I wrote the first article about Frankenstein’s
monster. At first, I just viewed it as an amazing story of monster against
human being and also a tragedy of unaccepted creature and his creator.
But after reading, The Monster's Body Is a Cultural Body, the first thesis of Cohen’s seven theses of Monster Culture, I found that Frankenstein story reflect cultural and history background of that time in Europe, especially British. Mary Shelley wrote this story from about 1816, while, that was a heyday of industrial revolution in British. Thanks to development of science, life quality was rapidly improved during 19th century, and people worshipped science blindly, some people even want to use science to do some crazy matters like Frankenstein, who made a monster with dead body and his “science”. Thus, I believe Mary Shelley used her novel to reflect the history and cultural background of British during Industrial Revolution.
But after reading, The Monster's Body Is a Cultural Body, the first thesis of Cohen’s seven theses of Monster Culture, I found that Frankenstein story reflect cultural and history background of that time in Europe, especially British. Mary Shelley wrote this story from about 1816, while, that was a heyday of industrial revolution in British. Thanks to development of science, life quality was rapidly improved during 19th century, and people worshipped science blindly, some people even want to use science to do some crazy matters like Frankenstein, who made a monster with dead body and his “science”. Thus, I believe Mary Shelley used her novel to reflect the history and cultural background of British during Industrial Revolution.
If we dig deeply from the point of view of
how people viewed science and tried to utilize science, we can also find out
that Mary Shelley was using her novel to warn people that you must have enough
knowledge of science and have the power to control it before you take advantage
of science, otherwise, you might have the same ending with Frankenstein, killed
by the creature or monster that created by himself with the “science” he was
unable to control. This warning is also mentioned in the fifth thesis of Cohen’s
seven theses that “The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible”, which
wrote that Monster is a “warning against exploration of its uncertain demesnes”.
In summary, after reading Cohen’s seven
theses, I no longer see the story of Frankenstein and his monster as a tragedy or
interesting monster novel because it was also a reflection of history and
cultural background of British or even Europe during Industrial Revolution and
a strong warning to people that worshipped science blindly at that time.
Lei,
ReplyDeleteI like your detailed example of the cultural and historical information that the monsters reflect. From what you mentioned in first paragraph, I gain more information about Frankenstein, as well as background stories during that period of time. Also I like how you organized you post. I wrote a post of Godzilla, which also matches the second thesis that you mentioned above, so these two monsters have something in common. They are both a signal or warning to humans that misuse or exploring blindly could put them in danger.
I think your analysis is good, because you meet the requirement of critical thinking in literature. And provides readers multiple perspective of a single question.
Lei,
ReplyDeleteI like your detailed example of the cultural and historical information that the monsters reflect. From what you mentioned in first paragraph, I gain more information about Frankenstein, as well as background stories during that period of time. Also I like how you organized you post. I wrote a post of Godzilla, which also matches the second thesis that you mentioned above, so these two monsters have something in common. They are both a signal or warning to humans that misuse or exploring blindly could put them in danger.
I think your analysis is good, because you meet the requirement of critical thinking in literature. And provides readers multiple perspective of a single question.