my courage but to check my discernment, that is, my ability to see through things. What is it that I am really afraid of? Is it the scarred monster conjured

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What Genre of Best Describes the Frankenstein Tale?

GOTHIC: TALES OF macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, usually set amid haunted castles, graveyards, ruins and wild picturesque landscapes. They reached the height of their considerable fashion in the 1790's and the early years of the 19th century (Oxford Companion to English , p. 405-06). Undoubtedly, there are Gothic elements to Mary Shelley's novel. She was familiar with the classics of Gothicism: Mrs. Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), M.G. Lewis's The Monk (1796) and William Beckford'sVathek (1786). In common with these Gothic tales, Frankenstein made use of the correspondence between theme, character and setting. One of the chief elements in

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What Source Influence Mary Shelley in Crafting her Tale?

When the floodgates of the creative unconsciousness finally opened, the never stagnant sources that inspired Frankenstein were readily available to Mary Shelley. In addition to other passions Percy and Mary were voracious readers. Radu Florescu, author of In of Frankenstein, estimates that the couple may have read as much as sixteen hours on a good day during their romp through Europe. Reading, romping and remembering provided the seed bed from which grew a classic. As with the night vision that provoked the tale, the sources she used were not consciously selected. Each contributing resource made its way into the novel

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