26 May 2009
Frankenstein II
So for Thursday, I ask that you look closely at Safie's story in pages 98-102. You are welcome to respond to it here, but you can also write about anything we read in class today, or the secondary readings for Thursday. You could also repeat the "respond to one sentence from Frankenstein" prompt. I asked you to think about two questions as you continue reading, one of which was to do with how Shelley negotiates her relationship to her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley in the Preface (1818) and Introduction (1831). Does anyone remember the other question? That is a real query...I don't!
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for the second question all i wrote down was "inconstant lover." not sure what that was in reference to now that i look back at it.
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks Molly, that was it; Shelley makes a reference in the 1831 Introduction to the _History of the Inconstant Lover_ in which the protagonist, "when he thought to clasp the bride to whom he had pledged his vows, found himself in the arms of the pale ghost of her whom he had deserted." I suggested that if the Milton sonnet "On His Deceas'd Wife" piqued your interest in its connection with the episode Josh cited in his comment yesterday, you might try to look for that original story, or write through some ideas about how ghostly female presences trade and shift in the text.
ReplyDelete"I, the miserable and abandoned, am an abortion to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on." p. 189
ReplyDeleteThe interjection of "abortion" immediately sent me into consideration of how Frankenstein's relationship to the monster resembles a parent's relationship to a child. Obviously, he gives life to the monster, but the monster is quickly unwanted and thus is a kind of abortion. Frankenstein consents to the monster's wishes, even after learning that he is responsible for William's death. He feels beholden to his creation, and responsible for its actions, and is manipulated into compliance, just as a parent might be. Ultimately Frankenstein does not make good on his promise to make a companion, which is another kind of abortion, with perhaps a more literal usage of the word.
I think that Safie and her father are interesting characters to look at while considering the theme of domesticity. She seems to be entirely motivated by a desire to settle down with Felix, which is clearly a domestic goal, but her father opposes her almost entirely in ways that seek to remove her from any possibility of the close domestic circle that comforts almost character in Frankenstein. The exception seems to be Safie’s father, whose conflict is entirely based upon his dealings with the French government. I think it’s accurate to consider this sort of thing to be a public matter, which is opposed to what Safie, Felix, and the rest of the family wants, which is a private domestic life.
ReplyDeleteAt a first glance, Safie’s character seems to play to a general stereotype of a woman from the East. She is pictured as an exotic woman, sensual and submissive - an object of affection, rather than a person actively pursuing her fate. Her vulnerability is emphasized by the lack of knowledge of the country’s customs and her inability to communicate in French. It is only logical that she passively accepts the marriage arranged by her father. However, as we continue reading we learn that by accepting this marriage she is in effect taking charge of her fate, as the union with Felix allows her to remain in France where she will be able to play a more active role in the society. Shelly seems to deliberately shape Safie’s character within the existing stereotype only to later carefully break it by revealing Safie’s resentment of her native religion and the social order in Turkey, and her determination to pursue a more satisfying life in Europe.
ReplyDeleteShelley's focus and introduction of the character of Safie did at first suprise me. It seemed sort of tangential, except in refernce to and for the embellishment of the history of the De Lacey family. But upon re-reading it, I agree that Safie's presence in Shelley's story serves as another sighting of female wherewithall in a male dominate era. Safie is resiliant and exotic, seeming to embody typical female behavior modules, but is ultimately semi-rebelious and strong. Her desire to marry with Felix at all costs is a sort of rebellion in itself. Her tenacity is uncharacteristic of the more eastern european women delineated in FRANKENSTIEN thus far, ie. ELizabeth and Agatha seem less likely to pursue a man to such a fervored extent. Is Shelley making a cultural commentary, or hilighting the varied ways in which women can chose to comport themselves in the given time period? What is she suggesting?
ReplyDeleteRegarding Safie... perhaps this is the appearance of the Other? An exaltation of the Western Christian over the Eastern Arab? Safie's Christian Arab slave mom "instructed her daughter in the tenets of her religion, and taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect, and an independence of spirit, forbidden to the female followers of Mahomet" (99). It feels like a a sort of racialized portrayal, she's Orientalized.
ReplyDeleteBut earlier, the creatures sees Safie showing empathy for the colonized: " I heard the discovery of the American hemisphere, and wept with Safie over the hapless fate of its original inhabitants" (95). Is this an indictment of colonialism? Despite the Christian-is-better-than-Muslim slant Shelley lays out, she alludes to the ugliness of that Western (white) Christian hegemony. The creature weeps in concert with Safie, maybe recognizing his own colonized self, the quintessential product of Victor's cultural imperialism. He's an Other of Victor and realizes he is so when Victor flees in terror when he first sees him, not when he sees himself. (39)