PoSt On GrApHiC NoV's

I think both novels potentially grasped the concept of eeriness the monsters were really cool especially in Frankenstein's womb. I would have to say that that novel was my over all favorite the contrast in light and awkward random angels of the images drew me to the other comic. Both comics still stayed true to Shelly's idea of the monster and use this background to establish similar yet different interpretation of Victor Frankenstein's monsters.

Death in the end

Throughout the semester many of the literary works that were discussed meticulously in class contained some sort of underlying relationship with death, either in a figurative or literal sense. This theme can be examined from the begging of the course till the end through every romantic writer. Implication of death in a figurative way can be traced all the way back to the Rime of the ancient mariner, when an underlying force seems to haunt the mariner leading him to slowly lose his true self and losing his soul to this force that haunts him. When the mariner decided to kill the albatross his fate suddenly changed, the killing of this bird is the last time the mariner had control of his own life “The turning point of the poem and its change of fortune happen when the sailor shoots the Albatross, which is unequivocally called by the sailor "Christian"(pg. 2 Saeed &Sharif)” : At length did cross an Albatross; Through the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name (Pg. 414 Black)”. This bird was not just an ordinary bird but a good luck bird like I stated in the post The curse that opened the eyes of the mariner “The reader is able to sympathize with the mariner once he realized that killing the Albatross was a mistake because the bird helped the by bringing good luck to their voyage and instead of him appreciating what the bird brought to them he killed, bringing forth a curse to him, his crew and his ship”. Although he didn’t die on board, he had to witness his fellow ships mates go one by one and die due to natural circumstances (scarce of food and water etc.) while he for some reason stayed alive. This leads to the idea of a chain reaction of death that travels through the poem, by killing the albatross he killed his fate and the fate of his crew members ultimately eliminating his own soul from them equation causing him to go on “living” or dying slowly with the weight of death on his shoulder that he can never be out run. This idea can be mirrored in Thomas Jones Bard were the man is attempting to fleeing from the light that is bound to catch up with him once he reaches a dead end.  

 

Just like in Rime of the ancient mariner, Castle of Otranto also has an influence of fate along with the influence of supernatural entities that are all developed around the central theme, death. Because the setting of the story starts out in a castle, the reader can instantly identify with a gothic setting that can therefore produce ideas of supernatural occurrences that are there to come.  The story immediately develops along once one of the main characters suddenly dies by mysterious forces just like mentioned in the blog post Rightful inheritance and the supernatural  “Conrad's death, resulting from the fallen helmet that resembles Alfonso's helmet, is an unnatural way to die. It puts emphasis on the supernatural aspect of the helmet killing Conrad, son of Manfred (Elocin3)”. When the only heir to the thrown dies everything starts to unravel ultimately leading for the truth to be discovered at the end of the story. Manfred was haunted by the ghost of Alfonso, because he knew he had done wrong when he claimed the thrown of Alfonso under false pretenses. As discussed in blog Prophesies and destruction “After the death of his only son, Manfred goes to extreme lengths to try and secure his lineage. He still has Matilda, but due to the perceived necessity of a male heir, he ends up killing his daughter and only other heir. This fulfills the prophecy he tried so incredibly hard to disprove. He made it true by trying too hard to disprove it and ended up losing his family over it (kmj9127)”. The ultimate fate for Alonso’s rein to continue led to the supernatural occurrences in the castle, a haunting that surrounded Manfred in his consciences and in his surroundings. This is very similar to the haunting of the mariners soul, peace could not be reached on either end of these characters because death continued to devour their existence.

The Thorn by Wordsworth is also linked to this theme of death and haunting of the dead when Martha Ray is haunted with the death of her child. Upon fleeing the from town and escaping to the mountains she attempted to hide away from her wrong doing but it ended up catching up to her when she is left all alone to be haunted with the death of her child. In the blog the symbol of the thorn the symbolism behind the title of the poem and the overall theme is “The thorn, overgrown, is the child she may have killed. Just as the story of betrayal is an old tale, so is the thorn itself. This is not the thorn of a rose, balanced with the sweet smell of the flower.  This is the thorn of bitter anguish, without redeeming grace (Urizen)”. This again is revealed in blog the thorn, which reclaims the idea of this haunting “she is plagued by heartbreak and the death of her child, which have led to the destruction of her life. Those events "all have joined in one endeavor/to bury this poor Thorn forever" and as a result, she spends her time upon the hill, crying and lamenting her losses. Her life, once a promising one filled with love, is now one of tragedy and warning to the reader (khaleesi)”.

