Man Made Monsters

Frontispiece to Frankenstein (1831 edition)

From the Wikipedia entry on Frankenstein:

Part of Frankenstein’s rejection of his creation is the fact that he does not give it a name, which causes a lack of identity. Instead it is referred to by words such as “monster,” “creature,” “demon,” “devil,” “fiend,” “wretch,” and “it.” When Frankenstein converses with the creature in Chapter 10, he addresses it as “vile insect,” “abhorred monster,” “fiend,” “wretched devil,” and “abhorred devil.”

During a telling of Frankenstein, Shelley referred to the creature as “Adam”. Shelley was referring to the first man in the Garden of Eden, as in her epigraph:

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?

John Milton, Paradise Lost (X. 743–5)

A possible interpretation of the name Victor is derived from Paradise Lost by John Milton, a great influence on Shelley (a quotation from Paradise Lost is on the opening page of Frankenstein and Shelley even has the monster himself read it). Milton frequently refers to God as “the Victor” in Paradise Lost, and Shelley sees Victor as playing God by creating life. In addition, Shelley’s portrayal of the monster owes much to the character of Satan in Paradise Lost; indeed, the monster says, after reading the epic poem, that he empathizes with Satan’s role in the story.

Depiction of Satan (1866)

by Gustave Doré

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil’s Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton’s major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.

The poem concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton’s purpose, stated in Book I, is to “justify the ways of God to men.” (from Wikipedia)

“Paradise Lost” at the Morgan Library

Leeds Museums and Galleries (book); Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his three daughters based on their flattery of him, bringing tragic consequences for all. Derived from the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king, the play has been widely adapted for the stage and motion pictures, with the title role coveted by many of the world’s most accomplished actors.

Originally drafted in 1605 or 1606, with its first known performance on St. Stephen’s Day in 1606, the first attribution to Shakespeare was a 1608 publication in a quarto of uncertain provenance; it may be an early draft or simply reflect the first performance text. The Tragedy of King Lear, a more theatrical revision, was included in the 1623 First Folio. Modern editors usually conflate the two, though some insist that each version has its own individual integrity that should be preserved.

After the English Restoration, the play was often revised with a happy, non-tragic ending for audiences who disliked its dark and depressing tone, but since the 19th century Shakespeare’s original version has been regarded as one of his supreme achievements. The tragedy is particularly noted for its probing observations on the nature of human suffering and kinship. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear.”

From Wikipedia

Woman with a Dog (1953)

The contrapasso of the sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets

by Stradanus

Contrapasso (or, in modern Italian, contrappasso), from the Latin contra and patior, “suffer the opposite,” refers to the punishment of souls in Dante’s Inferno “by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself.“

One of many examples of contrapasso occurs in the 4th Bolgia of the 8th circle of Hell (Inferno, Canto XX), where the sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward, so that they “found it necessary to walk backward, / because they could not see ahead of them.” While referring primarily to attempts to see into the future by forbidden means, this also symbolises the twisted nature of magic in general. Such a contrapasso “functions not merely as a form of divine revenge, but rather as the fullfilment of a destiny freely chosen by each soul during his or her life.”

(from the Wikipedia entry on contrapasso)

This is the link to another class’ blog and some of the art work the students selected for their presentations. Keep in mind they weren’t reading the same texts. Scroll down to see the headings for Presentations.

Gods, Monsters and Windmills

The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron (1847)

by William Blake

Sandro Botticelli’s depiction of Dante’s Inferno

Salvador Dali’s paintings of Dante’s Inferno

Canto I in Italian

Norton’s Map of the Inferno

Dante’s Commedia

• it is a work of Italian medieval literature, named the Divine Commedia by another Italian poet, Boccaccio, to emphasize the subject matter of the work, the realms of the afterlife: hell, purgatory and paradise, but also to signal the elevated style in which it is written.
• Dante claims that he is directly inspired by God, and the visionary experience of the poet is taken at face value by the early commentators.
• the three realms of the Commedia‘s three parts are as follows: down in the depths of Hell in the Inferno, up the mountain of Purgatory in the Purgatorio, and through the ever-higher spheres of Heaven in the Paradiso.
• the Commedia is made up of one hundred chapters that Dante calls cantos (literally, “songs”), divided into three groups of thirty-three; the extra is added to the Inferno, which opens with an introductory canto. The numerological structure of the poem is also revealed in the landscape of each part. Hell is divided into nine circles, each containing a different category of sinners receiving their own proper form of punishment. (taken from the Norton edition)
• the Roman poet Virgil is the pilgrim’s guide, as well as the poet’s, (literally and metaphorically) because of his Aeneid.
• In keeping with Christian doctrine, the souls in the underworld (of the Inferno) have no material bodies, yet their shades retain the appearance of the bodies they had while alive. The punishments they suffer in Hell leave marks on their immaterial flesh.

