Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me.

It's an absolute pleasure to have you here.

My name is Miss Halladay and I'll be your teacher for today.

I can't wait to get started with today's lesson because I absolutely love "Frankenstein." It is my favourite novel in the whole world, so I can't wait to show you what I find so amazing and so interesting about this novel.

Let's get started.

So today's lesson is called "Frankenstein" and the Gothic context.

And by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to recognise and also explore Shelley's use of Gothic conventions in "Frankenstein." Here are some keywords that you'll need to unlock today's learning.

We've got liminality, transgression, vitality, to violate and vengeance.

Let's take a look at these keywords' definitions.

So first of all, liminality is the physical process of transitioning across boundaries and borders.

A transgression is any violation of a boundary, rule or law.

Vitality is the state of being strong and full of life.

To violate something is to break or act against it.

And finally, vengeance is when a person inflicts harm on another because they themselves have been harmed by that person previously.

I'd like you to keep a lookout for the keywords in today's lesson.

If you think you might struggle to remember them, please do feel free to pause the video and jot some of the definitions down before you move on to the learning.

Here's today's lesson outline.

We're going to start by looking at this concept of liminality and also the concept of transgression within the novel.

We're then going to have a look in more depth at this idea of good versus evil in "Frankenstein." But let's start with liminality and transgression first.

So liminality is a really important feature of Gothic literature, but it's quite a difficult concept to get your head around.

Jun explains it as this, "The concept of liminality is a difficult one.

I like to think of it as the boundary between two opposing states.

Like good and evil or the living and the dead or madness and sanity." And Sofia states, "Well, interesting.

So we're in secondary school, which I guess could be described as the liminal state between childhood and adulthood." And Jim replies, "Well, yeah, exactly.

Liminality is basically the space between what is and what will happen next." So liminality is that middle point between two different states of being.

Let's check for understanding.

Which of the following is an example of liminality? Is it A, being pregnant, B, being a parent, or, C being a child? So which of these answer options represents that middle point between two different states? Pause the video and have a go answering.

Off you go.

Fantastic if you got A.

Really well done.

Being pregnant can be described as a liminal state because it is the liminal state of the mother between being a woman and being a mother.

It is also a liminal state for their baby as they have not been born yet.

So well done if you've got A.

You're absolutely right.

So having learned about the concept of liminality, Sofia made this observation.

She stated, "I can see examples of liminality in 'Frankenstein,' especially in this extract." Now this extract is taken from the moment where Victor animates the Creature and brings it to life, and he is describing it for the reader.

So I'm going to read it, and if you could follow along, that would be fantastic, thank you.

"His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful.

Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath, his hair was of a lustrous black and flowing, his teeth of a pearly whiteness, but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips." So a really disturbing extract there.

I'd like you to use the extract to discuss, well, how does the Creature represent the idea of liminality? So this idea of occupying the boundary between two states.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you discuss this very, very difficult question with the people around you.

But I have every faith that you'll be able to give a good go at answering it.

So off you go.

Fantastic discussions, and I was really impressed to see that many of you were absolutely spot on in your answers.

The Creature is in a liminal state between life and death because it is described as like a living corpse.

So the Creature is a liminal creature because it occupies that boundary between life and death.

I'm going to have a look at how Shelley shows us that in just a moment.

So here's how the Creature is presented as being in a liminal state.

So first of all, in this description, "His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath." Well that colour yellow has symbolism of illness, and that could suggest that the Creature is half dead and half alive because it looks so unhealthy.

The adverb "scarcely" also creates really horrifying imagery because we can imagine being able to see all of the Creature's muscles and arteries, and flesh beneath the skin.

And that's disgusting because it reminds us of, like, a dissected body.

The adjective "watery" to describe its watery eyes again implies that it is ill in some way.

So it suggests the kind of lack of vitality and brightness that the Creature has, and it's almost half alive.

Now when a person dies, their eyes tend to go really cloudy and quite watery, and so Shelley has used this word "watery" perhaps to make that link or that connection to a dead body to suggest that the Creature is half living but also half dead.

