Feb. 27- Frankenstein cont.

The monster asks for a female companion and Victor does create this female monster yet he retaliates and destroys her because he doesn't want them to procreate. So the monster tells Victor that he will be him on his wedding night. Victor takes this to mean that the monster will kill him that night. Yet the monster has has many opportunities to kill Victor and hasn't done so. He wants to watch him suffer, watch his loved ones die causes Victor more pain than anything the monster could do when attempting to killing him.

Could Victor and the monster be the same person?? Are Victor and the monster one and the same person?? If they are one and the same, they why does Victor want to kill his loved ones??
-- Victor is the only person who actually sees the monster, hallucinations? Victor creates the monster because he is attempting to find a way to save his loved ones from death. He didn't want to live without them, so I think that in a way he could have possibly killed his family in order to save them from pain of death. In the beginning of the novel, Victor is the dominant character yet their positions switch towards the end. The monster becomes the 'master' and Victor becomes the 'slave' in their relationship. It is a "Master/Slave" relationship between Victor and the monster. Is this "wretchedness" that Victor achieves driving his actions??

Feb. 25- Frankenstein cont.

Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein in the summer of 1816 and it was first published in 1818 and then re-published in 1831. Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein when she was 19 years old. Mary Shelly equates her novel to the monster that Victor creates in her introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel.

If we just raise our children properly society would be okay... Does Victor follow this philosophy?
--To be a parent, Victor would have to have stuck around to raise it yet he abandoned his creation. When the monster tried to reach out to Victor he rejects it by running away. Tabula Rasa... when we all start as a blank slate each experience effects a person differently while in the monsters case his experiences were filtered through new eyes without the guidance of a parents. My parents divorced when I was one. I haven't spoken to my father since I was 8 and he found me online and started to talk to me again. He tried to get information out of me about my mother and how she was doing in life (she got remarried when I was 7). He also tried to tell me things about my mother's life that I knew weren't true. He was trying to get me mad at her and accept him as my father. He had no role in my upbringing so he is not my father. I see my relationship with my biological father as one that mirrors the relationship between Victor and his monster. Victor chose to create the monster yet chose not to take responsibility like a parent or creator should.

"Oh! My creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request!"
-- I think that a parent should provide the framework for happiness yet doesn't always happen that way. My mother works with the learning challenged in elementary school and there is this girl who is the third youngest of 10 and her parents are still having more. I think that a parent who chooses to have children has the responsibility to care for them and nurture their happiness. When the monster asks for his happiness from Victor, he is a child asking for his framework to be set.

Feb. 23- Frankenstein

To love something to deeply that you would rather die than live with out it, is absolutely terrifying to me, yet I would still choose to love that person unconditionally.

Victor defies nature by making the monster. To give something life that originally never had life is against the laws of nature. When the monster comes alive, Victor realizes his mistake- he shouldn't have given such a thing life. The monster looks like death- but alive. His reasons for building the monster were to potentially bring back his mother or prevent Elizabeth from hurting him in the future or just afraid of a world without her.

"I became as cheerful as before I was attacked by that fatal passion" (41)... Its fate intervening, he doesn't choose to take responsibility for his actions in creating the monster. I think that he should have taken responsibility for what he did, he chose to create and tried to defy death.

Feb. 20- Frankenstein

Walton wants to be a poet yet he only gives himself one year to do so, so he becomes a discoverer. Victor is a scientist and both he and Walton are artists and with these characters Shelly is critiquing the Romantic Artist. 1831 addition adds in a greater sense of his obsession with natures' secrets. Fate driving Victor or "I was fate"- With that quote it implies that Victor lets himself off the hook for his actions. Does he really let himself off the hook? Does he believe that what he did was wrong, or is he trying to justify he actions to the reader?

Victor's childhood was full of love, people, education, and friends, "No creature could have tender parents than mine" (19). Victor transfers his desires to create something great via Mr. Waldman. Is Victor's desire for fame cause his creation to become a monster? I think that his desire to become famous causes him to try to finish his 'project' as fast as possible, not allowing for mistakes and the need to fix them. Even though he doubts creating the 'being' he still did so he could become famous. It supports his self-confidence that he believes he could do something so remarkable as create a human-like creature. His imagination is clouding his vision of reality. He be comes obsessive and compulsive about his creation and his reach for fame. He believes he is the creations 'father,' so that he can control the relationship between him and the creature.

Victor believes that in creating life, he is killing himself. Everything that Victor is doing is for his EGO. Yet when creating art you need to be creating through the ego which the writer needs to be androgynous. Victor creates the monster so large because he wants to finish sooner. He thinks of only himself and the fame he will achieve.

Feb. 18- Wuthering Heights (end)

Wuthering Heights:
Master Linton marries Catherine because Heathcliff forces him too; Does he have a choice in the matter? Heathcliff keeps Catherine and Nelly trapped in the house, never letting them leave. How could someone treat the people he cares about trapped in a place that even he can't enjoy. Hearton, a force a nature who was raised by Heathcliff who enforces all the bad habits of the child.

Wuthering Heights, is it great art? I believe it is, to create something out of the imagination and let the characters 'take' over the story. The writer/creator has control over what they write to certain aspect, but there is a point where the writer becomes so immersed in the writing/creation that it just takes over.








Frankenstein:
Walton, an explorer who is looking for a path to the North Pole that will make him extremely rich.

What happens to Walton and the crew and how does Victor intervene?
---The ship becomes stuck in the ice and they see the monster (Victor) and invite him on board. Victor decides to tell him his story. He shares his story because he wanted to teach Walton and the crew a lesson.Victor wanted greatness, like Walton, he is telling his story to change Walton's mind about being famous.

