Final Project Proposal

Project Proposal

For my final project, I have decided to revamp my first revision even further. This revision attempts to show how Mary Shelly consciously uses the environment of the story as a symbol for knowledge. Although my first attempt at this essay makes several well thought out points and uses examples of the text well, this essay never became anything much more than a simple piling up of references of places where Shelly uses the environment to represent knowledge. I feel that with good research and hard work, I can delve more into why Shelly does this and how it could change the way we view Frankenstein. Although I feel there is strong evidence for believing that the environment represents knowledge in Frankenstein, it is far from an obvious connection. One strong counter argument against my claim is that often times it seems as though the environment is being used to emulate the emotions of the characters. I plan to debunk this fact by using strong textual evidence which explains while this is also seemingly true, Shelly’s connection with the environment and knowledge is much stronger and compelling. This argument is important for understanding Frankenstein because it will help us gain a stronger understanding of Mary Shelly and her view on how knowledge and science relates to nature.

From my first draft, I plan to keep a large amount of the textual evidence I found that explains how Shelly uses the environment to represent knowledge. However I plan on reworking and building upon my argument of how this symbolism is important and what it means to the reader.

My purpose for rewriting this paper is to solidify and build upon what I feel is one of my most observant and intriguing arguments I have constructed in this class. I feel that making this argument whole will add a new perspective in Shelly’s story that not many people have realized before. It is because I feel my argument is unique that I feel that this paper has potential to be a strong contribution to the class and will help display my understanding of the material we have covered this semester.

Bibliography:

Goodman, Russell, Goodman,. "Transcendentalism." Stanford University. Stanford       University, 06 Feb. 2003. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

This source is an encyclopedia like page from the University of Standford. I plan to use this source to gain a better of the time period and Shelly made the environment of the story such a large factor of the piece.

Hammond, Kim. "Monsters of Modernity: Frankenstein and Modern    Environmentalism." Cultural Geographies 11.2 (2004): 181-98. Print.

This source is a journal article about how Frankenstein relates to today’s concept of environmentalism. I feel this could help me explain some of the connections between Shelly and the environment.

Smith, Nicole. "Elements of Romanticism in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley." Article     Myriad. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

This article will once again be used to connected Frankenstein to its time period and the effect of  nature and transcendentalism had on the book.

"Frankenstein and the Pursuit of Knowledge." Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

Although this source is only a from a contributor to the Yahoo network, it had many interesting and valid ideas about the Pursuit of Knowledge in Frankenstein. I may use some of these ideas to help in my explanation of how knowledge relates to the environment in the book.

More sources will be added as I continue to research more thoroughly.