And finally, that "shrivelled complexion" again implies that lack of vitality.

It's almost like the Creature is decaying from the inside out.

And we know that the Creature is made up of stolen body parts and organs, like stolen skin, and therefore this shrivelled skin is definitely the shrivelled skin of dead bodies.

We also imagine that the Creature looking almost like a dried up old fruit, like a dried up old passion fruit, if you've ever seen one of those, where it's got loads of wrinkles in it because it's just got no moisture, no vitality in it.

A healthy complexion is bright, and therefore this is not a healthy creature.

It's not a natural creature.

And Shelley characterises it as occupying this liminal state between life and death.

And again, Shelley's use of colour symbolism is a nod to that as well, because that colour black, we really tend to associate with death and decay in literature.

So even the colours that Shelley chooses to describe this creature represent the idea that it is a liminal being that occupies this state between life and death.

It's not quite dead, but it's not quite living, and that's really disturbing to us as a reader.

So in creating this liminal creature, Frankenstein himself has transgressed.

He has violated moral and social boundaries.

And I'd like you to consider, well, what rule or law has Frankenstein broken? And this is a question that Sofia wants to know the answer to.

So I was thinking it would be great for you to help her.

So I'd like you to pause the video and discuss with the people around you, what laws or rules has Victor Frankenstein broken in creating this liminal creature? Off you go.

Some really insightful ideas there and a real kind of diverse range of suggestions.

And here's some of the things that you might have said.

As Jun points out, "Frankenstein has transgressed against the rules of nature and science, but also God too." And we're going to have a look at this idea of Frankenstein's transgressions in a little bit more detail in the first task of the lesson.

So I would like you to discuss and bullet point ideas for the following questions.

In what way has Victor broken the rules of nature? In what way has Victor broken the rules of science? In what way has Victor gone against God? And finally, what are the consequences of Victor's moral transgression in the novel? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at trying to pinpoint exactly how Victor has broken each of these rules and transgressed.

So make sure that you are taking opportunities for discussion if you have them, and that you are bullet pointing not only your own ideas, but other people's ideas as well.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic discussions.

Let's come back together to share some ideas.

So some of the ideas that you might have come up with, first of all, for how Victor has broken the rules of nature, are that Victor has gone against the rules of nature by creating an unnatural being, made from the body parts of other beings.

That is not natural.

It's not a natural birth, it's not a natural creature, and therefore Victor has transgressed against nature.

So Victor has also used an unnatural method of generating life, which is galvanization.

Okay, so he's passed electrical currents through the Creature in order to bring it to life, and he's thereby violated the laws of nature.

As we know, that that is not how life is brought about.

Now in terms of Victor and his transgression against science, well, Victor has broken the rules of science by using it immorally to a selfish end.

Science is about progression and bettering the human experience, and unfortunately, Victor's science experiment has only served his own interests.

And in that sense, he has transgressed against science.

How has Victor gone against God? Well, in the novel, we see Victor playing God because he creates another human being.

And this is an activity that we tend to think of as God's responsibility.

Victor has transgressed against religion by positioning himself as a creator of life.

Okay, so he's almost put himself on an equal footing to God, and that is not right.

Now in terms of what other consequences of Victor's moral transgression, well, Victor's punished quite severely for his moral transgression.

The Creature transgresses himself by murdering several of Victor's friends and family in an act of vengeance against his creator.

And that is forms part of Victor's punishment for his selfishness and carelessness.

And he's also haunted psychologically by guilt and remorse for what he has done.

So Victor very much suffers for his actions in this novel.

Well done if you've got any of those ideas.

And as always, if you missed any and you want them in your notes, please do feel free to write them down.

So let's have a look at good versus evil now.

So the battle between good and evil is a classic Gothic convention, which I'm sure you all know 'cause you're all experts on the Gothic by now.

Here is a list of actions from "Frankenstein," and I'd like you to sort them into two columns, good and evil.

