1. Frankenstein
Modern Prometheus

2. Sample thesis statement for contrast paper:  In terms of social networking sites, Facebook focuses on presenting your daily life to others, whereas MySpace allows you to focus more on demonstrating your personal style.
Sample thesis statement for compare/contrast paper:  While both Facebook and MySpace allow you to meet other users who have similar interests, only MySpace allows you to demonstrate your personal style. 
Contrast: In terms of _______, The Bluest Eye focuses on _______, whereas/while Frankenstein describes ________.
Compare: Both The Bluest Eye and Frankenstein_______, _________, __________.
Compare/Contrast: While both The Bluest Eye and Frankenstein contained _______ and ________, The Bluest Eye focused on ________ while Frankenstein described __________.
***Write THREE thesis statements comparing/contrasting any two pieces of literature we’ve discussed so far.***

3. Mary Shelley Born in 1797 to William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft
Her mother died shortly after Mary was born
Shelley learned about her mother only through writings her mother left behind, including A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) which advocated that women should have the same educational opportunities as rights in society as men.

4. Mary Shelley
Avid reader and scholar and knew through her father some of the most important men of the time (William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Married (scandal!) Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816 and listened intently to his intellectual conversations with others

5. Mary Shelley
On a visit in Switzerland with PBS to Lord Byron, she was challenged to write a story. She had heard Byron and Shelley discussing “the nature of the principle of life and whether there was any chance of its ever being discovered.” From this conversation, she had the “waking dream” which eventually became the novel Frankenstein.

6. Historical Context
Ambiguous Walton’s letters dated “17-” with no reference to anything specific to pinpoint the date.
It is set in the latter part of the 18th century, at the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of the Romantic period.
It critiques the excesses of the Enlightenment and introduces the beliefs of the Romantics.
Reflects a shift in social and political thought – from humans as creatures who use science and reason to shape and control their destiny to humans as creatures who rely on their emotions to determine what is right.

7. Ideas of the Enlightenment
Scientific observation of the outer world
Logic and reason; science and technology
Believed in following standards and traditions
Appreciated elegance and refinement
Interested in maintaining the aristocracy
Sought to follow and validate authority
Favored a social hierarchy
Nature should be controlled by humans

8. Important Revolutions
American and French Revolution (call for individual freedom and an overthrow of rigid social hierarchy)
Industrial Revolution – social system challenged by change from agricultural society to industrial one with a large, impoverished and restless working class

9. Characteristics of Romantic Period
Emphasis on imagination and emotion, individual passion and inspiration
Rejection of formal, upper class works and a preference for writing (poetry) that addresses personal experiences and emotions in simple, language
A turn to the past or an inner dream world that is thought to be more picturesque and magical than the current world (industrial age)

10. Characteristics of Romantic Period
Belief in individual liberty; rebellious attitude against tyranny
Fascination with nature; perception of nature as transformative

11. Characteristics of Romantic Period
Concerned with common people
Favored democracy
Desired radical change
Nature should be untamed

12. Style: Gothic Novel
Frankenstein is generally categorized as a Gothic novel, a genre of fiction that uses gloomy settings and supernatural events to create and atmosphere of mystery and terror.
Shelley adds to her development of the plot the use of psychological realism, delving into the psyches of the characters in and attempt to explain why they react as they do and what drives them to make their decisions.

15. Structure and Point of View
Robert Walton’s letters
Frankenstein's story to Walton
Creature's story
to Frankenstein
Frame Story
Epistolary – carried by letters

16. September 23, 2016
What makes a human human?

17. Answer True or False for Each Question.
Monsters are evil, dangerous creatures.
All people are basically mean and cruel.
It is impossible to bring a dead body back to life.
Love is more important than a person’s ambition or career goals.
Murder is a crime, no matter what the circumstances.
If a person is treated with cruelty and insensitivity, he will also act brutally towards others.
It is okay to reject a person because s/he is physically ugly.
Taking revenge against someone who betrayed you is fair and justified.
Scientists have no right to clone or reproduce a living thing from DNA.

18. This cartoon depicts President Obama blowing the dust off a science book the day after releasing the suspension on embryonic stem cell research.
1. What is the dominant image in the cartoon?
2. What is significant about the secondary images and text in the cartoon?
3. What is the cartoonist’s point of view about his subject matter?
4. What is your opinion about the subject matter introduced by the cartoon?

