Gothic Elements in Frankenstein

• Elements of mystery and suspense 
• Settings 
• Flashes of lightening  
• thunderstorms
• Baying of dogs 
• Death of dogs 
• “fear of the unknown”
• Animal sense that there is something out there - the dogs try to get off the lease
• Colour
• Dark colours, only the blood add colours, fire 
• Shadows, dark colours 
• Dark candle light 

• arrogance 
• music - film technique 
• Thinking that you can do something that a mere mortal cannot 
• Even in a happy scene, 
• there is lightening (on top of the mountain)
• Dancing scene still shadows and dark colours, dim lighting 
• ingolschart
• Goes to the attic 
• Cave like, mysterious, dingy, dark
• reference to forbidden knowledge 
• Shadowy, mysterious figure 
• Creepy environment 
• People have done experiments in the past 
• You must tell no one 
• Illegal scientific experiments 
• Treading on moral/immoral, legal, illegal 
• when the hand grabs the man and it doesn’t work
• A sign that this is dangerous 

USE OF COLOUR 

• throughout the film, there are always dark colours
• The clothes of the characters are all dark/grey colours 
• Even when something happy or exciting happens, the colours are still dark/grey
• The only colour in some scenes are fire, shadows of grey, fire
• A lot of red (blood) in the bloody scenes.
• Dark candlelight in most scenes 

MUSIC 

• ‘dark’ music’
• Never happy music
• Music adds suspense (which is a gothic film technique)
• Music adds depth to the film without the audience realizing (because they are not paying attention to the music, but instead the set or characters dialogue 

EASE OF DEATH 

• many people are hung throughout the film (the characters act as though it is the norm)
• Death of the dogs (unnatural monster which kills the dog)
• The way the monster talks about killing Frankensteins brother (choking him)
• Death of the lady that was accused of killing frankensteins brother (she did not get a trial, or to defend herself - they just killed her straight away)
• Death of the mother at the beginning of the film (she was displayed on camera while frankenstein was still in the scene)
• Dealing with the corpses of dead people in medical school 
• Dealing with the corpses while creating frankensteins monster 

Ambition - Macbeth

Many characters have ambition in the play, Macbeth. Some of the many characters are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Macduff.


Macbeth has a lot of ambition in the play. The whole play surrounds around Macbeth's ambition in becoming king and continuing to be King for as long as he can. He wants the power, and this is evident in the play as he is willing to murder men, women and children to get what he wants. It is obvious that Macbeth is ambitious because he is willing to kill the King so that he can become King 

[Macbeth]

'My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is But what is not.' (1.3.9)

It is also clear that Lady Macbeth has ambition. This is again obvious because she is the mastermind behind the murder of King Duncan. She has ambition to also get what she wants. In this quote, Lady Macbeth is suggesting that she has ambition, power and nerves to murder. 

[Lady Macbeth]'Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it' (1.5.1)


Macduff also shows ambition. In this quote, he is showing his ambition and revenge against Macbeth for killing his wife and family. 

[Macduff]'Either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter, one of greatest note Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune! And more I beg not.' (5.8.1)

Appearance Vs Reality

1. 

[Lady Macbeth] “Your face, my thane, is as a book where men

May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 

Look like the time” (1.5.53-55)

Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth is an open book. She says that he needs to act like people expect him to act. Macbeth needs to deceive people that he is not guilty of murdering Duncan. Deception plays a massive roll in the play, as Macbeth needs to deceive everyone continuously. Yet it is known that during the middle of the play, most of the characters realise that Macbeth is not who he seems. 

[Duncan] “What bloody man is that? He can report, 

As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt

The newest state” (1.2.1-3) 

Duncan says that a man’s appearance should relate to what he’s been through and his level of knowledge. He assumes that because a man is covered in blood, that he will know how the battle is going. Duncan is decieved by Macbeth's appearance. Although he may look 'brave' and 'trustworthy', he is far from it. 

2. Not all characters are tricked by deception; not all characters believe appearance over reality. Which characters don’t and what do they do? What happens to these characters?

King Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain are not tricked by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth 's deception. They realise that something suspicious is occurring when their father dies, which is why they flea Scotland. Malcolm and Donalbain also do not 'hail' over King Macbeth, as they realise that in reality he is not who he seems to be. Once they flea Scotland, they assemble a force to battle Macbeth and his army. Malcolm ends up becoming the new King of Scotland when he defeats Macbeth. 

