As we cannot cover everything we want to in class, please post one of your dialectical journal quotes and comments. Comment intellectually on two of your peers' posts. Please have your post up on Sunday night by midnight., and have your two responses in by Tuesday night 9 pm. You may always do more than one journal entry if you like!
12 Comments
Kenya Jones
2/20/2017 07:27:46 am
“Nature decayed around me, and the sun became heartless; rain and snow poured around me; mighty rivers were frozen; the surface of the earth was hard, and chill, and bare, and I found no shelter. Oh earth! how often did I imprecate curses on the cause of my being! The mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to gall and bitterness.”
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Jordan Zeigler
2/20/2017 04:28:09 pm
Not only does the cold, bitter weather reflect the monster's change of character, but it could indicate the attitude of society as well. The civilians who beat and reject him could very well be called "heartless" and "frozen" in the same regard, and the monster "found no shelter" from the harsh society either. It seems that nature reflects nearly everything in Frankenstein, including what Shelley says about society overall.
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Kenya Jones
2/22/2017 12:39:49 am
I think that is a very good point to pick up on!! I agree, because nature has the ability to control both Frakenstein and the monster, so it could definitely be a characteristic of society as well!
Jenny Smith
2/20/2017 07:07:05 pm
I make many good points through-out my dialectical journals about nature as well. I agree that the weather controls the emotional connections of the monster, and also Victor. We can see this again on page 81, when the creature states, "My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature..."
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Holmes
2/23/2017 06:14:48 pm
Ah yes, but it is only when the "monster" has been "spurned and deserted" does he recognize the full extent of his being unnatural. Shelley was magnificent in her pairing of nature with senses and sensations of man. The writing is exquisite in that she manages to capture the soul of her characters and her readers.(Also, if you go back to page 94, he speaks of the joys birds and flowers and summer and how they deserted him. Interesting, no?)
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Jordan Zeigler
2/20/2017 04:24:43 pm
“But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit what I shall soon cease to be- a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself.”
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Jenny Smith
2/20/2017 07:15:26 pm
As Victor is "struck by lightening" just like the tree was, this also represents the destructive nature of the over exceeding want for knowledge and an over abundance of passion. If Victor had stepped back from his pursuit, and realized the actual consequences it could have, he might have stopped his work all together; but he became a slave to his passion.
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Kenya Jones
2/22/2017 12:45:32 am
When I think of this destructiveness of nature, I am brought back to Walton and how he promised to his sister that he would kill no albatross. I know that in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" there was a certain respect for the natural world. I cannot help but think a destruction of nature can only mean self doom. As we see and like you have said, nothing can conquer nature. So when man attempts to challenge it, we see the effects of these actions in the life of Frankenstein.
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Holmes
2/23/2017 06:22:21 pm
Indeed. The blasted tree. The blasted truth. The dream, the hopes, the lives, all lost. When you play with fire you are bound to get burned. Cliche perhaps, but I couldn't resist. Shelley very eloquently, sometimes subtly and sometimes outright, warns us of the power of nature and the dangers of trying to harness something far beyond our capacity. Nature is a force to respect and one to reckon with when we overstep our bounds.
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Jenny Smith
2/20/2017 07:00:03 pm
¨I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs….but sorrow only increased with knowledge."
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Kenya Jones
2/22/2017 12:52:03 am
I agree with you that the theme of this quote is that ignorance is bliss. When I read that his sorrow only increased with knowledge, it reminds me of something I've heard that pertains to this: "I would rather be a wise man full of a sorrow than a fool filled with ignorance." In this case, it is the "monster" who would be considered wise and more "humane" which of course we know could be possible because of the question,"Who is the true monster in society?" Obvi
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Holmes
2/23/2017 06:29:05 pm
It is as we discussed in class; we seek knowledge and desire learning, but there are times and things we wish we could unlearn or unsee. Childhood, a good childhood is filled with innocence and joy. When we have these memories to reflect upon, when days were so much easier without the weight of the world upon our shoulders, it is understandable to see why some would rather remain ignorant as we long for those happy days of yore. I wish we just didn't have so much ugliness in the world.
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