Lesson video

I'm Miss Howell, welcome to today's English lesson, all you will need is a pen and piece of paper.

So take a moment to please deal with distractions, and make sure that you have everything you need at hand for today's learning.

Our lesson today is going to look at "Frankenstein", and we're going to apply, "The Uncanny", to this famous gothic literature text.

Please take a moment to take down your title, pausing the video here to complete that now.

Now please write down your key word for the lesson, grotesque, and the definition, pausing here to do that now.

We are going to study Mary Shelley, the creator of "Frankenstein", and look at her background and how she came up with the famous monster.

Note that the monster is not called "Frankenstein", but Victor Frankenstein was in fact the creator of the monster.

Whilst we're going through these notes, please just pause the video, as and when you need to, in order to take down some of the information.

You will need these notes as you you will be answering questions on this information later in the lesson.

So it's really important you do pause the video and write down the key ideas as we go through them.

So Mary Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the gothic novel, "Frankenstein", or "The Modern Prometheus", in 1818.

She also edited and promoted the work with her husband, the romantic poet and philosopher, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The full title of the book is "Frankenstein", or "The Modern Prometheus".

Modern additions of "Frankenstein" tend to drop the book's subtitle.

In Greek myth, Prometheus was the god who moulded the human race from clay, taught it how to live and gave it fire, much to the displeasure of the gods.

His punishment for doing so was to be bound to a rock for eternity, his liver eaten out by eagles over and over.

Mary Shelley had quite a tumultuous life.

Her mother died when she was just a month old.

Then when she was 16, she met Percy Shelley and the pair fell in love.

Her father disapproved, probably because Shelley was married with children, so the couple ran away and travelled Europe.

The two married when Shelley's wife committed suicide.

Her life was peppered with tragedy as she saw her first two children die at an early age.

She had five children in total, and only one who made it to adulthood.

Some believes that her desire to bring back her loved ones was a reason why resurrection was such a prominent idea in "Frankenstein." Mary Shelley creates the story in 1816, in Geneva, where she was staying with Percy Shelley and their friends.

Due to extreme weather, the group were trapped indoors and passed the time by telling ghost stories.

Lord Byron set a challenge, they would each write their own horror story and vote for the winner.

Shelly struggled to think of a story, and then she had a dream.

She later described it as, "A vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie." She, "Saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together", and, "Saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy half-vital motion".

Theory of galvanism.

Undoubtedly, the talks that Mary and her friends had at Byron's villa has a lot to do with her dream.

One of the topics was the theory of galvanism.

Named for the scientist, Luigi Galvani, galvanism proposed that the human body contained a type of electricity that travelled from the brain to stimulate muscles in the rest of the body.

During experiments, Galvani discovered that a dead frog's leg muscles were stimulated by electric current.

Talk of galvanism had an obvious impact on Mary's creation, Dr.

Frankenstein's creature is animated by a spark of electricity.

The dream was the morbid one about the creation of a new man, by a scientist, with the hubris to assume the role of God.

Far from just being the inspiration of a horror story to tell around the fire, this dream that, "Haunted her midnight pillow", turned into a successful novel in 1818.

This novel questions life, evil, creation, humanity, and has become one of the most famous gothic stories.

Your task now, is to answer the questions on the slide to consolidate your learning so far.

Please make sure that you use full sentences when answering these questions, and quotations where possible in your answer.

Pause the video now to complete the answers to these questions in as much detail as you can.

Now, we will review your answers.

Using your different coloured pen, just edit, refine your answers as we go through the correct one.

Pause the video, as and when you need to, as we're going through, to allow yourself to do this.

So for number one, "Frankenstein" or "The Modern Prometheus".

For two, as Prometheus was the god who moulded the human race from clay, taught it how to live and gave it fire, this suggests that, "Frankenstein", will be about the creation of life.

Number three, her life was peppered with tragedy as she saw has her first two children die at an early age.

She had five children in total, and only one who made it to adulthood.

For number four, the three inspirations where, Lord Byron set a challenge, they would each write their own horror story and vote for the winner.

She had a dream, she ,"Saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." And talk of galvanism had an obvious impact on Mary's creation, Dr.

Frankenstein's, "Creature", is animated by a, "Spark", of electricity.

