Y13 feedback essay 1

2. ‘Hey Girl’ Revision Cards (use humour
+ visual prompts)
Produce cards for Walton’s letters + Frankenstein’s
narrative (chapters 1-10)
Context
Theme
Character
(we’ll look at critics later)
Approx. 30-40 cards
Included specific dates, names, titles + Quotes
(ideal length = 1-6 words long)

3. Hwk – for Friday (45 mins)
1. Read a summary of Paradise Lost (by Milton). What are
the similarities between the plot and chapters 1-10 of
Frankenstein?
2. The Monster reads Paradise Lost himself.
a. When he talks to Frankenstein in Chapter 10, how
does he show his understanding of the text?
b. What does this tell us about the importance of
reading and writing in the novel?
c. Ext. What else about the novel’s form suggests that
Frankenstein is a novel concerned with text? What do
we mean by a ‘self-conscious text’ and how can we
refer to Frankenstein as one?

4. Feedback from Essay 1

5. Targets from Walton Essay
1. Give specific dates, titles, names (eg. Coleridge’s ‘The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner’ published in ‘Lyrical Ballads’ in 1798)
2. One idea per paragraph (avoid throwing in everything you
know)
3. Use a broad range of context
4. Have context in every paragraph and really explore it in
detail + how it informed Shelley’s novel/portrayal of a
theme/character
5. Make sure it is very clear what your paragraph is about.
Link EVERYTHING in your paragraph to that idea.
6. Vary the vocabulary your use – employ some synonyms so
that you are repeating the idea but in a different way
7. Use precise and varied analytical verbs/phrases
8. Avoid repeating words and keep your writing concise

6. Arguably, Shelley’s most important use for Walton is to establish the
themes relevant to the central narrative, namely the pushing of
metaphorical, scientific and philosophical boundaries. Walton is
arrogant to a point, as he wonders ‘what can stop the determined
heart and resolved will of man’. From the beginning , the reader is
able to deduce that Walton is volatile, with his ambitious nature
leading to his downfall. Walton spends his time on a boat, looking to
push himself to the limit in the extreme conditions of the Arctic
Circle. Tis directly parallels ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’; the
tale of a man who defies the will of God and shoots an albatross
causing him to be punished with the death of his crewmates. Though
Walton claims he will ‘shoot no albatross’, his complete disregard for
boundaries renders this comments void. Walton’s connection with
Coleridge’s mariner extends further, however, as at the end of his
letters, Shelley parallels Walton’s role with that of the wedding guest
in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ with Frankenstein assuming the
role of the mariner, thereby establishing the cautionary tale Shelley is
looking to write.

7. General Issues
• Ambition is more of an Enlightenment virtue than
Romantic (key difference between ambition and
discover vs rebellion and anarchy)
• Quote words from the question
• Romanticism is not a theme
• Commas in complex sentences – often in the
middle or near the start (if start with a discourse
marker or connective – Although, However etc…)
• Formal - Central
Protagonists…Novel/plot/narrative

8. Read at least two of the following
landscape poems:
• Mont Blanc by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
• Autumn by John Clare
• Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron
1. How are descriptions of landscape in Romantic Poetry
similar to those in Chapters 9 and 10 of Frankenstein?
• Ext. How do Romantic writers perceive the individual?

9. Precise and Varied Analytical Verbs
• Explore
• Expose
• Introduce
• Reflect
• Show

10. Context – it’s the dominant AO (worth 50%)
• Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus
• 1831 Intro
• Shelley’s upbringing – Godwin and Wollstonecraft
• Rebellion – Thomas Paine, The French Revolution
• Romantic poets – Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Byron, Shelley
• Scientific advances – Galvani, transfusions…
• Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley

11. Where next…?

12. Read at least two of the following
landscape poems:
• Mont Blanc by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni by
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
• Autumn by John Clare
• Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron
1. How are descriptions of landscape in Romantic Poetry
similar to those in Chapters 9 and 10 of Frankenstein?
• Ext. How do Romantic writers perceive the individual?

13. Natural Philosophy – we now call it Natural
Sciences (Bio + Chem)
Important during Enlightenment = empirical
understanding of human life
Agrippa - a necromancer (magician)
Paracelsus – a physician
Magnus – studied the human brain