Many have fear of death but it takes courage to overcome this fear, to some extent John Keats had this same fear too. This same idea is treated in blog Fears and regrets “In John Keats' poem "When I have fears...” he discusses two things that make him stick out in our hearts, and connect on a different level with him; he discusses fear and regret. We all have some fear or fears, and he isn't too afraid to admit that he is afraid: he is afraid of death, of dying at such a young age, and he is afraid of missing opportunities (Alaric Masons)”. I think everybody at some point in life, even literary characters (as mirrors of writers) have all had this fear. It isn’t until something drastic happens that a person’s perspective about death changes, for Keats it was tuberculosis. I also think that in order for something go to come bad things have to come first, just like I discussed this in my blog post Evil before good  “In Keats Epistle to John H. Reynolds he attempts to cheer up his friend by mocking the views of society in how they treat people according to social classes. He refers to great philosophers, poets, and artists as “Making the best of ways towards Soho”(Epistle to John :line 12),meaning that even the greatest of people go through social alienation and are miserable at first in order to achieve great admiration. “Things cannot to the will be settled, but they tease us out of thought; Or is it that imagination brought beyond its proper bound, yet still confin’d lost in a sort of purgatory blind” (E to J 76-80) & “In happiness, to see beyond our bourn it forces us in summer skies to mourn” (E to J 83-84) both of this confirm Keats view of how first you must go through unhappiness in order to be happy. This can be compared to Elizabeth Hamilton’s, Translation of the letters of a Hindoo Rajah and her outside view into the Hindu religion. According to the Hindu religion people are born into their social classes and can never be reversed or altered but none of them hate or envy one another. They are conformed and content to their class because” They believe that the human soul must be purified by suffering, and that it is not till after having undergone this expiatory discipline through a series of different bodies, that it becomes worthy of admission to eternal happiness (Letters of Hinddo Rajah)”. This idea of rebirth is also prolific in Keats poem to autumn, where he finally comes to realize that death might not actually be an ending but a possible beginning to a new life. Death and rebirth in romantic odes website states that “Keats in his poem To Autumn blends living and dying, the pleasant and the unpleasant, because they are inextricably one; he accepts the reality of the mixed nature of the world (Soumya)”. In my blog post Seasonal transitions I discussed the relationship between Keats, his poem to autumn and the circumstances in which he was under “Keats interpretation contains more of a dying love most likely a forbidden love that is flourishing “close bosom-friend of the maturing sun” but has to end due to natural circumstances-, hence the autumn “death” and hook or scythe reference. He could also be referring to his physical condition, the fact that he had developed tuberculosis that very year of 1820 and would be dying very soon “summer has o’er-brimmm’d their clammy cells” this sudden realization that once he was very healthy and lively but as the summer ends and the fall approaches he too is falling apart and dying along with nature”. “Describing a “dreadful earnest” in Keats desire for death that would release him from his “torture” of his tuberculosis ravaged life (pg. 321Corcoran)”.To autumn underlines how Keats comes to accept death as a natural cycle in life that can help him; he even comes to wish death upon himself so that through this seasonal transition he can be rebirthed too.

