Mid-Term Check In

Dear Professor Cline,

     This class has been different from every other English class that I have taken. Most other English classes I have taken focused mostly on understanding the author's purpose. I have never really been expected to analyze a text. I tend to comprehend stories, poems, and most writing easily, but analyzing and coming up with my own interpretation of writing isn't something I have done a lot. Analyzing the poem and Frankenstein gave me a new way to view and look at anything I am reading.
     I think the most challenging thing, so far, this semester was actually reading Frankenstein. Frankenstein, isn't the type of story that I usually pick up and read. I have always found it hard to read certain classics because of the dated language and the way that the characters speak. Even though I found the story confusing at times, because of the language, I am glad that I read the story. Most stories, anymore, aren't very complex and they typically only have one main theme. While reading Frankenstein, I picked up on many different themes, which I found refreshing from how stories are now written.
     For the second half of the semester, I would like to learn to better understand literary analysis. I also hope to learn how to incorporate more outside resources into my essays. I feel that if I can learn how to use more resources, I will be able to analyze different types of writing while also being able to pick up on the themes that are harder to perceive or understand.

Sincerely,
         Adriana Steele
     

Essay 3

Adriana Steele

Cline

English 102

October, 2011

Guided by Life

Our past, our choices, and our situation in life, ultimately affects what we do with our life and contributes to determining our future. Feelings and emotions also play an important role in how we perceive life and how we react. People may say that they are neutral or indifferent, but personal beliefs and feelings will always be prominent and influential in our lives. I believe this is particularly true in the case of the story of Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a story about loneliness and finding the place and the people that you belong with.

Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, never knew her mother, and her father wasn’t happy with her marriage to Percy Shelley (Gilbert and Gubar, 227). Mary’s relationship with her family was distant, but over the course of five years she was pregnant many times and all of her children died during the pregnancies or shortly after they were born (Moers, 216-217). She did have her husband, but prior to their marriage, she was his mistress. I believe that her feelings of loss, especially the loss of her children, contributed to the plot and themes of Frankenstein.  

In the story, Victor begins the creation of the monster when he is away at school and while he is separated from his family and friends. At first it seems as though he is in the pursuit of creating life only to fill a scientific curiosity. Subconsciously, his purpose of creating life is more personal and it also parallels Shelley’s feelings. “Surely no outside influence need be sought to explain Mary Shelley’s fantasy of the newborn as at once monstrous agent of destruction and piteous victim of parental abandonment” (Moers, 222). Clearly, Moers is discussing not only Victor’s relationship with the creature, but she is also is expressing how Mary most likely felt after losing so many children.   We can’t know precisely how Shelly felt, but the loss of her children would suggest she was heartbroken and that she expressed her feelings in her writing.

 “One can never be sure how far Shelley’s accounts of persecution were founded on fact” (Small, 207).  These words perfectly convey that Shelley’s life had an influence on her work. The monster and Victor represent and symbolize Mary’s personal life and parallel her own tragic experiences. Victor represents Shelley because he is the creator of the monster, like Shelly is the mother of several failed pregnancies and children whom all died. Also, Victor, like Shelly, is a character who is not intimately tied to his own family. These feelings are evident as Shelley depicts the monster’s feelings, especially when he is telling Victor his story.

The monster’s loneliness is the underlying current that determines his decisions; it’s his companion as he proceeds through the story. All he wants is somewhere to belong and to have a family of his own. One of the things Mary Shelley was lacking in her life was a strong, close knit family:

But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no      mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing…I had never yet seen a being resembling or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I (Shelley, 81)

 These words were spoken by the monster, but Shelly’s voice resonates here as if she were speaking them for herself. These words clearly depict what Shelly’s life was like for her and the suffering she had to endure.

Shelley also resembled Victor because of the loneliness and despair that he feels. Ultimately, it is his loneliness that compels him to create the monster. When Victor succeeds and finds that he has successfully created a monster, he falls into a state of fear and depression. After the loss of some of her children, Shelley began writing and also began the creation of her own ‘monster’, that being the story of Frankenstein.  The story was Shelly’s distraction from her loneliness.  The story of Frankenstein, I believe, was Shelley’s way of expressing her acute pain and loss.

