Frankenstein

Parallelling "Frankenstein" with other novels and curriculum

The inherent nature of both "good" and "evil" existing within all creatures could be explored to create more interest in reading this novel. Hannibal in Scilence of the Lambs is a perfect example. Edward Scissorhands

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Last updated by logique _tombee ( #54205
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Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" largely as a response to Milton's "Paradise Lost"--the Monster actually reads PL as part of his quest to understand humanity/morality/etc.

Along those lines of expanding curriculum, I'd like to see some focus on Frankenstein's Monster as "The Modern Prometheus;" the novel is certainly about Victor, but even more, I think, about humanity and the processes thereof. The Monster is, at once, all the earliest ancestors of the human race, he is Adam, he is every child born--he struggles with his surroundings, his purpose, with unanswerable questions....the Monster is a single anecdote, representative of the whole of human thought and process.

Do the readers/students agree with this portrait of humanity? What would they add or subtract to the story to better portray their own interpretations of humanity? Can they recognise, in themselves, any of the same traits, any of the same questions posed by/in the Monster?