Y13 Unit 4 Exam PrepAddressing the AO’s

You will be marked on your ability to comment on language form and structure and how they shape meaning

Out of these, Form is worth the most marks, then structure then language

So – get a comment in about form.

A02

Form is about the kind of text that you are commenting on. We deal with three different forms:

Short Story – The Bloody ChamberNovel – FrankensteinPlay – Macbeth

What is the effect of form? How does it effect/create meaning in the texts?

What is form?

The Epistolary novelThe Frame/Chinese box narrativeThe length of the novel compared to other

formats

How do these features of form impact on the reading experience and create meaning?

Frankenstein – Specific Features of form

The letters serve different purposes. Walton to Margaret – demonstrate the extent of his

peril. Contrast domesticity with danger and the futility of adventure.

Elizabeth to Victor – as above. A reminder of domestic life in the midst of Victor’s obsession.

Allow us private access to the thoughts and feelings of characters. We learn about Walton’s personal anxieties about his expedition and his honest opinions of Victor and the Monster. He communicates with Margaret but also the reader through his letters.

Epistolary novel

Advantages

Disadvantages

The Frame Narrative

How does it impact on meaning - Different perspectives. The Monster’s narration

makes us see Victor and the monster differently. Victor is undermined as a heroic protagonist and we sympathise with the Monster.

- Provides a clear underpinning of the science vs nature argument explored by Shelley in the novel. Creates a sense the two characters and therefore two ways of looking at the World are in an intellectual struggle.

- Helps render the events of the story more credible – they are corroborated by all the narrators.

- Re-inforce the idea that Victor was wrong – he dies.

Frame narrative

Variety of locations/description – the novel as an experience of the Grand Tour for early 19thC readers

Depth and space to explore complex characters and themes, use allusions and create some shocking scenes of horror and terror

Allows Shelley to play with narrative viewpoints and change the perceptions of the reader

The Novel Form

It is through Victor’s experience of, and reaction to, nature that we see Shelley underline her beliefs regarding the supremacy of nature over science.

“The immense mountains and precipices…. The dashing waterfalls… ruined castles… cottages peeping forth from among trees… formed a scene of singular beauty. But it was rendered sublime by the mighty Alps…‘

Victor is often restored by his observations of the natural World but sickened by his experiences in the Laboratory. After the creation of the Monster is complete he admits ‘…horror and disgust filled my heart’. It is clear from the contrast of verbs and adjectives in these two quotations what Shelley feels is most important to man. Nature is seen as a benign and healing element, science a malignant influence. The frame narrative form of the novel enables Shelley to indulge in a many descriptions of the natural World and demonstrate that both Victor and the Monster are spiritually uplifted by it. These descriptions are also a way of satisfying the 19th Century reader’s hunger for information about the wider World, particularly the sights on the popular Grand Tour like the Alps.

Commenting on Form in your essays

The Monster is eloquent and persuasive during his narration and reveals striking self knowledge and bitterness about his past.

“I the miserable and abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned, and kicked at, and trampled on.”

Where do our sympathies lie – Victor or the Monster?