In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein death is a little more subtle to be introduced but the supernatural and eerie aspect is already set in motion once Victor decides to compose life out of dead people. In blog post Frankenstein’s Monster the writer brings up that to some extent Victor Frankenstein is playing a role of God by creating this monster” Frankenstein's creation cannot physically be more than a patchwork of what has been given by nature; however, the mere synthesizing of life by the means of exciting an assemblage of corpse-parts creates a sort of divine, sublime or impossibly unnatural context. Frankenstein being attributed with qualities such as "God" can be rather suiting insofar that "God" is our way of conceiving Nature in the most impossible and unnatural of ways(as ourselves)(Guernica)”. The monster to some extent is a mirror of Victor but Victor can also be an image for Shelly “The assumption that pregnant women can and do breed monsters (pg. 3 Boyle)”. As brought up in website Article myriad: “from the novel’s opening, the importance of the reader getting a sense of physical place is established by situating the text within a particular environment, the qualities of which will both mirror and contradict the inner states of the main characters (Smith)”. Victor Frankenstein can also be considered a monster because he attempted to create something that was already dead and is still dead because it has not true soul. This statement can be attributed to my post Monstrosity as a whole “When it comes to considering humanity as a whole in comparison to one human, the step is really wide in to the realm of monstrosity. For one thing, when one person analyzes the world, he/she would typically say that humanity is good but the world is cruel but when it comes to questioning the good or evil of humanity as a whole, people most commonly same that the world is good but humanity is cruel. And when we examine the nature of Frankenstein’s monster, we could say he too is good but the world is evil to him when it comes to analyzing the events for which he is a witness too. This in a grander scale of comparing Frankenstein and the monster as a whole of humanity would leave to the conclusion of the world being good but humanity being evil because Frankenstein was miserable and alone he wanted to bring life into something for him to have a friend but this selfishness that came by wanting to create a human being on his own led him to greater sorrow and instead of creating life he brought greater suffering to himself and his monster because of humanities cruel selfishness”. Victors own selfishness and desire to have companionship led to destroy even more his own creation by taking away the same thing that which Frankenstein’s monster was created for, companionship. This “god” like figure of creation then destruction (death) can be mirrored in Goya’s painting of Saturn devouring his son.

  

The last man by Shelly is a great way to end the semester by treating the relation between science and humanity. This poem symbolizes all of what could happen if science or nature is destroyed by the hand of man. The colossus by Goya is a good example of how humanity can seem so small when a giant natural catastrophe takes place or even man through science plays god, humanity can be at risk and even be squashed (death) at the feet of the beast (science). 

The last presentation of the last man brought up a lot of great examples of how the human race could seize to exist as a byproduct of our own creation that can lead to our ultimate death. Since the 1920s we have begun to damage our earth with industrialization, smug and human waste and if we do nothing to succumb to these deathly actions, we could end up in outer space like in Walle. We could even end up like the portrait of Casper David Fredrick’s: wonder above the sea of fog, alone in the world without a way out of our own disaster eventually killing ourselves off.

  

Work Cited:

Corcoran, Brendan. "Keats's Death: Towards a Posthumous Poetics." Studies in Romanticism 48.2 (2009): 321,348,368. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2013.

Boyle, Elizabeth. "Bound and Unbound: Language and Death in "Frankenstein"." University of Wyoming, 1992. United States -- Wyoming: ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2013.

Black, Joseph. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Pr, 2010. Print. The Age Romanticism.

Saeed, Dr. Ismael M., and Dr. Azad H. Sharif. "The Bird Symbol in English Romantic and Post-Romantic Poetry." Ircoedu.uobaghdad. Salahaddin University, n.d. Web. 08 May 2013.

http://www.ircoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq/uploads/42/The%20Bird%20Symbol-Amended-%20Final.pdf

http://www.john-keats.com/phpboard/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=395

http://www.articlemyriad.com/elements-romanticism-frankenstei

Comparing the two graphic novels to the original text

Where to start?  I loved both graphic novels for different reasons.  In terms of something good they both did, I loved that each one still took the subject matter seriously.  Not that there isn't a time and place for fun, goofy, spin-offs, but I think I prefer a graphic novel to take itself seriously.  This is partially because I think a heightened sense of melodrama is part of what makes graphic novels so great; if they are effective, you the reader can buy into it and transport yourself for a while.

