Frankenstein (play) Gothic Features - Context
- Created by: helena.n
- Created on: 29-05-19 11:55
View mindmap
- Gothic Features in Nick Dear's Frankenstein
- Dreams
- Prophetic
- Sc. 28 - William appears in the Orkneys and makes Victor question what happens if the Creature reproduces
- Gothic plot device to emphasise insecurities and fears
- Sc. 28 - William appears in the Orkneys and makes Victor question what happens if the Creature reproduces
- The Creature dreams of a Female Creature
- Sparks his desire
- Sc. 19
- Prophetic
- Role of the Villain
- Traditionally:
- Autocratic
- Victor is upper class
- Male
- Both Victor and the Creature are male
- Complex characters
- Neither the Creature or Victor are entirely villain or hero
- Initially sympathetic: fools reader
- The audience initially sympathises with the abandoned Creature
- Autocratic
- Villain is usually the central character but fate intervenes at the end to ensure good triumphs over evil
- The ending of this play isn't so clear-cut
- For starters, not one clear villain - both Victor and Creature have villainous elements
- At the end the Creature has the power/status
- Audience sympathy for Victor?
- Cold
- Dragging dog sled
- No?
- Getting what he deserves
- They are slowly destroying each other
- Perhaps it is best for society that they both disappear in the Arctic
- Audience sympathy for Victor?
- The ending of this play isn't so clear-cut
- Traditionally:
- Role of the Protagonist
- Traditionally:
- Protagonists usually ANTI-HERO
- Flawed protagonist with monstrous elements
- Victor is not perfect
- Murders the Female Creature Sc. 28
- Egoistical, selfish
- "Can a man be a God?" - Sc. 28
- "Little men with little lives" - Sc. 24
- Victor is not perfect
- Flawed protagonist with monstrous elements
- High social rank
- Driven by passion
- Moody
- Solidary
- Conflicted
- Traditional religious ideology chastises them for doing morally wrong acts
- Creating life
- Protagonists usually ANTI-HERO
- Victor both pursues and is pursued by the Creature
- Traditionally:
- Romance
- Gothic literature came from Romantic literature
- Overlapping characteritics
- Many Gothic novels plagued by passionate romance
- Often leads to sorrow and tragedy
- Death of Elizabeth Sc. 29
- Death of Female Creature Sc. 28
- Often leads to sorrow and tragedy
- Gothic literature came from Romantic literature
- Damsel in Distress
- Woman who suffers at the expense of a villain
- Elizabeth killed by Creature
- Death of Elizabeth Sc. 29
- Female Creature killed by Victor
- Death of Female Creature Sc. 28
- Elizabeth killed by Creature
- Often have these feelings:
- Sadness
- Loneliness
- Oppression
- Often held captive, terrorised by noblemen, rendered powerless
- Elizabeth feels trapped in the family home and longs to travel with Victor Sc. 25
- Although not a nobleman, the Creature terrorises Elizabeth Sc. 29
- Woman who suffers at the expense of a villain
- Melodrama
- Often used to convey heightened emotion
- Men rage in reflection of unseen inner torments
- Murders
- Female Creature
- Sc. 28
- Elizabeth
- Sc. 29
- William
- Sc. 23
- Female Creature
- Kidnappings
- William
- Sc. 22
- William
- People going mad
- People believe Victor has gone mad
- Often used to convey heightened emotion
- The Beast within
- Like Jekyll and Hyde
- Influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution
- Denied superiority of humans
- Influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution
- Victor is neither entirely good or bad
- Like Jekyll and Hyde
- The Supernatural
- Desire to explore the unknown
- Industrial Revolution 1818 setting
- The Creature
- Man-made
- Merges life and death
- Creation of the Creature gives Victor:
- Immense power
- Fear of that power
- Realises he's created a being he can't entirely control
- Fears his own creation
- And what would happen if they procreate
- "How will I know what will happen - if I bring her fully to life?" Sc. 28
- "I will kill this thing that I have foolishly made" Sc. 29
- And what would happen if they procreate
- Desire to explore the unknown
- Setting
- Unnerving mountain regions
- Polar Ice Cap, Arctic Circle Sc. 30
- Exoticism and foreign, unexplored territory
- Mont Blanc, Switzerland Sc. 24
- "There is a sound like a great exhalation of breath, as the glacier shudders and shifts" Sc 24
- "We once again hear the breath of the glacier" Sc. 24
- "He [Victor] hears again the terrifying breath of the glacier" Sc. 25
- Polar Ice Cap, Arctic Circle Sc. 30
- Large Forests
- Scenes 6-11
- Extreme Weather
- Threatening storms
- Lightning
- Rain
- Sc. 6
- Nice, summer shower though
- Usually prefigures appearance of a character or beginning of a significant event in Gothic literature
- Highlights that the protagonists are at the mercy of forces they can't control
- "A tumbledown croft in the Orkneys. The weather is appalling" Sc. 26
- "The Orkneys. Night. Wind and rain" Sc. 27
- Sc. 6
- Dark, threatening
- Moon
- Sc. 30
- "A huge moon dominates the scene"
- Sc. 18 - Creature refuses to meet De Lacy's family
- "A huge moon rises"
- "The light is fading"
- [Creature describing the moon] "Solitary [...] And sad, like me."
- Because he doesn't know who he is or where he came from
- Sc. 30
- Can mirror characters' moods
- Graveyards, burials
- Sc. 27 - Graveyard in the Orkneys
- Unnerving mountain regions
- Atmosphere
- Haunting atmosphere
- Atmosphere and environment lead to feelings of fear and uneasiness
- Anything beyond the boundaries of science lends way to mystery
- Low lighting
- Candle being only source of light
- Shadows
- Elizabeth is a light in the darkness
- Moonlight against the dark sky
- Sc. 30
- Sc. 18
- Nighttime
- Sc. 28 - Victor working on and killing the Female Creature
- Creature hiding in the SHADOWY rafters
- Sc. 4 - Streets of Ingolstadt
- Sc. 5 - Town Gates
- Scenes 9, 10, 11 - Beggars in the woods
- Sc. 23 - Searching for William
- Sc. 27 - Ewan and Rab grave-robbing
- Sc. 30 - Arctic
- Sc. 1, until the Creature opens its eyes
- Initially darkness/night is used when the Creature is vulnerable/in a new situation
- Later, darkness/night is used as the Creature manipulates Victor/as Victor turns mad
- Sc. 28 - Victor working on and killing the Female Creature
- Dreams
- Guilty secret
- Having created the Creature
- Traditionally:
- Protagonists usually ANTI-HERO
- Flawed protagonist with monstrous elements
- Victor is not perfect
- Murders the Female Creature Sc. 28
- Egoistical, selfish
- "Can a man be a God?" - Sc. 28
- "Little men with little lives" - Sc. 24
- Victor is not perfect
- Flawed protagonist with monstrous elements
- High social rank
- Driven by passion
- Moody
- Solidary
- Conflicted
- Traditional religious ideology chastises them for doing morally wrong acts
- Creating life
- Protagonists usually ANTI-HERO
Comments
No comments have yet been made