J.D. Salinger has been effective in creating an authentic adolescent voice to a great extent in the Catcher in the Rye. (With Jamie)

J.D. Salinger has been effective in creating an authentic adolescent voice in Catcher in the Rye?To what extent do you agree with this statement? Discuss, using evidence from the novel to support your response.

J.D. Salinger has been effective in creating an authentic adolescent voice TO A GREAT EXTENT in the Catcher in the Rye.

Swearing

• Holden uses profanity often in the novel, just as adolescents today do
• This is Holden's way of rebelling and acting more mature
• The first sentence of the book it says "...And all that David Copperfield kind of crap." (p.1)
• Adolescence are known to swear and 'act out' which is how Holden acts
• Although Holden thinks swearing makes him sound mature, it actually makes him sound immature which constructs the adolescence voice 

Responsibility 

• He doesn't take responsibility seriously
• An example - When he lost the fencing gear, and the team was angry at him, he thought 'It was pretty funny in a way' (p3)
• Adolescence are known to be unreliable therefore the voice is authentic

 

Self Centred 

• When he is saying 'Nobody is around, Nobody big. Except me' (p156)
• He thinks that he is the only person that can save all the children from innocence. He is the only one that know what adult life is all about. He is the only one saving the kid. 
• Adolescence today believe they are the best at everything and that they are able to solve everyone's problems in the world 

Holden's Isolation - his own worst enemy?

1. 

- When Holden goes to New York when he is expelled, he is isolated from everyone. This is because he has no friends that he can stay with, and he does not want to go home to his family. This was done by his own actions, because he could have chosen to go home. 

- When Holden has a date with Sally, he was not isolated. Yet because his thoughts started to wander to running away from home with Sally coming with him and spending the rest of their life together, Holden scared Sally away. This left him dateless and alone. 

- When Holden visits Phoebe at home, he could have chosen to stay home, which would have ended his isolation period. But he decided to go back to being 'homeless' until he was 'ready to go back home'. This situation resulted in Holden ending up isolated once again. You think he would have learnt his lesson.

2. 

His behaviour in these instances are the result of his immaturity. In all three cases, he could have easily chosen the 'right choice' to return home in cases 1 and 3. or in case 2, he could have kept his opinions to himself. Holden is immature as he is not able to chose the correct decision for the himself. 

Holden Caulfield's Goddam War

- Puring, prayer, and enlightenmennt

- experience of war gave his writing a depth and maturity it had previously lacked 

- Salinger was not naive about war 

- Meeting Ernest Hemisway was important for Salinger because Salinger looked up to Hemisway

- he thought that war was a bloody, inglorious affair - perhaps that is where Holden gets his problems from?

- Catcher in the Rye was a spiritually autobiography

- Salinger wrote the first chapter in by 1941

- Salinger wrote Catcher in the Rye as a series of short stories that might eventually be strung together. There were 9 stories altogether. 

-1945 - Salinger wondered what it would feel like if he were to fire the 45 caliber pistol through his left palm. However he recognised his state of mind and checked himself uto a hospital in Nuremberg for treatment. Could this be Holden's state of mind?

- Sometimes Salinger's attitude is pleading

- 1949, Salinger started to string the short stories of Holden together. 

- Before the war, Holden was pointedly selfish and confused. In the novel he is less selfish, and seems to be speaking a larger truth

- A textbook editor's report was negative. Two editors from The New Yorker was also negative 

- They thought the characters were unbelievable, and the Caulfield children were to precocious. 

- Catcher in the Re published July 16 1951

- He got great reviews from everyone

- Some of he reviews said that the novels language and idiosm were at fault. 

- Holden's meandering thoughts, emotions and memories populate the most completety stream of consciousness experience yet offered by American literature at the time

- Writing Catcher in the rye was an act of liberation. 

- The war bruised Salinger's faith. It was reflected in Holden's loss of faith caused by the death of his brother Allie. The memory of dead friends haunted Holden for many years. 

-Salinger has shattered innocence - attitude shown by adult phonies and compromise

- Salingers reaction was personal despondency through darker forces of human nature 

- What ever happened to Sainger would also happen to Holden. Salinger and Holden eventually came to terms with the burdens they carried. Their epiphanies were the same. 