Personally, I enjoyed the art style of Frankenstein's Womb more.  I loved that the monster was simultaneously hideous and awe inspiring.  Beautiful by no means, but well adapted to the graphic novel form (apparently Frankenstein had him on a low-carb diet in order to get him that six pack).  I also think the choice to use black and white worked very well; it helped the transition from old text to graphic novel run much more smoothly.

monstrosity as a whole

When it comes to considering humanity as a whole in comparison to one human, the step is really wide in to the realm of monstrosity. For one thing, when one person analyzes the world, he/she would typically say that humanity is good but the world is cruel but when it comes to questioning the good or evil of humanity as a whole, people most commonly same that the world is good but humanity is cruel. And when we examine the nature of Frankenstein’s monster, we could say he too is good but the world is evil to him when it comes to analyzing the events for which he is a witness too. This in a grander scale of comparing Frankenstein and the monster as a whole of humanity would leave to the conclusion of the world being good but humanity being evil because Frankenstein was miserable and alone he wanted to bring life into something for him to have a friend but this selfishness that came by wanting to create a human being on his own led him to greater sorrow and instead of creating life he brought greater suffering to himself and his monster because of humanities cruel selfishness.   

the great mysteries of mary

I think that the fact that Mary left out basic information in the begining but slowly unravels it as the story evolves is magnifiacent. It creates a mysterious feeling and keeps the reader intact and curious as to what is to happen next or wonder how things happened in the first place.

Seasonal transitions

Although both Keats’s “autumn” and Shelly’s “Ode to the West Wind” contain both seasonal changes they have different interpretations of autumn. Keats interpretation contains more of a dying love most likely a forbidden love that is flourishing “ close bosom-friend of the maturing sun” but has to end due to natural circumstances-, hence the autumn “death” and hook or scythe reference. He could also be referring to his physical condition, the fact that he had developed tuberculosis that very year of 1820 and would be dying very soon “summer has o’er-brimmm’d their clammy cells” this sudden realization that once he was very healthy and lively but as the summer ends and the fall approaches he too is falling apart and dying along with nature. For Shelly I think the most probable reason for which he wrote Ode to the West wind was because of his dear friend Keats’s illness “ whose unseen presences the dead leaves are driven”.                

Difference in Lamia

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Keats Lamia is described as something beautiful that has turned into something dark, sinister and miserable, but still holds a bit of the former beauty. Like line 55 and 56 where is says she seemed “some penanced lady elf, some demon’s mistress”. This is different from Geraldine because Geraldine has two looks. She can look like a damsel or the serpent. There is no in between. She had shrunken serpent’s eyes when not the damsel, that were dull and full of malice and dread. Keats description of Lamia makes me feel sad about the tragic beauty the being has that makes them so good at tricking their targets. While Coleridge’s description of the serpent woman make me feel distrustful of her and wary. Something about her seems off and the hissing does not help. What stands out about the descriptions is the different feel you get from reading them. They impress upon me different warnings, Keats dangerous beauty while Coleridge trickery and  not always believing what you see and hear.

Evil before good

In Keats Epistle to John H. Reynolds he attempts to cheer up his friend by mocking the views of society in how they treat people according to social classes. He refers to great philosophers, poets, and artists as “Making the best of ways towards Soho”(Epistle to John :line 12),meaning that even the greatest of people go through social alienation and are miserable at first in order to achieve great admiration. “Things cannot to the will be settled, but they tease us out of thought; Or is it that imagination brought beyond its proper bound, yet still confin’d lost in a sort of purgatory blind” (E to J 76-80) & “In happiness, to see beyond our bourn it forces us in summer skies to mourn” (E to J 83-84) both of this confirm Keats view of how first you must go through unhappiness in order to be happy. This can be compared to Elizabeth Hamilton’s, Translation of the letters of a Hindoo Rajah and her outside view into the Hindu religion. According to the Hindu religion people are born into their social classes and can never be reversed or altered but none of them hate or envy one another. They are conformed and content to their class because” They believe that the human soul must be purified by suffering, and that it is not till after having undergone this expiatory discipline through a series of different bodies, that it becomes worthy of admission to eternal happiness.”(Letters of Hinddo Rajah). By Keats choosing to end the poem to his friend with a quote from the twelfth night he left the decision to John Reynolds to think about how his illness is the worst part and soon happiness will come “ thou art made, if thou desir’st to be so”.  

