MONDAY 8

Chapters 1–2

Summary: Chapter 1

The stranger, who the reader soon learns is Victor Frankenstein, begins his narration. He starts with his family background, birth, and early childhood, telling Walton about his father, Alphonse, and his mother, Caroline. Alphonse became Caroline’s protector when her father, Alphonse’s longtime friend Beaufort, died in poverty. They married two years later, and Victor was born soon after.

Frankenstein then describes how his childhood companion, Elizabeth Lavenza, entered his family. At this point in the narrative, the original (1818) and revised (1831) versions of Frankenstein diverge. In the original version, Elizabeth is Victor’s cousin, the daughter of Alphonse’s sister; when Victor is four years old, Elizabeth’s mother dies and Elizabeth is adopted into the Frankenstein family. In the revised version, Elizabeth is discovered by Caroline, on a trip to Italy, when Victor is about five years old. While visiting a poor Italian family, Caroline notices a beautiful blonde girl among the dark-haired Italian children; upon discovering that Elizabeth is the orphaned daughter of a Milanese nobleman and a German woman and that the Italian family can barely afford to feed her, Caroline adopts Elizabeth and brings her back to Geneva. Victor’s mother decides at the moment of the adoption that Elizabeth and Victor should someday marry.

Summary: Chapter 2

Elizabeth and Victor grow up together as best friends. Victor’s friendship with Henry Clerval, a schoolmate and only child, flourishes as well, and he spends his childhood happily surrounded by this close domestic circle. As a teenager, Victor becomes increasingly fascinated by the mysteries of the natural world. He chances upon a book by Cornelius Agrippa, a sixteenth-century scholar of the occult sciences, and becomes interested in natural philosophy. He studies the outdated findings of the alchemists Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus with enthusiasm. He witnesses the destructive power of nature when, during a raging storm, lightning destroys a tree near his house. A modern natural philosopher accompanying the Frankenstein family explains to Victor the workings of electricity, making the ideas of the alchemists seem outdated and worthless. (In the 1818 version, a demonstration of electricity by his father convinces Victor of the alchemists’ mistakenness.)

SECOND PART

Chapter 24 & Walton, in Continuation

Summary: Chapter 24

His whole family destroyed, Victor decides to leave Geneva and the painful memories it holds behind him forever. He tracks the monster for months, guided by slight clues, messages, and hints that the monster leaves for him. Angered by these taunts, Victor continues his pursuit into the ice and snow of the North. There he meets Walton and tells his story. He entreats Walton to continue his search for vengeance after he is dead.

Summary: Walton, in Continuation

I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.

Walton then regains control of the narrative, continuing the story in the form of further letters to his sister. He tells her that he believes in the truth of Victor’s story. He laments that he did not know Victor, who remains on the brink of death, in better days.
One morning, Walton’s crewmen enter his cabin and beg him to promise that they will return to England if they break out of the ice in which they have been trapped ever since the night they first saw the monster’s sledge. Victor speaks up, however, and convinces the men that the glory and honor of their quest should be enough motivation for them to continue toward their goal. They are momentarily moved, but two days later they again entreat Walton, who consents to the plan of return.
Just before the ship is set to head back to England, Victor dies. Several days later, Walton hears a strange sound coming from the room in which Victor’s body lies. Investigating the noise, Walton is startled to find the monster, as hideous as Victor had described, weeping over his dead creator’s body. The monster begins to tell him of all his sufferings. He says that he deeply regrets having become an instrument of evil and that, with his creator dead, he is ready to die. He leaves the ship and departs into the darkness.

