Sample writing assignment: Frankenstein’s Conversations with William Godwin. The following is an example of the kind of response you should be looking to provide for the writing assignment for this module. As before, note how the piece sets out a clear response to the prompt in the opening sentence and how it goes on to support this argument with evidence from the novel. In your own responses to the prompt for this module, you should similarly look to offer a clear and reasonable argument and to provide strong support for your claim. Please note, too, the way in which the Writing Assignment is set out. Please make sure your own response is similarly formatted and that it, too, is clear of grammatical, spelling, or syntactical errors. I will be looking for a clear argument, strong textual evidence, and a well-formatted and written response. Please be sure to provide a Works Cited. This can be in any form you are most comfortable with (AP, MLA, Chicago, Oxford, etc.), but should make it clear what is being referred to and where that item can be found. Please note: the 250-word limit (plus or minus 10%) applies only to the text of your argument. It does not include the works cited or the heading information. Sample question: To what extent can Frankenstein be considered a conversation with William Godwin? A. Student Writing Assignment, Module 3 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an extended conversation with her father William Godwin. From the opening dedication, which alludes to two of his most famous works, to the Creature’s final speech and suicide, the novel interrogates Godwin’s ideals of rational benevolence, suggesting that his philosophy overlooks the importance of domestic affections in the decision-making process. In particular, the novel’s depiction of Victor’s rational brilliance but limited emotional maturity reveals the extent of Mary Shelley’s conversation with her father. Godwin argued that humans should rely solely on reason to determine their actions. Every action, he argued, should be judged by its potential benefits to society. He set this out philosophically in Political Justice and then in the novel Caleb Williams, which tells the story of two men locked in a battle for dominance. Frankenstein borrows much from the plot of Caleb Williams, but Mary Shelley’s main purpose in mirroring her father’s work is to show the limitations of a philosophy based solely on the dictates of reason. Victor is the embodiment of reason: he is a groundbreaking scientist, able to resurrect dead bodies. His rationality, in other words, could produce great benefits to society. He is, however, fatally flawed: he does not pay enough attention to his own feelings, nor to the feelings of others. Instead of reflecting rationally on his achievement when he sparks the Creature into life, “breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (36). The emphasis on heart, here.

1. Sample writing assignment: Frankenstein’s
Conversations with William Godwin.
The following is an example of the kind of
response you should be looking to provide
for the writing
assignment for this module. As before, note how
the piece sets out a clear response to the
prompt in
the opening sentence and how it goes on to support
this argument with evidence from the novel. In
your own responses to the prompt for this module,
you should similarly look to offer a clear and
reasonable argument and to provide strong support
for your claim. Please note, too, the way in
which the Writing Assignment is set out. Please
make sure your own response is similarly
formatted and that it, too, is clear of grammatical,
spelling, or syntactical errors. I will be
looking for
a clear argument, strong textual evidence, and a
well-formatted and written response.
Please be sure to provide a Works Cited.

2. This can be in any form you are most comfortable
with
(AP, MLA, Chicago, Oxford, etc.),but should make
it clear what is being referred to and where
that
item can be found.
Please note:the 250-word limit (plusor minus 10%)
applies only to the text of your argument. It
does not include the works cited or the heading
information.
Sample question: To what extent can Frankenstein be
considered a conversation with William
Godwin?
A. Student
Writing Assignment, Module 3
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an extended
conversation with her father William Godwin.
From the
opening dedication, which alludes to two of

3. his most famous works, to the Creature’s
final speech
and suicide, the novel interrogates Godwin’s ideals
of rational benevolence, suggesting that his
philosophy overlooks the importance of domestic
affections in the decision-making process. In
particular, the novel’s depiction of Victor’s rational
brilliance but limited emotional maturity
reveals the extent of Mary Shelley’s conversation
with her father.
Godwin argued that humans should rely solely
on reason to determine their actions. Every
action, he argued, should be judged by its
potential benefits to society. He set this out
philosophicallyin Political Justice and then in the
novel Caleb Williams, which tells the storyof
two
men locked in a battle for dominance.
Frankenstein borrows much from the plot of
Caleb Williams,
but Mary Shelley’s main purpose in mirroring her
father’s work is to showthe limitations of a
philosophy based solely on the dictates of
reason. Victor is the embodiment of reason:
he is a