In the story, Victor expresses his pain by seeking revenge on the monster, and he hopes to eventually kill it for killing the people he cared about the most. All Victor really wanted was to start a family, but this is the hope of the monster as well. If the reader pays close attention though, we can interpret that Shelley put aspects of herself in to both the monster and Victor. The reader cannot help but to have deep empathy for Shelly’s characters. The ability to sense Shelly’s emotional state and connect the author to the story makes it a powerful read; “…the more than mortal enthusiasm and grandeur of the Being’s speech over the dead body of his victim- is an exhibition of intellectual and imaginative power…” (Percy Shelley, 186).

 Frankenstein was meant to be a scary story, but subconsciously, I believe that it was meant to be a story about family and love, not horror. Throughout the story, it is obvious that Victor and his creation both long for a sense of family and they have a driving need to belong. Because Shelley’s life was disjointed and riddled with deep tragedy, one can make the argument that the author’s feelings and emotions influenced the outcome of her characters and the story of Frankenstein. Would Frankenstein even have been written if Mary Shelly’s past has been different? If it was written, would it have been as overwhelming and as significant as it is today?

Works Cited

 Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. "Mary Shelley's Monstrous Eve." Print. Rpt. In Frankenstein. Norton Critical ed. 225-240. Print.

Moers, Ellen. "Female Gothic: The Monster's Mother." Print. Rpt. in Frankenstein. Norton Critical ed. 214-224. Print.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Norton Critical ed. Print.

Shelley, Percy B. "On Frankenstein." Print. Rpt. in Frankenstein. Norton Critical ed. 185-186. Prin Small, Christopher. "[Percy] Shelly and Frankenstein." Print. Rpt. in Frankenstein. Norton Critical ed. 205-208. Print.

            

Female Gothic: The Monster's Mother

I chose to write about Ellen Moers article Female Gothic: The Monster’s Mother. The article was written in 1976, and it covers a vast amount of information. The article starts out by giving a brief history of gothic writing. The article also discussed different female authors that contributed to stories with gothic themes, and how most of the stories had young heroines and villains that typically were the father-like figure. After this, Moers began giving the history of Mary Shelley’s family, life, her writing. Near the end of the article, Moers begins to link how Frankenstein was written based off of Shelly’s life and emotions, especially her feelings of losing the children she carried and never actually being a mother.

When reading Frankenstein, I didn’t know that much about Mary Shelley, or what her life was like. This article though, not only gave me a better understanding of gothic writing, but it also helped me better understand Shelley. I can’t imagine how horrible it would feel to carry child after child and to lose each one. I can understand Moers thought that Shelley’s life could influence her writing of Frankenstein.  Her pain could have easily turned to anger, which would explain how the creature in her story starts out innocent and how it slowly learns to hate, to feel pain, and wish for revenge.

This website also has more background information on gothic writing that, I think, helps make it easier to understand what constitutes gothic writing.

 Image source: http://blurredhistory.blogspot.com/2009/10/location-location-location.html

Revising

When I write school papers I take my time and work hard to make sure that I do well on the assignment. I typically like writing papers, except when it is on a topic that really doesn’t appeal to me, but that doesn’t happen often. I like being able to express my views on a topic, and I like researching and finding out more information about a certain topic.

When I revise papers I usually print them out and underline sections that need work. I also, depending on the kind of paper, do more research to get a better grasp of the topic that I have written about. When I revise papers, I spend at least 1 to 2 hours trying to strengthen and make the papers even better. Because I spend so much time on papers and other non-fiction writing, I typically don’t revise them much. I do, though, reread them many times while also editing them and reworking them a little. The papers that I do spend a lot of time revising do tend to be my stronger papers and because of that I know that I should revise all the papers I write.  

I do, however, revise my fiction writing. When I am writing a story, I tend to just write, I don’t really pay attention to grammar or the structure of the story. Once I have all my thoughts out down on paper, I reread the story multiple times and I fix spelling and small grammatical errors. After that I usually reread it again and I begin to revise or rework the story. I can spend one to two hours reworking a page in a story and then go back to that page again a week later and do the same thing again.  