And finally, the answer to number five, galvanism proposed that the human body contained a type of electricity that travelled from the brain to stimulate muscles in the rest of the body.

We are now about to read our extract for today's lesson on, "Frankenstein." The extract has been split into four sections.

Prompt questions are provided to help you think about what is happening.

Please answer those questions on your lined paper in full sentences, using quotations from the extract to support your answers.

You will also need a different coloured pen or a pencil to self-assess and check your progress.

In this chapter that we are about to read, Victor Frankenstein has brought his creation to life, but cannot stand to look at him.

"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.

With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.

It was already one in the morning, the rain pattered dismally out against the pains, and my candle was nearly burnt out when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open, it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs." Pause here to answer the question.

"How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features of beautiful, Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hear 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 at the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight back lips." Pause here to answer the question.

"The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.

I've worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.

For this I had deprived myself of rest and health.

I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.

Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep." Pause her to answer the question.

"At length lassitude succeeded to the tumult I had before endured, and I threw myself in the bed of my clothes, endeavouring to seek a few moments of forgetfulness.

But it was in vain; I slept indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt.

Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel." Pause here to answer the question.

Now we will review your answers.

Using your different coloured pen, just edit, refine your responses as we go through the correct answers.

Please make sure that you've answered in full sentences and that you have supported your answers with quotations.

Pause the video, as and when you need to, to allow yourself to take down any feedback from the answers as we go through them.

So for number one, Victor Frankenstein, "With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony", witnesses the, "Lifeless", creation he has made.

All of a sudden, with his, "Candle nearly burnt out", Victor observes the monster coming to life by the, "Glimmer of the half-extinguish light." He exclaims, "I saw the dull yellow of the creature open." Number two.

The monster looks grotesque and the narrator is horrified by his creation.

Even though, "His limbs were in proportion", the monster's skin is described as, "Scarcely covering the work of muscles and arteries beneath", indicating that his skin was almost transparent and everything underneath it was visible to the human eye.

He is described as having, "Lustrous black hair", and teeth, "Of a pearly whiteness", but this is described as a, "Horrid contrast", with the rest of the monster's appearance.

This exposes that Victor's effort to create an aesthetically pleasing being was a failure.

For number three.

The narrator thinks about his nerve-wracking endeavour, where he, "Deprived himself of rest and health", to create human life and how futile it became.

He concludes that the, "Beauty of dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled his heart", as soon as he set eyes on this monster.

As a result of this trauma, and narrator is unable to sleep and explained how he, "Rushed out the room", which suggests his revulsion at his creation.

And then finally, the answer to number four.

The narrator is tormented and, "Disturbed by the wildest dreams", when he is finally able to sleep.

He envisions his fiance, Elizabeth, but as he kisses her lips, "They become livid with the hue of death." He then exclaims how, "I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms", suggesting he is haunted by feelings of death and decay as a result of the creation he has made.

Your task is now to apply our learning on, "The Uncanny, particularly for its work and how it applies to Frankenstein.

So looking at the extract that we have just gone through, I would like you to answer the question, how could the chapter link to Freud's work on, "The Uncanny"? Please make sure that when you answer this question, you do so using full sentences.

And I would also like you to use quotations from the extract that we have read to support your answer, making sure, of course, that you answer in as much detail as you can.

Pause the video here to complete your task.

Now we will review your answer.

Using your different coloured pen, edit, refine your answer with the correct answer on the board.

Pause the video, as and when you need to, in order to allow yourself to do this.

So hopefully you were able to get down, within your answer, something that resembles the following.

Shelly portrays the monster as an uncanny object of both beauty and ugliness, which when combined, causes terror.

The presentation of the monster's grotesque form juxtaposes with his redeeming features, invoking dread in Victor and the reader.

For example, he has, "Lustrous black hair", yet this contrast with his, "Shrivelled complexion and straight black lips".

Perhaps, it is life that is recognised as the monster takes on some human form yet, due to the nature with which he has been brought back to life, he evokes an eerie sense of dread in the reader who may well share Victor's, "Horror and disgust", at what he created.

Once you have made your edits and refinement to your answer, that brings us to the end of our lesson.

Thank you for your focus, and I hope you've enjoyed our learning today.