4. groundbreaking scientist, able to resurrect dead bodies.
His rationality, in otherwords, could
produce greatbenefits to society. He is, however,
fatally flawed: he does not pay enough
attention
to his own feelings, nor to the feelings of others.
Instead of reflecting rationally on his achievement
when he sparks the Creature into life, “breathless
horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (36).
The
emphasis on heart, here, suggests that what he is
missing is the ability to feel. As the novel
reveals,
the consequences of this lack of feeling are fatal:
everyone Victor loves dies. [268 words]
Works Cited.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, ed. J. Paul Hunter,
second edition (New York: Norton, 2012).
Module 3 Readings: Love, life, and

5. family
1. Lord Byron, “Prometheus” 2
2. Percy Shelley, “Opening speech,” from Prometheus
Unbound 4
Please note that only a couple of readings for
this module are in this PDF.The others
are:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Norton Critical Edition
recommended, either 2nd or 3rd
edition)
James Joyce, “The Sisters,” “An Encounter,”
“Counterparts,” “A Little Cloud,” from
Dubliners (Dover Thrift edition recommended)
2
1. Lord Byron, “Prometheus”
Titan! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;

6. The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.
Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refus'd thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift Eternity
Was thine—and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.
Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
3

7. The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse
Of thine impenetrable Spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence:
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself—and equal to all woes,
And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.
4
2. Percy Shelley, “Opening speech,” from Prometheus
Unbound
Prometheus.
Monarch of Godsand Dæmons, and all Spirits

8. But One, who throng those bright and rolling
worlds
Which Thouand I alone of living things
Behold with sleepless eyes! regard this Earth
Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou
[1.5]
Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise,
And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,
With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.
Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate,
Hast thou made reignand triumph, to thy scorn,
[1.10]
O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge.
Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours,
And moments aye divided by keen pangs
Till they seemed years, torture and solitude,
Scorn and despair, — theseare mine empire: —
[1.15]
More glorious far than that which thou surveyest
From thineunenvied throne, O Mighty God!
Almighty, had I deigned to share the shame
Of thineill tyranny, and hung not here
Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain, [1.20]
Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb,
Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of
life.
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!
No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.
I ask the Earth, have not the mountainsfelt? [1.25]
I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,
Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,

9. Heaven's ever-changing Shadow, spread below,
Haveits deaf waves not heard my agony?
Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever![1.30]
The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears
Of their moon-freezing crystals, the bright chains
Eat with their burning cold into my bones.
Heaven's wingèd hound, polluting from thy lips
His beak in poison not his own, tears up [1.35]
5
My heart; and shapeless sights come wandering
by,
The ghastly people of the realm of dream,
Mocking me: and the Earthquake-fiends are charged
To wrench the rivets from my quivering wounds
When the rocks split and closeagain behind:
[1.40]
While from their loud abysses howling throng
The geniiof the storm, urging the rage
Of whirlwind, and afflict me with keen hail.
And yet to me welcome is day and night,
Whether one breaks the hoar frost of the morn,
[1.45]
Or starry, dim, and slow, the otherclimbs
The leaden-coloured east; for then they lead
The wingless, crawling hours, one among whom
— As somedark Priest halesthe reluctant victim —
Shalldrag thee, cruelKing, to kiss the blood [1.50]
From thesepale feet, which then might trample

10. thee
If they disdained not such a prostrate slave.
Disdain! Ah no! I pity thee. What ruin
Will hunt thee undefended through wide Heaven!
How will thy soul, cloven to its depth with terror,
[1.55]
Gapelike a hell within! I speak in grief,
Not exultation, for I hate no more,
As then ere misery made me wise. The curse
Oncebreathed on thee I would recall. Ye
Mountains,
Whose many-voicèd Echoes, through the mist [1.60]
Of cataracts, flung the thunder of that spell!
Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost,
Which vibrated to hear me, and then crept
Shuddering through India! Thouserenest Air,
Through which the Sun walks burning without
beams! [1.65]
And ye swiftWhirlwinds, who on poisèd wings
Hung mute and moveless o'er yon hushed abyss,
As thunder, louder than your own, made rock
The orbèd world! If then my words had power,
Though I am changed so that aught evil wish
[1.70]
Is dead within; although no memory be
Of what is hate, let them not lose it now!
What was that curse? for ye all heard me
speak.
Writing Assignment Guidelines: Love, life, and