LaMott's continuous faliures

LaMotts charecter continues to make mistakes, even though he has lost everything, his house, fortune and ability to love( his wife) he still dosent change his ways. He insists in keeping his luxuiries life style " He is a man whose passions often overcame his reason, and time after time, silenced his conscience "pg 2. Even when he reaches the house in the woods, he dosent think before he enters, especially since its in the middle of nowhere, he dosent even go out in search for help armed especially since he is a wanted man. He then proceeds to take the young and beautiful Adeline with him dispite of his situation. His strong impolses might end up leading him to even further consiquences that might include his capture or even death.

Religion and The Role of the Poet

The brief introduction to Blake in the textbook refers to Blake as "a voice crying in the wilderness", which is a phrase from the Bible that refers to John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus in the Gospels. Blake uses the line as an introduction to his poem "All Religions Are One." I find it interesting how much Blake's religion feeds his work despite his distaste for organized religion. Blake believed that God spoke to him. He seems to be positioning the poet as a type of prophet.

In "Introduction" in Songs of Innocence, the piper is told to "Pipe a song about a Lamb", and then to "sit thee down and write in a book that all may read." I'm reading this as the Lamb referring to Jesus. It seems the knowledge of Jesus begins in art, then the poet writes it down so that all may know it too. In "Introduction" from Songs of Experience, it is the bard "Who Present, Past & Future sees/Whose ears have heard the Holy Word." If the poet is a prophet, then poetry brings the reader closer to God. Poetry then, is not mere art. This idea might explain why Blake's work is quite different from other poets. Blake has no fluff poems that are merely entertaining. Each poem has a message that it is trying to convey. and, as corny as it may sound, a higher purpose.

The curse the opens the eyes of the Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner contained the basic structure that both Wordsworth and Coleridge had discussed. The two Cardinal points of poetry (according to the Biographia Literaria, chapter 14 (1817) in the anthology of the conversations between Coleridge and Wordsworth) it had to contain: The power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by the faithful adherence to the truth of nature. The second was the power of giving the interest of novelty by modifying colors of imagination. Coleridge achieved both of these two points of poetry by adding both a spiritual force to the singing albatross and by emphasizing color (to the water, dead corpse, water thirst lips, etc.) despite the previous establishment of an eerie setting. The reader is able to sympathize with the mariner once he realized that killing the Albatross was a mistake because the bird helped the by bringing good luck to their voyage and instead of him appreciating what the bird brought to them he killed, bringing forth a curse to him, his crew and his ship. It isn’t till the end that he realizes that he had taken his blessings for granted. After he “prayeth well, who loved well both men and bird and beast.” “God who loveth us, He made and loveth all”. The bird can be taken as a metaphor for slaves, they were taken for granted too and once they were killed, and their life was missed because of their good deeds.

“In consequence of the film of familiarity and selfish solicitude we have eyes, yet see not, and hearts that neither feel or understand.” …Wordsworth         

Ghost irony

"The Eve of St. John" by Sir Walter Scott was an ironic poem to say the least.  In popular tradition, bonfires are made to symbolize the warding off of evil and giving thanks for bountiful harvests.  Thus introducing the paranormal spirits into the gothic genre of the tale.
The poem begins with the Baron of Smaylho'me returning home, there he converses with his foot-page of his fair lady's actions.  The foot-page describes to his Lord of a knight who met with the lady the last two nights speaking of a lover's meeting.  Unaware of the true existence of the knight and claiming the union as a fated meeting between lovers, the Lady calls upon the knight into her bower upon midnight.  The Baron's foot-page describes the colors and crest of the knight and the Baron remembers the identity of Sir Richard of Coldinghame, the knight he'd slain nights before.  The Baron is pale and shocked thus he meets his Lady and tells her of the knight's slaying.  Later during the night, Sir Richard appears before the Lady in her bower as she insisted earlier in their meetings but instead of returning for the love of the Lady, he comes to leave a mark of infidelity. "Who spilleth life, shall forfeit life; / So bid thy Lord believe; / That lawless love is guilt above, / This awful sign receive."  It is next revealed that the lady became a nun who avoided the day and her husband, the Baron, a mute monk who spoke none of the ghostly sprite.
There is some good use of blending para-normalcy with character in developing Sir Richard as well as the finale of irony when in fact the lady loves the spirit of the slain knight that her Baron struck down.  Hope this makes some sense.