This trimester everyone starts with a 50/50 on the "tardy block". Being on time every time is a great way to keep a solid A on this assignment. Remember, every time you're late, 10 points is knocked off your grade. You have one class a week. Please make it here on time.

In-Class: Quick overview of Brit. Lit. II expectations. Introduction to Frankenstein.

We will begin with responding to various posted questions and statements located around the room. Everyone will be expected to participate in a group discussion regarding the topics.

Assignments: Read p. 565-575 in your textbooks regarding the Romantic Age. There will be a test on this information on Wednesday

Please read the first three chapters of the novel and be prepared for a quiz on the material. (Pages 1-39). The reading ALSO includes the letters, which are within the pages you'll be reading. After reading Frankenstein, please TYPE a one-page response explaining what you learned about Robert Walton's personality. Detail what Walton is doing and why. Where is he headed to? What does he seek the most in life? Explain what is said in the letters and what strange incident Walton sees on the ice one day. Please bring this assignment with you next week, typed please.  

Background Information: Frankenstein is the world-famous story of a doctor whose brilliant mind gets the better of him. One of the first and certainly most enduring Gothic novels of the English literary tradition, its premise allows the reader to hear the story not only from the perspective of the tragic Dr. Frankenstein, but also from that of his listener, Captain Walton -- who has entertained similar fascinations in the natural sciences.

The book is divided into three sections: Shelley's Preface, four letters from Walton to his sister back in England, and the twenty-four chapters that make up Dr. Frankenstein's story. This version follows the text faithfully and includes one chapter per page, except for Chapter 24, which is much longer than the others and whose format lends to its division into three sections.

On the surface, many students first generalize about Frankenstein being a crazy monster that attacks everyone due to not knowing better. However, the truth is that the monster becomes very intelligent, (almost a little too articulate), and devises ways to hurt the person most who has made and rejected him, Frankenstein, his creator). The book fits in well with the Romantic period in that appreciation of nature and longing for friendship are two of the most prevalent themes throughout the book.  The early movies that were created around the novel did no justice to the plot- rather, they showed a crazed lab lunatic making a heinous idiot who could not speak or control himself. It wasn't until the movie made in the late 1990's was made starring Robert De Nero, portraying the monster as a creature longing for acceptance, and thus told the story far more accurately. The part about brother and sister later becoming man and wife is quite shocking, however. 

What is Romanticism?

Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.

Important figures outside Britain: Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Napoleon, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Important figures from Britain: Byron, Mary Shelley, Keats.