Explain what a environment does in this passage:
I am already distant north of London, as well as as you travel in a streets of Petersburgh, you feel a cold northern zephyr fool around upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves as well as fills me with delight. Do you assimilate this feeling? This breeze, which has trafficked from a regions towards which you am advancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this breeze of promise, my daydreams turn some-more romantic as well as vivid. you try in vain to be swayed which a stick is a chair of ice as well as desolation; it ever presents itself to my aptitude as a segment of beauty as well as delight. There, Margaret, a object is perpetually visible, a extended hoop only trimming a setting as well as diffusing a incessant splendour. There—for with your leave, my sister, you will put a little certitude in preceding navigators—there sleet as well as ice have been banished; and, sailing over a ease sea, you might be wafted to a land leading in wonders as well as in beauty each segment hitherto detected upon a …
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February 28th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Well - look at what the setting does:
The breeze - braces his nerves & fills him with delight
The breeze - gives him a foretaste of the climes
The ‘wind of promise’ - ‘inspirits’ him & makes his daydreams fervent and vivid
In every sentence of this passage, the setting is a major player - it is (almost) anthropomorphized to be an actual character that is influencing Frankenstein, telling him things…
So, essentially, in this passage, you have two ‘players’ - Frankenstein and the northern breeze. What does the breeze /do/ and how does Frankenstein react? Why is Frankenstein’s reaction important? How does it related to the rest of the story? This is at the very start of the story - does it foreshadow any of the events that happen? How does the breeze affect the tone of the passage? Is the tone of this passage like or unlike the rest of the story? Is the tone reminiscent of the other events/plot of the story, or different? How does the breeze affect the tone of the passage?
The passage talks about London vs. Petersburgh and also Frankenstein vs. his sister, Margaret. How does the setting help to create this dichotomy (as Frankenstein in Petersburgh writes back to Margaret in London)? What is significant about this setting - particularly in terms of Frankenstein’s reasons for being there?
How is the setting depicted? - since Frankenstein is describing the setting in a letter, we have to wonder why he describes it the way he does (this is not an objective description from an author, it’s a subjective description from the main character). Why does Frankenstein like the setting (north breeze)? Does it say something about Frankenstein’s character that he is drawn to a land of ice?
There’s a lot going on with this passage regarding the setting - hope that gives you some ideas about some ways to consider/interpret it.