Quotes to use for my paper Ⅱ

I have to say I really enjoy the process of reading the book Frankenstein. Besides the plot and characters in the book, it’s an excellent language learning chance for me. And I am sure I will continue reading English novels later.

From page 105 to page 146, OMG why these pages look so thinner now, I took a long time to read them! Anyway, the narrative of the creature is particular and has a large information including his self awareness and why he would hate human beings so much. From my perspective of the paper, I am going to use the creature’s discard by Frankenstein and the creature’s feeling on this to expound that Frankenstein is a villain.

The creature though has an unusual configuration, but his soul is just like a common human being. He is curious about fangle surrounding him and makes great efforts in keep alive. In the book Frankenstein, Marry Shelley writes that “I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me, and to perceive the boundaries of the radiant roof of light which canopied me. “  (106) According this, we can see obviously the creature has an instinct of human beings or we can say life. He try to understand the things he doesn’t know and find the way to comfort himself.

The creature was pure and kind at first. He loved every beautiful and benevolent things which shows his judgment and even his humanity. He can even show understanding and sympathy for others! In chapter four, Shelley writes like this “……but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained, and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots, which I gathered from a neighboring wood.”(114) I can not describe how astonished I was when I reading this part! The creature is completely a newly born baby at that time, he has all the virtue he learned from the cottagers. While everything was vanished away, and without Frankenstein, the creature lead him self into an irredeemable enmity to human beings.

We all have to admit that someone can not grow without a guide. Usually, our parents act as the character. To the creature, his only hope and depend is Dr. Frankenstein while who abandoned him after he was created only because his unpleasant appearance. That’s why the creature thought him self was a  wretch. As which is mentioned in the book “I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.” (105-106) What a poor guy! If Frankenstein didn’t renounced the creature, he could give some positive influence to avoid him obsessed in inferiority complex, finally developed to losing himself in malignity and revenge.

 

That’t it. I will finish the book soon and I can’t wait to know the ending!

 

Songs for Frankenstein.

I have been recommended a song and a clip of musical about Frankenstein by Nancy this week. (share link: song and clip) I like both of them. Especially the second one, I love the part that when Frankenstein was shoot by a cop(maybe),  the creature rushed to him and hold him. That is so touching, and shows the affection from the creature to Frankenstein.

For the first song, at the beginning the creature is travelling with himself, he is just like a solitary. While Dr. Frankenstein(maybe I should call him the vocal of the band), he sings in an upset mood. And there is a scene like a memory flashes in this music video that “Frankenstein” is playing ball game with the creature and they look so delightful. I think the songwriter may want to convey a concept that creature is loved by Frankenstein and he is a part of Frankenstein’s heart since he was made of spares body part.  They belong to each other. And losing each other is an agony thing to them just like couples in love.

For the second song in the clip by Arcade Fire. I think it is quite suitable for this context because the creature is coming back to revenge his discard  by Frankenstein. Otherwise, he  still care about Frankenstein but he can’t approach him because of his ugly appearance and his sin. He wants to enjoy an ordinary life while his body keeps him away from those because after all he is a monster created by a human beings.

And besides these two, I go to google the song inspired by Frankenstein. And found I think is really cool. “Jumpstart your electric heart” by Kevin Max. (song and lyrics) Kevin Max is an American singer, song writer and poet. According to Wikipedia, it is a “modern-day retelling of Shelley’s Frankenstein.” I think the reason why he used Frankenstein is because, first, the creature is revived by electricity which is shown obviously by the title of the song. Secondly,  the creature was just a vacant body before Frankenstein use electricity to animate him. Songwriter may want everything becomes vivid instead of cliche.

That’s it. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Quotes to use for my paper.

I have to write an argument paper about there is no character is all good or all evil in the book Frankenstein. And after these days’ reading, I am going to choose Victor Frankenstein in the book (maybe changed later) and  I have picked some paragraph or sentences which being prepared to use in my paper.

As people doing everything with a motivation, I am going to analyse the motivation of Dr Frankenstein’s experiment first. In Shelly’s book, herself maintain that Dr. Frankenstein has a big curiosity about nature science, as which is mentioned in this sentence “While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.“(38) In other words, everything started with the curiosity of Dr. Frankenstein. It was his interest which leaded him into the door of  science. Instead of becoming a hero or seizing the world, his initial motivation looks so simple.

Besides his interest, the characteristic of Dr. Frankenstein is another very crucial reason why he would lost himself during the experiment.  As describing Frankenstein’s character, Shelly wrote these, “It was my temper to avoid a crowd, and to attach myself fervently to a few.“ (38) From which we can see he is solitary and prefer to stay alone. These kind of people may usually be overanxious and bigoted. Indeed, at the end of chapter 4, when Frankenstein could not succeed to make the creature he was said as “…I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me…“ (57) This nervousness became more and more seriously till the creature was made and translated to his illness.

In addition, he has such a strong urge to control everything, including his friends and experiment.  At the end of chapter 1, it was describing that “… and looked upon Elizabeth as mine – mine to protect, love, and cherish… my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only. “ (37) This kind of selfish and arrogant leaded Frankenstein to his crazy mind finally without others guidance.

I am sure I can get more details about Dr. Frankenstein from the book in the future. I will share with you then.