- Holden comes to realise he can enter adulthood without becoming false and sacrificing his values. 

- Salinger came to accept that knowledge of evil did not ensure damnation. 

- The experience of war gave a voice to Salinger, and in turn to Holden 

Catcher in the Rye - First Impressions

1.       What are your first impressions of Holden from the early chapters you have read? Do you find him an appealing character or not? Give reasons for your answer. Use specific examples from the novel to support your response.

My first impression of Holden is that I do not like him. He is very whiney and seems like he is not ‘totally with it’. He seems like he does not really care about anything. He even says himself that he does not act his age, ‘One side foo my head - the right side - is full of millions of gray hairs. I’ve had them ever since  was a kid. And yet I still act sometime like I was only about twelve’.For example, he doesn’t care that he is getting kicked out of another school for failing classes, and he does not care that he left the expensive fencing equipment on the subway resulting in the team being unable to compete. 

1.       If you were to meet him today, would you be able to relate to him? Why/why not?

I do not think that if I were to meet Holden today, I would be able to relate to him. He does not care about his health and his life, which is something that I do not find very appealing in a friend. Even  though he keeps talking about people being Phonies, my impression of him is that he is the biggest phonie out of all of them.

1.       What is it about Holden that would or would not make him easy to relate to?  Use specific examples from the novel to support your response.

The language he uses would make it not easy to relate to him. Words he uses such as ‘bastard, goddamn, and his bad language and words is not easily relatable for me. I think it would be very silly for someone to forget the fencing equipment on the subway if that was the only job that person had. I am very organized and it would relay frustrate me if one of my friends did that. 

Maestro Response

Read pp. 12-14. There are two incidents/moments that beg for a response.

Read these pages and respond to one of the 'moments' in any way you choose, either as a journal entry, personal reflection, letter or something else.

The ‘moment’ when Paul is forbidden to play Chopin by Herr Keller. If I were Paul in this part of the book, I would have been infuriated. I am the type of person who likes to get straight into things, and would rather fail, then have to practice. It would have annoyed and angered me that my teacher would not have let me play piano for him. Perhaps I was not to become a great pianist, maybe only a good pianist. Herr knew that Paul could have the potential to become a great pianist, so maybe that is the reason why he was not allowed to play. I also see this in Herr’s POV. If Herr was going to spend his time teaching piano to Paul, he may as well teach him the fundamentals so that he can succeed, instead of skipping those first important lessons that people usually forget about, resulting in only reaching the halfway point of a musical career. Herr also knew that if Paul was serious about his piano, he would endure the hours of non-playing lessons to please him. 

Principal Intervention

To The State Education Department 

I am writing to address the issues that have been brought to my attention about the Darwin State School. I believe the issues that have risen have been about the school protection against the tropical rains, on the overcast days, a lack in the school curriculum, and frequent fights among some of the students. 

I agree with the statement that the school has little protection against the tropical rains and for overcast days. And the school committee and I are currently working on receiving the funds to accommodate such needs of the staff and children. As for the lack of school curriculum, it is understood that many of the younger grades have many classes, however the matriculation class is tiny in comparison. This suggests that the Darwin State school is loosing many of their students in their later schooling years. On the schools behave, this cannot be helped, as the funds of the individual students and choices can only be guided, but not chosen for them. Furthermore, the fights, knife-fights, dankness and unspeakable acts, I believe have been occurring because of the lack of teacher appearance and intervention. To solve these unspeakable acts, it will be seen that more teacher supervision occurs at lunch times, and before and after school. With the extra supervision, we hope to decrease the amont of irresponsible behavior occurring. 

I hope that I have cleared up any issues that have risen about the Darwin State School. We are currently working to strive for a better school for students, staff and parents. I look forward to your reply on these issues. 

Kind regards, 

The Principal for Darwin State School

The novel begins with Paul's 'first impressions' of meeting Herr Keller.

Imagine you are Herr Keller and you keep a daily journal. Record an entry in which you give your 'first impressions' of meeting Paul and his mother.

Due in class on Thursday.