You are not allowed to have a mid column.

You have to pick if they're good or evil.

There's no sitting on the fence in this activity.

So here are the actions you are going to sort.

We've got Victor robbing graves to collect body parts for his creation.

The Creature murdering Victor's wife.

Victor destroying the mate that he's made for the Creature.

Victor rejecting his creation by running away from it.

Victor wishing he could destroy the monster he's created.

The Creature murdering Victor's friend, Henry Clerval.

And finally, the Creature making the decision to destroy himself.

So, in pairs or in groups or on your own, however you'd like to do this, I'd like you to sort these acts out into good and evil acts, making a definite decision.

As I said, there is no sitting on the fence in this task.

So pause the video and off you go.

Thank you.

Very, very interesting to see you all do that.

And many of you saying that you wish there was a middle column because some of them you weren't quite sure which way to go.

But it was great to see that you were all able, through discussion and through debate, to make those final decisions on which column you wanted to put the acts into.

So well done.

We asked our Oak pupils to do the same task at the same time that you did.

So let's hear what they did.

So Sofia states, "Well, here's where I put them." So Sofia put under the Good column, Victor destroys the mate he's made for the Creature, Victor wishes he could destroy the monster he's created, and the Creature decides to destroy himself.

And in the Evil column, Sofia has put Victor robbing graves to collect body parts.

Yeah, fair enough, I think.

The Creature murdering Victor's wife.

Yes, I will agree with that.

Victor rejecting his creation by running away from it.

You know how strongly I feel about that, so yes, I would agree.

And the Creature murdering Victor's friend, Henry Clerval.

Yeah, fair enough.

Now Sofia explained her positionings to Jacob, and Jacob responded, "Well, I found this task really hard because, actually, the line between good and evil is very blurred in the novel." And Sofia responds, "How so?" So it seems that Sofia didn't find this task as difficult as Jacob did, perhaps.

And Jacob replies, "Well, both characters have both good and evil within them." So I'm guessing Jacob was saying it's hard to put them into columns because, actually, both characters exhibit good qualities, but they also exhibit evil qualities.

And I know that from watching you guys do that task.

Many of you also thought the same thing because you wish there could be that middle column 'cause you weren't quite sure in some cases whether it was a good thing, you know, overall, or whether it was an evil thing overall, because it was good for one character, but evil for another.

So it's quite difficult to sort those out in some ways.

And Jacob goes on to explain, "It's interesting that you've put Victor destroys the Creature's mate' in the good column.

Whilst I see why this could be good, because Victor's learned his lesson and he's trying to maintain control of the Creature, in the Creature's eyes, this was the most evil thing that Victor did.

So, the question of whether something is good or evil depends on who it is good or evil for." And that's a really interesting question because many of the decisions that Victor makes in this novel are actually very selfish decisions, and they're the right decision for him, but he hasn't considered the impact of those decisions on other people.

So I think that's what Jacob is alluding to here.

And Sofia states, "Well, I agree with you Jacob.

What I find interesting in this novel is that we often think of monsters as evil and humans as good, but that isn't always the case in this text." And what a fantastic point that is from Sofia, and, actually, the reason that I love "Frankenstein" so much because Shelley's really raising a question about humanity here.

So I'd like you to weigh in on this discussion and say who you think is more of a monster.

Is it the Creature or is it Frankenstein? And I'd like you to justify your answer by telling me why you think what you think.

It would be great if you could discuss this with somebody else.

So if at all possible, try and make use of that discussion opportunity, but if not, and if you're working at home, then do feel free to jot your ideas down independently.

Pause the video and have that discussion now.

I'm really excited to share ideas together.

Fantastic responses, and again, such a diverse range of opinions.

Some of you saying that you think Victor's more of a monster than the Creature because he acts really immorally and he treats the Creature so unfairly and so unjustly.

But then some of you saying that there is no excuse for the Creature's murderous actions, and that actually, he's living up to his appearance and his name, and that's disappointing.

