Nellie F, Drew B, Logan C, Julia R

                                      Visual Art

The Art of Frankenstein, David Plunkert:

Plunkert’s depiction of the monster has a sickening effect on the viewer. The use of the dull yellow color in background makes you believe the illustration has been around for a while. Also, his collage type effect of showing many medieval medical devices adds a gruesome factor to the picture.  Along with the medical instruments Plunkert’s use of showing the head being pierced together proves that Frankenstein’s monster is more mechanical that it is a living human.

                                             Music

“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark”, Fall Out Boy:

In the song "My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark" by Fall Out Boy, it talks about being alone and angry. When it says "I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart" I think of how the monster feels about Victor. He hates him because he created him then abandoned him. It's Victors fault he is miserable so he wants revenge or for Victor to fix everything. It says "Burn everything you love" I reflect on the part in the book when the Monster burns the DeLacey's cottage. He burned it because he loved them and they left him.

                                 www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMYZxdhiPJE

                                         Literature

Frankenstein, Edward Field:

In this poem, Victor is described as a Baron.  A baron is the lowest grade of nobility.  This title shows Victor as the low, corrupt member of society.  It also uses the adjective: ignorant, while describing the villagers attacking the monster, showing that they won’t ‘open their eyes’ and try to understand the monster.  They pursuit him only because he is ugly and makes ugly noises.  This alone shows a theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein of how hard it is to fit in while mankind is so ignorant and focuses only on the appearance and not the personality.

The monster has escaped from the dungeon
where he was kept by the Baron,
who made him with knobs sticking out from each side of his
neck
where the head was attached to the body
and stitching all over
where parts of cadavers were sewed together.

He is pursued by the ignorant villagers,
who think he is evil and dangerous because he is ugly
and makes ugly noises.
They wave firebrands at him and cudgels and rakes,
but he escapes and comes to the thatched cottage
of an old blind man playing on the violin Mendelssohn's "Spring
Song."

Hearing him approach, the blind man welcomes him:
"Come in, my friend," and takes him by the arm.
"You must be weary," and sits him down inside the house.
For the blind man has long dreamed of having a friend
to share his lonely life.

The monster has never known kindness-the Baron was cruel-
but somehow he is able to accept it now,
and he really has no instincts to harm the old man,
for in spite of his awful looks he has a tender heart:
Who knows what cadaver that part of him came from?

The old man seats him at table, offers him bread,
and says, "Eat, my friend." The monster
rears back roaring in terror.
"No, my friend, it is good. Eat-gooood"
and the old man shows him how to eat,
and reassured, the monster eats
and says, "Eat-gooood,"
trying out the words and finding them good too.

The old man offers him a glass of wine,
"Drink, my friend. Drink-goood."
The monster drinks, slurping horribly, and says,
"Drink-goood," in his deep nutty voice
and smiles maybe for the first time in his life.

Then the blind man puts a cigar in the monster's mouth
and lights a large wooden match that flares up in his face.
The monster, remembering the torches of the villagers,
recoils, grunting in terror.
"No, my friend, smoke-goood,"
and the old man demonstrates with his own cigar.
The monster takes a tentative puff
and smiles hugely, saying, "Smoke-goood,"
and sits back like a banker, grunting and puffing.

Now the old man plays Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" on the
violin
while tears come into our dear monster's eyes
as he thinks of the stones of the mob, the pleasures of mealtime,
the magic new words he has learned
and above all of the friend he has found.

It is just as well that he is unaware-
being simple enough to believe only in the present-
that the mob will find him and pursue him
for the rest of his short unnatural life,
until trapped at the whirlpool's edge
he plunges to his death.

                                        Similarities

These three pieces are all similar in the way that they portray Gothic aspects.  Each of these have dark themes as a part of their work. They all are have the idea of horror incorporated into it. Each either talks about or shows creepy and possibly disturbing aspects. For example the picture shows creepy tools along with a creepy head, and the poem talks about the monster and the "knobs sticking out of his neck", and the song talks about darkness and the devil.  All of these have creepy attributes to them and correspond with the Gothic theme that is also in Frankenstein.