Published in two editions: (finished writing in 1816) 1819 and 1831- different authors? There are significant changes in the editions. Percy Bysshe Shelly- a great poet- husband of Mary Shelly; "some" believe that he wrote Frankenstein. Great poet- sucks at novel writing.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, Catherine Ernshaw and Heathcliff's love is monumental in such a way that nothing seems to come between them. Even when Catherine marries another and Heathcliff moves away- their love brings them back to each other- though not in a way that the reader would expect. The death of the two main characters brings them together, finally, as lovers and as soul mates. Yet upon reading and watching the movie version of this novel, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that death is what brings the lovers together.

Catherine states that she and Heathcliff are one and the same, "whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar's] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire," yet if that was true why she would have married another is a question that I think the movie does a better job of answering than the novel. While Heathcliff left and abandoned her after overhearing part of her conversation, Catherine was the one that decided to move on. She promised to never love another when Edgar asked her to marry, yet in the movie you can see in her facial expressions that she is still in love with Heathcliff.

Another scene that depicts her passionate love for Heathcliff, is “Oh, Edgar, Edgar!” she panted, flinging her arms round his neck. “Oh, Edgar darling! Heathcliff's come back—he is!”...But the lady's glowed with another feeling when her friend appeared at the door: she sprang forward, took both his hands And she tightened her embrace to a squeeze," I found that, while the novel did an excellent job of describing the interactions between characters, the actors in the movie portrayed such emotion through their facial expressions and body language that as a reader you came to understand how much pain Catherine was in now that Heathcliff had returned. She was married to Edgar yet was in love with Heathcliff, and now that he had returned her marriage was in jeopardy. Catherine has to decide wether or not to stay with her husband or to leave him for her "true love."

Both the novel and the movie portray Heathcliff and Catherine’s romance in their own way yet the movie allows for a better interpretation of their emotions.

Feb. 16-- Wuthering Heights

Academia... When one is in academia, it seems that they are only talking to others who are in the same field or generally understands the content of one another. They don't seem to want to "dumb it down" for those who don't understand, should they write it in plain English for those who don't have that vocabulary or should it stay within academia and it's language?

Feb. 9- Wuthering Heights cont.

When Edgar said "I am not your husband" I think that he means he never really felt that he was her husband. Edgar knew she was in love with Heathcliff and never with him. Edgar had been with both Heathcliff and Catherine since they were younger and had seen how much they were in love. He knew that he could marry Catherine but her heart would always belong to Heathcliff.

Is Catherine and Heathcliff's love the greatest love story?
--I don't think that Catherine and Heathcliff have the greatest love story. The only way they could be together was in death and that is not exactly a "happy" ending. He tortures her family to get revenge on those who have hurt him and in the process, hurts her- how is that love? I believe that while Catherine believes that she and Heathcliff are soul mates, she doesn't understand the concept. They grew up together are the best of friends- he was he only one who would tell her the truth no matter what and so she believes that he is her soul mate. I don't think that equates soul mate material. A soul mate is someone who loves you despite your faults and gets along with your family- both Heathcliff are not.

Feb 6.- Wuthering Heights -- Heathcliff

I think that everybody has that "person" that brings out someone's true self. We all act a certain way in public than when we are alone. We need to be able to be ourselves at some point in our lives, whether it be with a best friend or a partner or a lover. I think that to have someone who is EXACTLY like you then what is there to discover in the relationship? Why does it always seem that the long lost love returns in the picture when everything is content in the other persons' life- it happens so often in romance novels that the plot has become almost an everyday occurrence.

Heathcliff... A horrible man??

The first time we meet Heathcliff he is a cruel man, he treats others with disrespect and annoyance. Yet as we look into his past we get a chance to see that maybe he is not such a horrible man underneath his rough exterior. He was orphaned as a child and the family that he lived with treated him like a servant. He never had any real family until Catherine, and even then she rejected him for a life of luxury and money. I think Heathcliff is only reacting to his upbringing, he wasn't treated well as a child so he knows no other way.

Feb 4. - Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte and sister Charlotte Bronte- author of Jane Eyre grew up to be very talented writers. Wuthering Heights is Emily's only novel, first published in 1847. Emily was described as a "female Shakespeare," yet the novel got mixed reviews because of its stark depictions of mental and physical cruelty. Loving someone who doesn't love you back, means you can't get hurt. Yet you can, when you love someone who doesn't love you will eventually get hurt because in the end the need for the love is what we are searching for.

Heathcliff seemed to be very harsh, he doesn't treat people with respect or kindness. He acts upon his on accord- his own agenda. He doesn't care who he hurts or what problems he causes. Why do men act so tough, like nothing can touch them emotionally or physically? They seem to think that the tougher they are the more appealing they will be. Power and money- Attractive? Maybe but I would rather have someone who lives a simple life and is my age then date someone who is older than my father....ICK.

Feb 2-Rape in Cyberspace

Mr. Bungle did commit rape, while it was not physical rape, it was rape. He emotionally scarred the other people that he was talking to. While it was not in a real place, you do get invested in what you do online. When a pedophile looks at pictures online the police consider it illegal. People pretend to be others online all the time, we never really know who someone is when they are online. After all the things that I have heard about chat rooms, I have never gone to a chat room. Where is the line drawn between reality and fantasy? I don't think that people realize how much their writing can and will affect people.


When I was 7-8, I would watch the X-Files with my Mom and Dad (I would be reading or sleeping- I just wanted to spend time with them), but one episode that I was awake for was the "Fiji Mermaid." There was a man who had a growth on his side that had a 'thing' inside. It would come out of the host and kill people to survive. It freaked me out sooooo much that I still can't sleep without some sort of light on and I can't seep with my back to the wall. I have to be able to see my entire room at all times.