It is just because the main foes in Beowulf are inhuman that the story is larger and more significant than this imaginary poem of a great king’s fall. It glimpses the cosmic and moves with the thought of all men concerning the fate of human life and efforts; it stands amid but above the petty wars of princes, and surpasses the dates and limits of historical periods, however important. At the beginning, and during its process, and most of all at the end, we look down as if from a visionary height upon the house of man in the valley of the world. A light starts—lixte se leoma ofer landa fela [“its gold-hammered roofs shone over the land”]—and there is a sound of music; but the outer darkness and its hostile offspring lie ever in wait for the torches to fail and the voices to cease. Grendel is maddened by the sound of harps.

J.R.R. Tolkien “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”

Beowulf Manuscript (c. 1000)

Beowulf read in Old English

History of the English Language in Ten Minutes

Beowulf is a pagan epic poem with Christian additions passed down orally from the southern Swedes to the English in the 5^th century when the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes invade Britain. It is only written down sometime between the 8^th and 10^th centuries.

The Poem’s Invention, Its Written Text:

• Two scribes, A and B, working around the year 1000 CE
• The only manuscript survives a fire in 1731
• Scribes weren’t the poets, but rather the editors

The Poet:

• The term “author” does not convey the same static quality in the Anglo-Saxon period as it does in the modern day. Beowulf could have existed in a multiple of versions, depending on how many Anglo-Saxon poets, scops (pronounced “shops” and related to the word “to shape”) were around to interpret and re-tell the tale, much like the many interpretations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
• Every performance and reading reshapes the poem and how we approach it, even the modern day versions. The Beowulf-poet, in a sense, is more of a collective noun than an individual author.
• The poet takes poetic license (his own embellishments) with Beowulf’s character, and invites the audience to consider the complex role of oral poetry, and how the audience—both Anglo-Saxon and modern—should interpret this work. He says, “I heard,” or “I have learned.”

The Poem’s Hero:

• Beowulf is mortal, but like other epic heroes (Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Achilles) he is stronger and more brave than most men. The last line of the poem tells us that “Beowulf was keenest to win fame.” Immortality in this culture means to win fame in stories and reputation.
• Beowulf fights monsters, as Gilgamesh fights Humbaba and Odysseus fights the Cyclopes, and we may glean the values of a Germanic leader, its culture, through its hero. Tacitus (1^st CE) claims that warfare is a standard way of life for the Germanic people, to survive and prosper, ie: a good king is a “ring-giver.”

Characteristics of the Poem:

• It has Christian elements: Grendel is a descendant of Cain, the flood story is inscribed on the sword that Beowulf uses to kill Grendel’s mother, and in the mead hall the scop sings a song that recounts a creation story similar to the one in Genesis.
• J. R. R. Tolkien’s reading: the troll, the sea-woman, the dragon are from Norse and Germanic mythology—they represent coldness, darkness, wilderness, and are enemies of human values and reflections. The mead hall is a circle of light, which ultimately calls Grendel into existence. Tolkien’s criticism of the poem treats it as a poem, not as a historical document or an ethnographic study of the Germanic people.
• The poem begins with a funeral and ends with a funeral—nothing lasts.
• The three fights only take up 500 out of 3200 lines, and so community is more the driving point of the epic—it begins with Shield Sheafson. At the end of the epic, we know the Geats will eventually disappear because they fail to help Beowulf against the dragon.
• It contains understatements, such as “he’s feeling no pain” when someone is drunk; instead of saying “I’m happy,” they say “I wouldn’t want you to think that I’m not happy;” “that was no good place” insinuates part of the darkness and vision of these people.

These databases are worth perusing for your work of art. Spend some time looking through the various images for inspiration.

Art Museum Image Gallery: This will bring you to the list of databases available through the Newman Library. Select “Art Museum Image Gallery.” You must use your Baruch sign in to access it.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York: This gives you access to the collection online.

Art Institute of Chicago: This gives you access to the collection online.

The Louvre in Paris: This gives you access to virtual tours of the museum’s galleries.

Art Project on Google: This database allows you to search artwork in multiple museums.