11. family.
The prompt for the third writing assignment is:
To what extent does Frankenstein support Mary
Wollstonecraft’s claim that women were
treated as inferior to men?
Youranswers should be submitted via Turnitin (the
link below this one) by 11.55 pm on
Wednesday 7 June 2017. It should be
250 words. 10% either side is permissible,
but pieces that
are longer than 275 words, or shorter than 225,
are liable to lose one letter grade. This
limit
applies to the text of your response; it does not
include the title or works cited information.
(Remember: the pointis not simply to writedown
everything you can thinkof. Rather, give the
topicsomethought and decide what your argument is
and what the best evidence is you have to
support that argument. At that pointyou should start
crafting your response, working out the

12. best way to make and support your argument.)
As before, the writing assignment will be graded
on the basisof its argument, its evidence, and its
style. In particular, I will be asking three
questions:
1. Does the response provide a clear argument?
2. Does the response provide strong evidence that
supports the argument?
3. Is the response well-formatted and written, free of
grammatical, stylistic, and spelling
errors?
Please feel free to contact me to discuss any
questions you have about the assignment.
The assignments will be assessed as follows (figures
in parentheses indicate the points you will be
awarded in the grade center for this assignment):

13. A (48) The writing assignment is strong in
all threeareas. It provides a clear
argument, the evidence provided is strong and
supports that particular
argument, and the work as a whole is well
presented,with no writing
errors.
B (43) The writing assignment is strong in
two areas, but falls down
significantly in one area.
The writing assignment contains a relatively strong
argument and
sometextual evidence, but thereis a slight lack of
focus in the
argument and evidence. There might be one or
two writing slips.
C (38) The writing assignment is strong in
one area, but falls down in two
areas. (For example, it might be well written
and presented,but the
argument and evidence are below the expected
standard).
The argument lacksclarity and/ or the evidence is
not connected to
the argument as well as it might be. There
might also be someminor
writing or formatting errors.

14. D (33) The writing assignment has significant
weaknesses. The argument may
not be clear, theremight be little or no textual
evidence, or the
evidence may not relate to the argument. There
are also likely to be
errors in the writing and formatting.
F (25) The writing assignment does not meet
the minimum expectations in
terms of making an argument, supporting that
argument with
evidence, and presenting the argument in a clear
fashion.
Please note:if you do not submit an assignment,
you will score “0” for the assignment. This
will
have a significant impact on your overall grade.
Module 3 Checklist: Love, life, and family
The writing assignment and multiple-choice test
must be completedby 11.55 pm
Wednesday 7 June. In order to complete
the module, you should complete the following
activities. I would recommend doing them in
the order listed.

15. 1. Readings Lord Byron, “Prometheus” [Bb]
Percy Shelley, “Opening speech” from Prometheus
Unbound [Bb]
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
James Joyce, “The Sisters,” “An Encounter,”
“Counterparts,”
“A Little Cloud,” from Dubliners
Please note:thereis more reading in this module
than in
preceding ones. Please give yourself enough time to
complete the readings.
2. Additional
activities
For an overview of the myth of Prometheus and
someof the
different versions, check out the Wikipediaentry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus
To prepare for the writing assignment, you might
like to read
the essay by Anne K. Mellor, “Possessing
Nature: The Female in
Frankenstein” at the end of the Norton Critical
Edition of
Frankenstein (pages 355–68).

16. 3. Lectures Listen to Lecture 5:
Frankenstein’s conversations and Lecture
6: Joycean paralysis
4. Writing
Sample
Read the sample writing assignment, “Frankenstein’s
conversation with William Godwin”
5. Test Completethe multiple-choice test by 11.55
pm Wednesday 7
June 2017
6. Writing
Assignment
Complete the writing assignment (Module 3: Writing
Assignment) by 11.55 pm Wednesday 7 June
2017. Be sure to
submit your work via Turnitin.