ADS about Frankenstein

After being showed pieces of  advertisement  in the class on Friday,(click to see) I specially love the design of “Absolut Shelly”! It is so fancy that I can’t move my eye! The bottle is not only creative but also delicate. The bolts on the neck of the bottle are funny and I am still wondering how they put them together? Compared of this, the “Absolut Karloff” is a little bit monotonous. It looks like an old style wine pot. And the first thing which it reminds me of is not Frankenstein but the Mummy.

In my opinion, the reason why manufacturers choose the Frankenstein in their ads is because the specialty of the character can resonate the feelings of audience. Like the commercial for the “Osteo Bi-Flex”, it takes the advantage of the stiffness of Frankenstein instead of a conman people’s experience to make the audience have a better understand of how unbelievable the product is.

I really like the idea for some advertisements which are designed based on a famous character. And usually when I watching a movie or reading a novel, I am always thinking of their specialized qualities which can represent them obviously and also being used like an advertisement.

For Frankenstein, the first thing come to my mind is his afraid of fire. It leaves me a deep impression in the movie. That leads to the idea of a Frankenstein Fire alarm!

The fire alarm in my apartment sometimes rings unreasonably. It screams so harsh that I feel like it is going to hurt my ears. But if we change it into a Frankenstein fire alarm, besides ringing a lower volume of “Beep” sound it can also make a sound like the roaring of Frankenstein.  That will definitely scares me and some children I believe. For the appearance, it can be green and has bolts in both side of the base. Or even better, it will be installed just like being sewed on the floor.

Next time when the Frankenstein fire alarm rings, people may be more hurried to evacuate from the house due to the panic roaring of Frankenstein reminding them of the horrible fire.

Two more blogs about Frankenstein.

I have read two blogs about “Frankenstein” this week. One is by Keith Phipps (link to the blog) which talks about the DVD version of “Frankenstein(1931)”. And another one is written by Brett Gallman (link to the blog) which mentions aothor’s experience of horror movies and his perspectives of “Frankenstein(1931)”. Both of them are informative and inspire me  a lot.

The biggest enemy of classic is  being lost. Fortunately, we have the new DVD version of “Frankenstein”. According to Phipps’ blog, “The restored print and cleaned-up soundtrack make it look and sound better than any previous video version, which is to be expected……” I celebrate the fact that people decide to put it into a DVD version so that the frames will be clearer which can let audience have an experience of the elaborate make up in the movie.

Besides, the special extra as Phipps mentions in his blog catches my eye.  He agrees,when he writes “It is, in short, the best way short of a time machine to gain a sense of what Frankenstein means. Given the tendency of the DVD market to gravitate toward recent films, it also provides a model of just how useful and entertaining the format can be for those interested in exploring cinema’s past.“ Indeed, it will be a helpful way to understand Frankenstein and models for other classical movies to explore more.

The second blog by Gallman arouse my memory of seeing horror movies. Gallman himself writes,“I have come to appreciate that type of atmosphere when watching a film. Any horror fan will tell you that there’s something different about watching a horror film on late night television. Sure, they’re usually edited and interrupted by commercial breaks, but for many fans, this is how they grew up with the genre (myself included). ” I strongly agree that the time and place to watch horror movie can make difference a lot, because when I saw the “Paranormal Activity”, there’s only me and my bestie in our dorm that night. We didn’t turn on any light even a desk lamp. It was really a big big torment to me, the atmosphere was killing me!!  If you have seen that you will know how freaking it is. Compared to this one, “A nightmare on Elm Street”  in the cinema is just like a fairy tale!!

Anyway, these two blogs are very attractive especially the one by Gallman. It’s a special memory and arouse sympathy among all of the horror movie fans or victims just like me.

 

 

The cemetery skeleton in “Frankenstein”(1931)

Let’s continue talking about the movie “Frankenstein”(1931). I have read a brief blog yesterday (fail to find the author and here is the link for everyone to share http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-frankensteinia-archives-cemetery.html) which thoroughly analyzes the use of cemetery skeleton as a prop in the film.

The author believes the cemetery skeleton plays an important role at the beginning of the film and I strongly agree with him. At the beginning, the crying mourners surrounding around the graveyard builds a suspense to the audience. The appearance of the cemetery skeleton is  haircurling especially in the black and white movie. As the author described in his blog “Frankenstein’s cemetery skeleton stands off to the side, boxed in with pickets, its bony hands resting on the hilt of a sword. The bleak, sparse set suggests a pauper’s graveyard, with an expressionistic dead tree, a plaster Christ on his calvary cross and a few wooden grave markers stuck at crazy angles. ”  I can feel terrifying through these words much less seeing the scene from movie.

Besides creating a scaring atmosphere, the cemetery skeleton helps to  predict the terrible thing which will happen in the movie. In the author of this blog ‘s view, he observed that “The grim sentinel stands prominently screen right, a witness to desecration, through the entire sequence where Frankenstein and Fritz dig up and raise the coffin. In a telling gesture, Colin Clive’s Frankenstein, concentrated on his urgent task, blithely throws a shovelful of graveyard dirt square into the skeleton’s face. …… but it is also a signal of Frankenstein’s maniacal focus on the job at hand, unconcerned with the consequences of his acts. As a symbolic gesture, it illustrates Frankenstein’s disrespect for Death itself.”  Exactly,  the cemetery skeleton usually act as a symbol of death. People put them around the graveyard to let grave robbers feel afraid. While Dr.Frankenstein and his assistant ignored the warning which just like offended the death. All leaded to the punishment they got later in the movie.

A good movie is not only made up by the actors and plot, but also every meaningful prop and scene in the movie.