Frankenstein & NLMG - Endings Flashcards
1 Topic Sentence?
‘Both writers bring their narrative to a conclusion by exploring the way that authority figures either learn, or fail to learn, from their involvement in science.’
Who learns and who fails to learn?
Learn - Walton and Victor. (Arguable Points)
Fail - Miss Emily and Madame.
WALTON: ‘If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause.’
Presented with humility as he admits he is to blame for the first time. Learns.
ALWAYS LINK: ‘success shall crown my endeavours’ - Italic Metaphor: Walton presented as determined to achieve glory/recognition/status.
> AO3: Enlightenment - Age of Reason - moving away from scripture.
WALTON: ‘I cannot unwillingly lead them to danger’
Walton takes responsibility/finally recognises nature as a formidable force.
Parallel to his previous carefree attitude to lives of those onboard: ‘one mans life or death were but a small price to pay’ - Hubristic. Unthinking child of Enlightenment. Only seeking glory for himself.
WALTON: ‘I had rather die than return shamefully’
REFUTE: Despite suggesting or giving impression of having learnt, he still foolishly desires success, a foolish sense of misplaced pride.
VICTOR: ‘Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition’
Juxtaposition.
Victors final words to Walton.
Now seeks peace/prideful goals and is no longer motivated by selfish desires.
Emphasising that he has learnt, but he even becomes an agent passing on his knowledge.
LINK: “life and death appeared to me idea bounds which I should first break through”
bounds - initially, Victor feels restricted by morality.
VICTOR: ‘like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in eternal hell’
Reference to P.L.
Conveys his realisation that his blasphemous desires are the cause of his own suffering.
VICTOR: ‘do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows’
REFUTE: However, Victor hubristically lectures crewman, urging them not to turn back.
Arguably suggests he has learnt little from his own foolish scientific endeavours.
MISS EMILY: ‘lucky pawns’
Oxymoronic metaphor.
Views clone as commodities.
Highlights contradictions of cloning programme.
Whilst Miss Emily acknowledges that the clones have been used by human society, she still perceives that they should see themselves as fortunate for having attended Hailsham, failing to realise the flaws of what she created.
MADAME: ‘You could see her stiffen as if a pair of large spiders was set to crawl towards her’
LINK: ‘She was afraid of us in the same way someone might be afraid of spiders’
By returning to the same at the end of the novel, Ish suggests Madame has learnt little and still perceives the clones with a sense of dread.