When I begin to revise my poetry analysis paper, I hope to make stronger connections to the poem to validate my points and arguments. There are also sections of my paper that need more elaboration and explanation. By adding the explanations it will convey how my analysis and argument relate to the poem. Once I finish revising my paper I hope to see that the paper is more concise and easier to understand.  

image source: http://www.squidoo.com/DIY-writing-curriculum

web link: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/revising.html

Frankenstein Passage

                “They were not entirely happy. The young man and his companion often went apart, and appeared to weep. I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but I was deeply affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be so wretched. Yet why were those gentle beings unhappy? They possessed a delightful house (for such it was in my eyes), and every luxury; they had a fire to warm them when chill, and delicious viands when hungry;  they were dressed in excellent clothes; and, still more, they enjoyed one another’s company and speech, interchanging each day looks of affection and kindness. What did their tears imply? Did they really express pain?” (Shelly 74)

                The above passage, I believe, is very important to the story. It not only shows Victor that his creation is intelligent, but it also shows that it is also observant. The passage indirectly provides vital information about the creature’s personality, thoughts, feelings, and life. The information that is presented in the passage about the creature is information that no one would know unless they were told directly. Having the information presented in an indirect manner lets individuals make their own interpretation of who the creature is.

                I feel that this passage begins to open Victor’s eyes and that he begins to see the creature for who or what it is other than it just being a dæmon. He begins to tell that it has feelings, that it isn’t just a cold hearted murderer. Victor knows that the creature is still dangerous and that he needs to be cautious, be he begins to see that the creature has aspects that make him human like.  Through phrases like, “I saw no cause for their unhappiness; but I was deeply affected by it.”(Shelly 74), show that the creature knows how it feels to be unhappy and that he empathizes with the family. Phrases like that are partly why Victor agrees to help the creature.

                Without this passage, and other similar passages, the creature’s side of the story would never be told and the readers wouldn’t be able to see or understand the complexity of its character. This passage begins to show the reader that the creature, like most people, is multifaceted. The reader knows that he is miserable and dangerous, but this passage shows that he cares. It shows that he has a heart. This passage shows the reader that the creature wants friends, and companions, and that he wants to belong somewhere. He watches that family and he wants what they have. He knows that they are sad, but he doesn’t understand why. He sees them and he thinks that they have everything. He sees a family that has no reason to be sad. This passage begins to show that his wish, his dream is to have something like what they have. He is lonely and he no longer wants to be. 

This passage shows that, yes he is a monster, that he is unlike humans, but it also depicts that he has hopes. It shows that he has compassion and understanding of the world around him, a world that he wants to be a part of.  

Image source: http://www.cultmovieforums.com/forum/showthread.php?15995-Frankenstein-(James-Whale-1931)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/222094/mary_shelleys_frankenstein_the_downward.html?cat=38

Essay Draft

Adriana Steele

Cline

English 102

September 2011

Christina Rosetti’s Goblin Market

            Goblin Market has many aspects that make it an intriguing poem. Through the use of different literary tools, the poem takes on a life of its own. Imagery and metaphor are two of the main literary tools used in the poems. These tools help to enhance the overall effect of the poem and how the poem can be interpreted differently by different readers. The poem also contains a story which follows two characters who are sisters over a long period of time. The amount of time passing within the poem is significant because it allows the reader to see if, or how, the sisters change. The imagery, the passage of time, and metaphoric tone all serve to emphasize that life is complicated and multi-faceted. Rosetti shows that with a family that offers unconditional love, or when we have an understanding and forgiving bond with a significant other, we can overcome significant trials and gross injustices.

            The imagery Rosetti uses in the poem creates a realistic and fanciful image of Laura and Lizzie’s (the two sisters) life. Through the use of strong imagery, the setting is clearly depicted and paints a vivid image of the goblin men who are outsiders who  have come to the community offering that which is forbidden within the community.

They stood stock still upon the moss,

Leering at each other,

Brother with queer brother;

Signaling each other,

Brother with sly brother.

