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Frankenstein: Gothic Tones 8809 Views
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Description:
What is Gothic Romanticism? It's when two goths fall in love. Duh. Wait, that’s not what it is? Oh. We should probably watch the video and figure it out...care to join us?
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:04
Don't you see, Paul?
- 00:06
We've discovered the source of life itself!
- 00:09
And we've used it to restore a creature that was dead.
- 00:11
[ dramatic musical flourish ]
Full Transcript
- 00:14
Frankenstein a la Shmoop
- 00:16
Gothic Tones
- 00:19
What is Gothic?
- 00:22
Gothic is a genre that is known, basically, for its spookiness.
- 00:26
We wanna distinguish scary from spooky;
- 00:30
that's the first thing to do.
- 00:31
You know, when you read Frankenstein, you're not [ gasps ].
- 00:34
It's not scary.
- 00:36
It just kind of gives you the eebie jeebies.
- 00:39
And that's really what the Gothic is all about.
- 00:40
Things -- You know, when we picture Gothic,
- 00:42
we picture castles and cobwebs and kind of that spookiness.
- 00:45
The genre started with books like
- 00:47
The Castle of Otranto and Mysteries of Udolpho,
- 00:49
grew into what Frankenstein is which is this,
- 00:53
you know, spooky, Gothic, as I said, eeby jeeby-giving book.
- 00:58
What's particular about Frankenstein
- 01:01
is that it's not just straight Gothic as, of course, it never is.
- 01:05
We talked about Enlightenment and Romanticism before.
- 01:08
And this book is really
- 01:10
one of the first works of Gothic Romanticism.
- 01:14
Which means that it is the Gothic.
- 01:15
it's that kind of, like,
- 01:17
spooky terror-inducing feelings,
- 01:21
but the reason that we get that spookiness and that terror
- 01:25
is to help us understand the human condition.
- 01:27
And that is where Romanticism comes in.
- 01:30
When Frankenstein's monster is sitting out in the woods
- 01:33
spying on the little house and all that's going on in it,
- 01:36
and we're kind of like [ noise of disgust ].
- 01:37
Like we kind of get the creeps about it.
- 01:39
What it's supposed to get us to think about
- 01:41
is like, "This guy's so lonely.
- 01:43
This is sad. He's sitting out there watching this family.
- 01:47
All he wants is to be a part of it."
- 01:48
And we really feel that kind of emotion
- 01:51
and that loneliness of the human condition.
- 01:54
And that's where the Gothic Romanticism comes in.
- 01:57
It's that, like, terror and creepiness
- 01:59
that helps us understand his feelings.
- 02:02
At this point, we've kind of talked about
- 02:04
how Frankenstein grew out of the Enlightenment.
- 02:07
It's a work of, you know, Romantic literature
- 02:09
and it has the Gothic.
- 02:10
Another thing to chat about --
- 02:12
And I am not a science fiction guru,
- 02:14
but Frankenstein 's often thought of as the first work
- 02:18
ever of science fiction.
- 02:20
So as we're talking about genres,
- 02:21
I thought it'd be cool to bring this up
- 02:23
because it's not just a work of fiction.
- 02:26
It's a work of fiction that's talking about
- 02:27
big, heavy questions surrounding science.
- 02:29
You know, "Should we create life?"
- 02:31
is kind of a big one.
- 02:33
And so, you know, as we get into more modern contemporary science fiction,
- 02:37
it's these -- They're works of fiction
- 02:39
making us ask questions about
- 02:42
what's okay and what's not
- 02:43
in terms of science and technological advancements.
- 02:46
And that's exactly what Frankenstein was doing.
- 02:49
So when we think about the genres of Frankenstein,
- 02:51
yes, we wanna think of it coming out of the Enlightenment
- 02:53
as a Romantic genre,
- 02:54
also Gothic, but then we kind of wanna look
- 02:57
forward to the science fiction genre, as well.
- 03:01
What is Gothic?
- 03:03
What is Gothic Romanticism?
- 03:05
Which genre describes Frankenstein and why?
- 03:10
[ glass breaks ]
- 03:11
[ scream ]
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