So thank you for your opinions.

Some really excellent ideas there.

Well done.

Let's check for understanding.

Is this true or false? It is easy to understand that, in "Frankenstein," the Creature is good and Frankenstein is evil.

I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video while you decide whether you think that statement is true or false.

Off you go.

And fantastic if you chose false.

What I'd like you to do now is justify your answer.

So I've presented you with two justifications, and I'd like you to read them both and decide which you think is the correct reason as to why that statement is false.

Again, off you go.

Fantastic and amazing work if you selected A.

The lines in this novel between good and evil are really blurred, and Shelley, through this novel and through its characters, really forces us to reflect on and question what evil truly is and what it looks like.

So well done if you selected A.

Onto our last task of the lesson now, and it's a good one.

Now, we know that the Gothic is a genre which is concerned with exploring the darker side to humanity.

So I'd like you to discuss the questions below, bearing that in mind.

First of all, who or what is the darker side to humanity in this novel? What do you think Shelley was warning us against in writing this novel? And finally, what do you think makes a man and what do you think makes a monster? So in the last question, I'm not interested in what you think Shelley thinks, I'm interested in what you personally think.

So, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you discuss those questions with the people around you.

And again, as always, I am just so excited to see what you come up with because this is why I love "Frankenstein," such great debate opportunities.

So pause the video and make use of those opportunities now.

Off you go.

Some absolutely fantastic discussions there, and I can see so many of you really kind of arguing with one another in a respectful way there, which is fantastic, okay? And really kind of delving deeper into exactly what you think and tying some of your opinions to the text.

And really interesting to see that some of your opinions have actually changed since reading "Frankenstein," and that you've actually kinda reconsidered what you think evil and the dark side of humanity truly is because of the extracts that you've read from "Frankenstein," which is fantastic.

And it's so lovely to see that so many of you love this novel as much as I do.

So very exciting for me as well.

Let's see some of the ideas that you might come up with.

So as Aisha points out, "Arguably, Victor's consuming ambition is the darker side of humanity." Because it's the consuming ambition that drives him to commit this heinous act of creating another human being out of stolen body parts.

As Izzy states, "I actually think that this novel is a warning against moral transgression." I also agree with Izzy.

I think that Shelley's very clear as to the fact that there will be disastrous consequences if people use science to transgress morally.

And finally, as Andeep points out, he thinks that what Shelley might be trying to illustrate is that monsters are not born monsters, but they become monsters through their actions and through other people's treatment of them.

"The Creature wasn't born resentful and murderous, he became this way because of the rejection he faced." And actually that rejection is kind of what inspired his murderous.

Destructive habits.

And that's really sad in itself.

And we're not excusing the Creature's behaviour.

We're not saying, "Well, it's okay that he murdered Victor's friends and family because he was treated poorly." That's not what we're saying.

But we are looking to approach him more empathetically and try to understand what might drive somebody, or something in this case, to behave in that way.

And I think this novel's really useful in providing an answer to that question, and it might be other people's treatment of them and the injustice that they face.

So I think this is what.

For me, what the novel's really useful for is trying to understand why somebody might become wicked or evil or turn their back on humanity.

So well done if you've got any of those ideas.

So to summarise the learning from today, first of all, liminality means occupying the space between two states.

Secondly, the Creature is a liminal creature because it is characterised as a living corpse.

Victor has committed a moral transgression against nature, God and science in creating the Creature.

In the novel, Shelley suggests that the line between good and evil is blurry because both Frankenstein and the Creature demonstrate both qualities at different points in the novel.

Shelley uses the Gothic genre to explore the darker side of humanity, that is consuming ambition.

And Shelley arguably presents us with the idea that real monsters are not born, but shaped by society or those around them.

Thank you very much for coming to today's lesson.

I have absolutely loved teaching you and hearing all of your fantastic ideas in the discussion tasks that we've undertaken today.

I am hugely looking forward to seeing you next time, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day.

See you later.