We began writing our first essay on Friday, spending most of the hour bringing ideas together into outlines, troubleshooting thesis statements, and collecting evidence. Our endeavors were focused on one of two questions:

• Why does Victor react to his creation the way that he does?
• Why is the novel’s subtitle “The Modern Prometheus”?

You should finish this essay this weekend and read through chapter 14 of the novel.

As you work on this essay this weekend, remember that this is not meant to be a final draft. In fact, we won’t be making a final draft of this essay at all; it is your first major step in answering our overall question: What makes Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Romantic?

As you begin writing, keep in mind three questions:

• In one sentence, what do I want my audience to understand/believe after reading this? That’s your thesis statement. It will change as you write your paper—don’t worry about that.
• What things do my audience need to know in order to understand/believe my thesis? These things are your topic sentences, and they usually come from your “Literary Connections” in your journal. If they are things you merely pulled from the text, like “Victor is afraid of his creation,” it is not a topic sentence, but a quotation or paraphrase. Couple it with one or more quotation or paraphrase (like “Burke argues that the root of the sublime is fear”) and bring them together: “Victor’s reaction to his monster’s awakening seems to illustrate Burke’s understanding of the sublime.” That is a topic sentence.
• What bits of information from the text do your audience need to support your topic sentences? These will be your quotations and paraphrasing (cite both).

An outline of the above would look like this:

Thesis: Frankenstein’s reaction to his creation can be better understood in the context of Edmund Burke’s beliefs about the sublime and the beautiful.

I. ((One of my answers to the second question above; note that in an actual outline there must be more than one major point.)) Victor’s reaction to his monster’s awakening seems to illustrate Burke’s understanding of the sublime.

A. Victor is afraid of his creation (Shelley 42).
B.  Burke argues that the root of the sublime is fear (13).

II. [Another argument in support of my thesis; likely something about the beautiful.]

This is a very simple outline, but follows the rules we discussed in class:

1. Cited material is located only at the lowest level. (The rightmost indentation.)
2. The points of higher levels are arguments (things that someone may disagree with), not synopses or restatements of plot points.
3. Every level has at least two points. (Every “I” has a “II,” every “A” has a “B.”

All of the above may be a lot to take in, but we will discuss your process and ideas on Monday. If you have a question in the meantime, post a comment below or send me an email.

We began our discussion of Frankenstein today with questions from you:

• Why does the story begin with letters?
• Why does the story seem to begin at the end?
• What’s up with Victor’s relationship with his sister?
• Where is Walton going?

These questions and your insights will be the lifeblood of our conversations, so keep them coming.

If you were absent, be sure to get copies of the notes from a peer, but here are a few highlights: ((Here is an ugly comparison between the two eras we’re focused on. Yours will be more detailed when we get done, but it might be helpful now.))

Shelley’s introduction of the story with letters from the mariner provides a bit of verisimilitude to the opening, while offering an excellently sublime backdrop to a story that would otherwise begin with a description of the titular character’s childhood. In addition, it gives the audience a glimpse into the author’s thesis—beware of unbridled scientific inquiry?—through the conversation between the sailor (here embodying the Enlightenment’s values of a self-assured explorer) and Victor (a man whose vanity and hubris brought him low). Shelley clearly wants her audience to understand which side she’s on.

Victor’s relationship with his sister/cousin prompted a discussion of gender politics at the time. We read selections from Edmund Burke’s 1757 A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, specifically his sections on the beauty of small objects and the sublime. To make the Frankenstein connection, we read excerpts of Mary Wollstonecraft’s rebuttal, A Vindication of the Rights of Men. ((Copies will be made available shortly.))

Finally, we began reading from the large “Frankensources” packet I gave you. ((If you’d like a digital copy, send me an email. Copyright restrictions preclude my posting it here.))

You should read and journal tonight through chapter five of the novel. If you’ve journaled all you can, begin reading and annotating the packet. Once you’ve read through a work within, go back to your Frankenstein journal and note any connections; these will soon be the basis of our discussions—they will later be the basis of your paper.

Oh! Interesting explanation of the etymology of “inspiration” here.