Journal Entry: 

I finally met Paul today. His father had contacted me a few days ago talking about a vibrant young man of a son he had. Even insisted that his son was a born pianist with the potential to go far with the help from myself. Like I haven't heard that one before. But when he arrived, once again  the description people give of others was thoroughly inaccurate. Paul was not vibrant. But more like introverted and bored looking. 

After a mere fifteen minutes with Paul, I could tell that he wasn’t going to last long. Great. Who knows how long I am going to have to wait until another potential student contacts me. They’re always the same. Always keen and think that they are ready to learn how to become a pianist as brilliant as me. Ha. They think they can play as well as I with no starting rules? I’d like to see them try. This new student - Paul - is exactly the same. Thinks that just because he can play a tune on the piano, that he does not need to learn about the hands and the feel of the music. I will ensure him that playing Mozart and Liszt is more than just pushing down a sequence of keys. He even said that he could play a whole Chopin piece. Ha. Id like to see him try with the small arms he has. Couldn't even handle a little pressure on his forearm. We’ll have to build those up before I will allow him to play for me. That’s if he can even last the many weeks up until I will allow him to play. 

The Disappearance of Childhood Questions

1. The writer says, “The idea of childhood is disappearing”. What is his “idea of childhood”?

Berg’s idea of childhood is when children were able to have fun and not worry about anybody else. He’s idea of childhood is before the printers and media, but after the medieval, and the time of school. He believes that the knowledge of the child represented when one ‘turned into’ an adult.

1. Why does he believe the “idea of childhood” did not exist in the medieval world? 

Berg belives that the idea of childhood did not exist in the medieval world because of the ‘absence of the idea of education, the absence of the idea of shame’. The access to information was not easily accessible in the medieval world, therefore their only knowledge was from adults, who had no shame.

1. What are the elements of the “idea of childhood” the writer seems to be talking about?

The elements of the ‘idea of childhood’ the writer talks about is the loss of children’s innocence. With the introduction of media and technology, children are getting the answers to the questions they had not asked. This suggests that they have access to the same information as adults, therefore it is harder to separate an adult from a child. 

1. Comment on his use of the term “the idea of childhood”. What would be more accurate?

The writer suggests that there are many ideas and views of childhood from different point of views, and eras. He suggests that childhood is an idea that children are naive and shameless, but this is just ONE idea. 

1. The writer defines childhood as it became known after the development of printing. However, he sees this definition as having been eroded by the advent of electronic media. What is his argument for this? How well do you believe he justifies his argument?

The writer wrote in his new edition of his book, that much is the same, however it is only getting worse. When he initially wrote the book, it would have been through the idea of the development of printing, which is when the idea of childhood started to disfigure. But now, in the 21^st century, the idea of electronic media has increased the erosion of childhood because of the knowledge it allows children to possess. 

1. The writer comments on the “meshing of adult and child worlds” and concludes that “wherever one looks, one sees more evidence that childhood is disappearing”. What assumption underpins his argument? Comment on the accuracy of his statement. 

The writer suggests that children are quickly becoming like adults, that sometimes people cannot tell a child from an adult. He also suggests that children are becoming like this because of the knowledge and idea of ‘growing up’ that they want to have. Children are constantly ‘looking up at adults’, and as a result, are’mimicking’ them, so that their childhood is disappearing. I believe that this is accurate, as more and more, children are growing up too fast, and soon adults and children will have the same knowledge. 

Maestro Questions - Week 1

Read the first ten and a half pages of the novel and  complete the following activities:

1. Who is 'Paul' and what is your first impression of him? Provide a quotation (with page number) that you think encapsulates your understanding of him.

Paul is the main character in the novel, who is learning to play the piano. He's parents are musicians, so he comes from a heavy musical background. He is a quiet boy, so maybe he wants to express himself through he's music. I feel like his life revolves around music, so when he meets Herr Keller, "He stared; I stared boldly back, fascinated. I’d seen nothing like him before,” (p 5). My first impression is that he is very young and vulnerable 

1. Who is 'Herr Keller' and what is your first impression of him. Provide a quotation (with page number) that you think encapsulates your understanding of him.

Herr Keller is a very good pianist, who thinks that he knows what he is talking about, but is rude to Paul when he tells him that he is not good at piano. He is also a bit crazy and eccentric, but strict and controlling. "He smiled at me for the first time: a brief, minimal smile." (p 6) He seems like he doesn't smile very often, so hopefully Paul can change that.