Relationships with Oneself

Our readings for this week dealt with the relationship that a person has with themselves.  We read Walt Whitman’s [I celebrate myself, and sing myself], Emily Dickinson’s [My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun-], and Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Garden of Forking Paths.”  These readings all had a lot to do with how a person sees and feels about themselves.  In Whitman’s [I celebrate myself, and sing myself], the narrator of the poem is telling the reader how he or she feels about his or her impact on the world and how this can be related to everyone else on the planet.  In Dickinson’s [My Life had stood-a loaded gun-], the narrator compares the emotions that control his or her life to a loaded gun.  This metaphor helps the reader to better understand and relate to the emotions that the narrator is experiencing.  In Borges’s “The Garden of Forking Paths,” the narrator must decide between his own goals and those of his ancestors.  This requires the narrator to have an understanding of himself and what he is willing to sacrifice to reach his goal.  In the end, the narrator sacrifices himself as well as the memory of his ancestors in order to achieve his goal.  

Relationships with Places

Many authors have a strong connection with the place that they grew up in or the place where they lived most of their lives.  This is especially true of the authors and poems that we read for class this week.  Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Maya Angelou’s “Africa,” Derek Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa,” and Basho’s haikus are all about a place that is important to the author. 

In Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Wheatley is pleased that she was taken from Africa and brought to America.  She has formed a closer connection to the United States and its culture than that of Africa.  In “Africa,” Maya Angelou feels very differently from Phyllis Wheatley.  Angelou has written about terrible things that happened in Africa, the effect that they had on the people, and finally being able to recover from them.  Similarly, Derek Walcott’s “A Far Cry from Africa” deals with the author’s connection to Africa and some of the terrible things that have happened there. 

Unlike the other poems we read this week, Basho’s haikus are about a connection to Japan.  Readers can visualize the frog and the pond that he has written about from just a few words.  

The Role of Women in Trifles

In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, women are looked down on and treated poorly by men.  The men in this play frequently suggest that certain things are a woman’s job and blame her if these jobs are not done to their satisfaction.  The county attorney says “... It’s not cheerful.  I shouldn’t say [Mrs. Wright] had the home-making instinct” (1128) when he observes that the Wrights’ home is not a very cheerful place.  He does not think about the fact that this could have been Mr. Wright’s fault as well. 

The men in this play also think that women worry about unimportant things and that the work they do is not very useful or difficult.  They believe that women are unable to focus on what is important in their lives.  When Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are worried about Mrs. Wright’s preserves Mr. Hale says that “…women are used to worrying over trifles” (1128).  He does not take into account all of the time and hard work that Mrs. Wright put into making those preserves for them just to be destroyed.  The county attorney even begins to make fun of the women for thinking about Mrs. Wright’s sewing and what she was planning to do with it.  At the end of the play he says “…at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it…” (1135).  

Judging the Relationships of Others

Our topic for this week’s blog is judging the relationships of others.  This idea is very important in Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles.  The characters in this play come to many of their conclusions based mainly off of their perceptions of the relationships between other characters. 

The play opens on the county attorney, the sheriff, and Hale discussing the relationship between John and Minnie Wright.  Hale says that “I guess you know about how much he talked himself; but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John” (1126).  Hale had already formed his own opinion on what John and Minnie Wright’s relationship was like and what they thought of each other. 

Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale also make judgements about the relationship between John and Minnie Wright.  They quickly decide that the Wrights’ marriage was not a happy one.  These women have no way of knowing what exactly the Wrights’ relationship was like; however, they determine that John Wright treated Minnie Wright poorly and crushed the lively spirit that she had when she was a young woman.  

What I Learned This Week

The most interesting thing that I learned this week was the different types of literary criticism.  I had not previously known that there were so many different ways to look at and think critically about the same work of literature.  I thought it was very interesting to learn about all of these and how they can be applied to Frankenstein.  I also enjoyed reading the article about biographical criticism and hearing about what everyone else read.  I was very interested to learn that there were so many different viewpoints and how they could be used to expand upon what we have learned in class. 

I also enjoyed watching Young Frankenstein in class this week.  I thought it was very interesting to see how both Frankenstein and the creature are portrayed in film and pop culture and how these differ from their characteristics in the book.  I think it is interesting how the creature is portrayed as slow and unintelligent in movies when he is actually very fast and intelligent in the book.  Frankenstein also treated the creature very differently in this movie.  He did not run away when the creature was brought to life and instead stayed with him and tried to help him stand and walk.

Allusions in Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contains many allusions to other well-known stories.  These allusions help to enhance the story and to add to its overall effect on the reader through their connections to other works.  One allusion in this story is that of God’s creation of Adam and Eve in the Bible.  In Frankenstein, the creature wants to be treated in the same way that Adam was when he was first created by God.  Frankenstein, however, is disgusted by his creation and wants nothing to do with him.  The creature says “Oh Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel (121-122).”  After Adam’s creation, God was kind to him and made him happy and comfortable, but Frankenstein has no such wish for his creation. The creature pleads to Frankenstein that “…no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone.  I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator.  But where was mine?" (159-160).   The creature wishes for his creator to give him a female companion just as Adam did in the Bible.

 The story of Frankenstein also alludes to the Greek myth of Prometheus.  Frankenstein was interested by the secret of life while Prometheus was intrigued by fire.  Both were fascinated by something that they should never have known.  In the end, both Frankenstein and Prometheus were tormented.  The creature vowed revenge on Frankenstein and killed everyone that he loved while Prometheus had to endure eternal torment through an eagle eating his liver after it grew back each night.

Creating New Relationships

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, many new relationships are created.  The creature, however, usually only manages to create bad ones with the people around him.  When the creature meets the blind father of the DeLacy family, he is initially treated kindly.  Once he meets Felix, Safie, and Agatha, however, this new relationship is quickly ruined.  The creature says that Felix “…darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father… in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground, and struck me violently with a stick (94).”  All of the creature’s opportunities to create new relationships are ruined by his frightening appearance. 

                The creature’s relationship with Victor Frankenstein was also ruined by his appearance.  Victor described the creature as having “…yellow skin [that] scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath...” and luxuriously beautiful teeth and hair that “…only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips (35).”  When Victor saw the creature that he created he said that “…breathless horror and disgust filled my heart (36).”  Frankenstein was horrified at the creature he had created solely because of his appearance.  He was unable to see past this in order to truly understand the creature.  Due to this reaction, the relationship that was created between Victor Frankenstein and the creature also turned out to be a very bad one.