Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Telephone Game
Is anyone else concerned at the fact that it is now Harold telling his story to Victor telling his story to Walton telling their story to his sister? It's a lot like the telephone game and nothing ever turns out how it is originally supposed to be understood. So, why is Shelley using this technique?
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12 comments:
to leave grey area
That is a good point. My guess is that she is just trying to enhance her story telling the easiest way she could... add more characters and have them tell the story.
I think Shelley uses this technique to show how important the characters seem to think the story is. Harold thinks it is important enough to tell Walter, who thinks it is important enough to tell Walton, who thinks it is important enough to tell his sister. Basically, Shelley wants you to think that there is a crucial message to the tale. Imo, of course.
yeah, she's most likely trying to give the story more distance from reality to emphasize the fictionality of it. It would be more preachy and more of a political statement if she made it sound like this story could actually occur. She was trying to tell a fictional, scary story, not bring people over to her way of thinking.
I agree with Ali on this one. I think the theme of the story is very important to Shelley and she wants to stress the importance of the theme to the reader. She is doing this by having many characters in the book concerned with the theme and wanting to be told the story.
*ring ring* I agree with Ali and Kaleb.
Okay, so I said "Walter," because I was writing really fast and put "Victor" and "Walton" together. It's supposed to be Victor. Sorry...
I have to say i agree with Ali, Kaleb, and the other Courtney. if shelley didn't really want her message to get out there, she wouldn't spend so much time developing new characters to tell the story. she would just write long essays like her mother if she didn't want to use all the subtelty....
well just to make it easy and less reading for everyone:
what courtney said.....
Think about telling a story around a campfire. Everyone has a story to tell and if you really like a stroy you might tell it to another group of people around the next campfire.
Think about Walton's goal...and the price he is willing to pay ( even if all of the coins are not his). Think about Victor's original goal and the price that he is in the process of paying (and who has shared that payment). With that in mind, what do you think the monster wants--and what will he be willing to pay?
The monster wants two things--revenge and acceptance. Unfortunately, he can't get both. The monster fails to realize the inexorable duplicity of his desires. He is willing to do anything to get what he wants--murder, pillage, etc.
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