ANSWER THE NEXT ITEMS
 (LOOK THE PRESENTATION)

HALLOWEEN

Origin
The answer to the question is two-folded. First of all Halloween derives from the New Year celebration of the Celts. They called that night Samhain, Winter´s Eve. The Celts thought that the spirits of people who had died the past year would search for new bodies this particular night, the 31st of October. In order not to be possessed, people would make their own homes as uncomfortable as possible, by turning off the heat. At night, the Celts went on a parade, dressed in weird clothes. The aim was to frighten the souls of the dead.
All Saints Day
The day after Halloween, the 1st of November is the All Saints Day, an important holiday in the Christian church. It is also called All Hallows, a definition turned into Halloween. The church has never been in favor of the Celtic tradition of Halloween, and has tried to stop the celebrations by claming the the parades and the costumes to be evil. But that has not been that successful. Today Halloween is a secular holiday.
Today
The Celtic traditions has persisted the catholic criticism. The habit of Halloween got to America in the 1840:s by Irish immigrants. The tradition has since then grown into an international habit, and Halloween is today celebrated in all of the western countries. The costumes and the parading on the streets are still two of the main things about Halloween. The trick-or-treating is also a tradition that has become a part of the modern form of Halloween. That tradition comes from the Celtic habit of walking door-to-door in order to collect money and food for the parade.
Even the Jack-o-lantern has traditions from the Irish Folklore. A drunkard called Jack got very drunk one night and he almost lost his life. The Devil came along to claim his soul but Jack fooled the Devil himself. Jack tried to change his life for the better after that, but soon became a drunkard again. That made the Devil find him once more. Once again Jack fooled him. Unfortunately Jack died soon after and neither the good God or the Devil would let him rest. The Devil just gave him a coal to light up the darkness in Neverland. That coal, Jack put in a turnip.

SHORT STORIES

Canterbury Tales

 GEOFFREY CHAUCER began writing The Canterbury Tales sometime around 1387 A.D.; the uncompleted manuscript was published in 1400, the year he died. Having recently passed the six hundredth anniversary of its publication, the book is still of interest to modern students for several reasons. For one thing, The Canterbury Tales is recognized as the first book of poetry written in the English language. Before Chaucer’s time, even poets who lived in England wrote in Italian or Latin, which meant that poetry was only understandable to people of the wealthy, educated class. English was considered low class and vulgar. To a great degree, The Canterbury Tales helped make it a legitimate language to work in. Because of this work, all of the great writers who followed, from Shakespeare to Dryden to Keats to Eliot, owe him a debt of gratitude. It is because Chaucer wrote in English that there is a written record of the roots from which the modern language grew. Contemporary readers might find his words nearly as difficult to follow as a foreign language, but scholars are thankful for the chance to compare Middle English to the language as it is spoken now, to examine its growth. In the same way that The Canterbury Tales gives modern readers a sense of the language at the time, the book also gives a rich, intricate tapestry of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes, from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves. The General Prologue alone provides a panoramic view of society that is not like any found elsewhere in all of literature. Students who are not particularly interested in medieval England can appreciate the author’s technique in capturing the variations of human temperament and behavior. Collections of stories were common in Chaucer’s time, and some still exist today, but the genius of The Canterbury Tales is that the individual stories are presented in a continuing narrative, showing how all of the various pieces of life connect to one another. Copyright eNotes. This entry does not cover all the tales, only some of the most studied.

Now is your turn!!!    this is for the next wednesday 27th.
LOOKING FOR BIOGRAPHY OF CHAUCER, and write it here in your own words.

When and where was Beowulf composed?

Beowulf survives ionly in a single manuscript, dating from about the year 1000 and now in the British Museum. In 1731, parts of this manuscript were damaged by fire, and in later years sections crumbled away. Fortunately, however, an Icelandic scholar by the name of Thorkelin had copied the poem in 1786. When most of it could still be made out, and this copy exists undamaged.

No exact date can be given for the composition of Beowulf, but scholars agree that it was composed considerably earlier than the date of the manuscript in the British Museum. The mention of the death of Hygelac- an actual person whose death date (around 521) is known from reliable histories of the time- gives us an early limit. But other historical evidence suggests that the earliest date is after 680, when Germanic alternative verse began to be used for Christian purposes. Some have argued that, since the poem glorifies the Danes, it is unlikely to have been written after 835, when the Danish  raids on Anglo Saxon England began in grim earnest. Examination of  the language of the poem can do little more than confirm the possibility that it was composed between 680 and 800 (or perhaps later).


Don't forget this for the next exam!!!

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