One set his basket down,

One rear'd his plate;

One began to weave a crown

Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown

(Men sell not such in any town);

One heav'd the golden weight

Of dish and fruit to offer her:

"Come buy, come buy," was still their cry. (Rosetti 92-104)

The goblins are clearly outsiders and might also represent people today such as salesmen, politicians, religious leaders, the media, or any person or persons, who set out in a calculated fashion to exploit another individual or group of individuals. The goblin men offer a bogus kindness to Laura, but there hidden agenda is to entice her. The goblin men don’t sincerely care about Laura; they just want her to buy and taste of their fruit. Laura is conflicted because she wants more of what has been denied her by social norms. Her pain may come from the exploitation of her naiveté, but it also could be interpreted as a woman’s struggles within a patriarchal community. Lizzie, Laura’s sister, is aware of the goblin’s plan and warns her sister about their intentions. Laura is too enthralled by the goblin men and she does not heed her sister’s warning.

As the poem progresses, the sister’s bond becomes stronger. The reader sees how everything that the girls do is shared with an intimacy bathed in understanding. The passing of time in the poem isn’t meant to only show the sequences of event, but it also expresses life and how people grow, mature, and overcome misfortune through hope and love.

Those pleasant days long gone

Of not-returning time:

Would talk about the haunted glen,

The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men,

Their fruits like honey to the throat

But poison in the blood;

(Men sell not such in any town):

Would tell them how her sister stood

In deadly peril to do her good, (Rosetti 550-558)

           

            These lines depict Laura as an older woman speaking about her past and also show how Laura has changed. At one point, Laura had abandoned hope; she was ready to give up. Laura’s situation was similar to that of an addict going through withdrawal. Lizzie’s actions did save Laura’s life physically, which is evident in the poem, but the above lines also show that Lizzie’s actions also saved Laura in other ways.

            The moment in time when the goblin men reached Laura and she succumbed to their offer, was the moment when she would be forever changed. Here Laura was her weakest, or most willful, depending on how the poem is interpreted. Laura’s bond with her sister, Lizzie, ultimately heals her. It wasn’t what Lizzie came back with that saved Laura. It was that Lizzie risked her own life to save her sister.

                        The goblin men, their fruit, and Laura’s “illness”, can all be an analogy or a metaphor for life. There will always be people in life that are like the goblins in that they are different. These people may try to prey or take advantage of people who are weak or alone. They may push their planned agendas on others to implement positive change, or they may harm others to benefit themselves.  Laura could have become a victim, but she had someone who cared about her to lead her home.

 Whether the goblins are bad or different, whether the poem is about women trying to assert their individual rights in a world run by men, or whether the poem is just a wild fairy tale with vivid imagery, it is a poem about acceptance. Lizzie loves her sister unconditionally.  Rosetti offers us a poem that reminds us that if people have a support system rooted in love for others, we have a better chance of surviving the hardships that happen to most of us. Laura and Lizzie have a bond that makes it possible for them to be triumphant. Through love for another, we can strengthen our love of self.

Works Cited

"Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti : The Poetry Foundation." Poetry Foundation. Web. 16        Sept. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174262>.

Poem

The poem Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti is very intriguing. The poem has so many great literary tools that enhance the overall effect of the poem.  The imagery and description of the setting, the fruits, and the goblins make it seem like you are actually there within the poem hearing, smelling, and seeing everything firsthand.  The descriptions and the lists of all the different types and varieties of fruit add to the temptation that the goblin men offer. If the goblins only offered a few select varieties of fruit there would be little to no temptation and the goblins wouldn’t be able to lure their victims.

Also, the fact that the poem contains a story makes the poem even more intriguing. And because a large amount of time passes within the poem, the effect of what happens is intensified because the readers get to follow the goblins and the two sisters closely. The readers get to see in detail what the goblins can accomplish when they lure a victim. Being able to see how Laura suffers and almost dies because of the goblins temptations give the reader a sense of how cruel and evil the goblins are.

The description used to show how Laura’s sister watches her deteriorate before her is vivid and heartbreaking. Lizzie’s determination to help Laura is also major factor of the poem that makes the poem so well written. What Lizzie endures just for a chance to save her sister pulls at the reader making them empathize and see how much family can mean to a person. 

web link: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/marketov.html

Image source: http://joannagorham.blogspot.com/2010/11/goblin-market.html