I chose to write about Barbara Johnson's criticism of Frankenstein. Barbara Johnson was a American literary critic and translator. During her writing,"My Mother/Myself," she compares three different books, including Frankenstein, to motherhood and also tries to prove them as feminine autobiography's. Barbara Johnson compares the relationships between Victor Frankenstein and the monster to that of a mother and her child. She continues to say that Victors creation is that of an unwanted or abandoned baby of a mother. Knowing that Mary Shelley's mother died while giving birth to her and then Mary herself baring four children and only seeing one live past infancy is a strong point to her novel,
Frankenstein, somewhat resembling events of Mary's life. Johnson concluded her writing by stating, that even though Mary's novel had only strong male role's, the underlying message that men cannot create life without terrible consequences proves that her criticism that this novel could be compared to a feminine autobiography.
After reading Frankenstein and then Barbara Johnson's literary criticism it allowed me to see the underlying theme in this story. I didn't personally make the connection between the events of the novel and the events of Mary Shelley's life personally. During the 1800's it was uncommon for a women to be such a successful writer especially in this type of novel so she had to be discrete about her feminine points as well. I feel that this would be a good topic to write about since there are so many different topics to discuss that all revolve around the novel, it is for sure to be quiet interesting.
Image from:
http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2009/09/barbara-johnson-remembered.html
I agree with you about not making these connections. At first glance, this book is about a monster, then at second maybe about life, then reading this response you can see the connections with motherhood. I think it's a pretty cool way to look at it. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI also did not make the connection about the story being about mother and child. I did my summary on Ellen Moers "Female Gothic: The monster mother" and it was similar to your article but mine was seeing the idea of creating life as something terrifying and tragic. But after reading it i can see her point. It was an interesting point to make that men cannot create life without consequences. Which probably lead to Frankenstein abandonment of the monster after seeing the ugliness of his creation.
ReplyDeleteI can see where the author is coming from, the "monster" did not want anything else but to feel the love from his creator. I think it is interesting that she relates Mary's unfortunate past to her writing Frankenstein. It must have had some kind of connection because the story does have such a strong sense of abandonment.
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