19. 1. What is the dominant image in the cartoon?
2. What is significant about the secondary images and text in the cartoon?
3. What is the cartoonist’s point of view about his subject matter?
4. What is your opinion about the subject matter introduced by the cartoon?
5. After considering both cartoons and your opinion, write a thesis statement that
supports, opposes, or argues a point about genetic engineering.

20. “I think; therefore I am.” What is your understanding of this quote?
September 29, 2016
“I think; therefore I am.”
What is your understanding of this quote?

21. Discuss in a small group and then be prepared to report and defend your answers to the class:
How much of what the creature does is due to the fact that he is alone, rejected by not only strangers but his creator, his God?
How much is he affected (or is our judgment of him affected) by the fact that he has no name, no identity?
How much of his development is stunted (or at least affected) by these continual rejections?
How much blame do we place on him, and how much on his creator?
How does the creature view himself as opposed to how he is viewed?

22. What factors cause the creature to become so angry and miserable
What factors cause the creature to become so angry and miserable? Do any of the same factors or similar factors affect you? Have you ever been driven to desperation by something someone has said to you? Have you ever wanted revenge because someone has hurt you, whether inadvertently or blatantly?

23. Please read the article and be prepared to discuss.
October 5, 2016
Please read the article and be prepared to discuss.

24. September 28, 2016
Descartes felt it important to “rid himself of all handed down, or received, learning before beginning his own philosophical construction” (Gaarder 237). In other words, Descartes wanted to use only new information to form his thoughts.
Relate this concept to your own lives or beliefs then devise at least two open-ended questions, based on your reading of Frankenstein, that can relate to our society.

25. After reading the myth, please answer these questions on a sheet of paper.
What knowledge was forbidden to man by Zeus? Why?
2. What might have motivated Prometheus to defy Zeus?
3. What was Prometheus’s punishment? What does it symbolize?
4. The subtitle of Frankenstein is The Modern Prometheus.  Why do you think Shelley included this?  What connections exist between the story and the Greek Prometheus?

26. Agree or Disagree?
1. It is a parent’s job, more than society’s, to nurture his/her child.
2. With the advent of genetic engineering and “designer” babies, parents now have
less important roles in the birth process.
3. All children are innately good.
4. Every child needs “mothering” in order to become “human.”
5. All parents love their children unconditionally, no matter how they look or act.
6. Children who are “deformed” physically or mentally should be isolated from society.

27. “Exit Ticket”
How far is too far when it comes to medical science? Do you deplore Victor for “playing God,” or do you respect him for his scientific talents? Is Dr. Frankenstein a scientific genius or a medical madman? Assert your position in a single paragraph, drawing specific examples from the text to support your claim.

28. Major Characters
Victor Frankenstein – protagonist, product of an idealistic Enlightenment education; fueled by possibilities of science and a desire for acclaim; becomes obsessed with creating life from spare body parts. Rational demeanor dissolves and by story’s end, consumed by primitive emotions of fear and hatred.

29. Major Characters
The Creature - never named; is Victor’s doppelganger (alter ego); Creature rationally analyzes the society that rejects him; sympathetic character, admires people and wants to be a part of human society; only results in violence when he is repeatedly rejected

30. Major Characters
Henry Clerval – Victor’s childhood friend; true romantic, wants to leave mark on the world, but never loses sight of “the moral relations of things:
Elizabeth – adopted as an infant by Victor’s family; marries Victor
Robert Walton – Arctic explorer who’s obsessed with gaining knowledge and fame; rescues Victor in the Arctic; tells the story

31. Thematic Ideas
Consequences of irresponsibility in the pursuit of knowledge
Consequences of pride
Consequences of society’s rejection of someone who is unattractive
Destructive power of revenge
Parent-child conflicts
Sympathy

32. Other Literary Elements
Irony – 2 major ironies
Creature is more sympathetic, more imaginative and more responsible to fellow creatures
Creature has many pleasing qualities but is an outcast because he’s not physically attractive

33. Symbols White/light= knowledge Water = knowledge Ice = danger
Lightning = nature’s power
Nature = acceptance, nuturing, calm
Mountains= sublime in nature

34. Antithesis-Contrasts of ideas, characters, themes, settings or moods
Masculine/feminine
Beautiful/ugly
Good/bad
Light/dark
Heat/cold
Victor/creation
Passion/reason
Natural/unnatural
Known/unknown
Civilized/savage

35. Allusion
Paradise Lost by John Milton – story of man’s fall from innocence to painful knowledge; Victor and Creature can be compared to Adam, Satan, and Eve
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, like narrator, tells story as a warning and a confession