Frankenstein: To Volume, Chapter VI

In this section, Victor agrees to build the other female monster before he marries Elizabeth. He and Clerval decide to go on a trip through Europe before he marries Elizabeth so that he has time to make the female monster. While he is doing this, he realizes that it would be terrible if the monsters procreate so he decides to tear up the female. The monster becomes infuriated and threatens to be with Victor on his wedding night, which Victor automatically assumes that is the night the monster will kill him. However this actually shows how egotistical he is, not thinking about Elizabeth at all. The monster could have killed him at any number of their meetings but decides it will cause Victor more pain if he kills those he loves. Once Victor returns to the island he is accused of murdering Clerval, who the monster killed.

Futhermore, the monster might not want to kill Victor because he is his creator or also because he knows it is more difficult to watch others die than to die yourself. He might also want to teach Victor a lesson so that he will change, or is just doing everything he can to get Victor's attention, which he was denied at his creation. Also, maybe Victor and the monster are the same thing.

Are Victor and the monster one and the same person?
Perhaps. of course Victor wouldn't want to kill all his loved ones however he is self-destructive, as shown in his creation of the monster (p. 53), and is perhaps trying to get rid of the people who he loves before they hurt him by leaving him and dying, as his mother did when he was a child.

If so, why dos Victor want to kill his loved ones?
Victor calls the monster the wretch. Wretch is mentioned on pages 12-Victor, 43 - monster, 44 monster twice, Victor's sleep, 45 - monster, 47 - Victor's sickness, 60 - Victor, 61 - monster, 62 - monster, 63 - Victor, 65 - Victor, 70 - Victor's sleep, 71 - Victor, 73 - Victor, 77 - monster and Victor, 83 - monster, 85 - Victor, 87 - Victor, 90 - describes Victor, 92 - Victor, 94 - Victor, 98 - Victor, 104 - monster of himself, 112 - monster of himself, 113 - monster of himself, 124 - monster, 136 - Victor, 147 - monster, 148 - monster, 165 - Victor of himself, 182 - monster of Victor, etc.

Clearly, there is lots of interaction between the use of the word wretch to describe both themselves as well as each other. This also expresses the relationship between parent and child, as the monster begins to use the same language, called mirroring. For example, they exchange the words in close proximity of the words. After the monster kills Elizabeth the monster says, "I am satisfied, miserable wretch! You have determined to live, and I am satisfied." which shows the interchangeability of the word as description as well as perhaps, the character as well. This also reveals the deliberateness of the words as well as the possibility that Victor is creating his own wretchedness in his search for greatness at something.

Typically we want to blame Victor for not thinking about Elizabeth, but really the depths of his love do not overcome his need to be the "one" "greatest" something. Perhaps is it part of his belief that they could hurt him too much if he is invested in it.

Frankenstein: To Volume III

How does the monster's story make you feel about him?

I do sympathize quite a bit with the monster and his story. While I was lying in bed last night, I started wondering whether I would give the monster a chance if I had seen him. I decided that I would be absolutely terrified at first, but that if he was standing in the doorway and tried to talk to me I would listen, but that if he was on the inside and I was in the doorway, I would probably run away. I think it would be very hard to embrace the monster as he wishes to, but I also understand Frankenstein's initial fear that they would only wreak more havoc together. However, I do believe that one is the loneliest number and empathize with his need to have a friend and partner, even if it is a partner in crime.


How does the monster represent the theory of raising children properly or contributing to their development? The monster is in a sense Victor's child, and, as his father-figure and creator, Victor abandoned him which made him feel rejected. The monster is a child, and was fortunately able to learn good behavior from the cottagers but every human he has interacted with since then has been violent toward him. It's sad actually, because he wants to be included in the world of his father but can't be. According to this philosophy, nurture could have played a much larger and beneficial role in the monster's life. However, there are many choices the child must make between what is easy and what is right. One example of these moral decisions is when he chose to frame Justine for William's murder, which shows his bad nature or possibly his lack of nurture and of controlling his emotions.

The monster, like a neglected child, wants attention from Victor even if it is negative attention. This is what happens when he murders William. Initially, he only wants to have a friend with the blind man and then with William, but they both reject him. Parents, like Victor, owe their children the potential and opportunities to make their own happiness. This is what, in essence was denied to the monster.

Frankenstein: To Volume II, Chapter III

Is Walton like Victor?

In my opinion, there is no definite yes or no answer to this question because it can swing both ways. First, yes, because both are preoccupied with a life goal and journey and will stop at nothing to complete it. Yes also because both crave the fame of accomplishment, that is they focus on the destination not the journey. But mostly, I think no, although it is difficult to say since we do not know as much about Walton still. Yet no because, unlike Victor, Walton does not endeavor on his adventures for very long. He gave up being a poet after only a year, where Victor worked two years in solitude on the monster. Also, Walton still keeps in contact with his family where as Victor does not. Furthermore, Walton has not sacrificed his own life for the fulfillment of his end goal. Overall, I think they have similar character traits, or maybe the same potential for success or disaster, I think they are overall different. I guess it's like they are two different branches made of the same root tree.

The more you love someone the more they can hurt you. How does this apply to Victor?
This especially applies to his mother, who doted on him all the time, and who loved him more than any other parents could love a creature.


There are three main allusions of poetry in Frankenstein:

The first is the Greek story of Promethius: He gave fire to the humans, and because of this the gods punished him for giving us so much power, is chained to the top of a mountain and punished daily for eternity. It is symbolic of Victor, who wants to defeat human mortality and is punished thenceforth.

The other poems are "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Alaster." The Mariner is an old man who stops a man from going to a wedding and tells him his story. There was a bird who came to the ship everyday, whenever the old mariner called him and was loyal and faithful. Then one day the old mariner shot it with an arrow. Because of this, everything goes wrong, his whole crew dies. They are so angry at him they hang the albatross around his neck. Then in the moonlight, the slimy snakes inside him change to beauty and he is allowed to come back to land. His curse is that he must re-tell the story over and over. Why would you kill someone who loved you unconditional, like the bird, or like kids, or Jesus? The truth is that unconditional love is scary as hell! You either think you are unworthy or the pain would be too much, our instinct is to stay away. The mariner makes the wedding guest recognize the fear that comes with unconditional love, with the union of one person with another. If you push it away first, if you kill it first, you save yourself the heartbreak.

There is a similar message in "Alastor" (p. 247). Alastor is story about a poet traveling all around the world looking for truth. He goes to Egypt to discover the truth of time. He stays with an Arab and while he is there, a maid falls in love with him but does not say anything. He does not realize it, and continues to travel and one night he dreams about her, and realizes she is just like him, they are soul mates. In the dream, she throws himself into his arms and they are about to consummate their love but then he awakens and she is gone. He then begins to travel around the world looking for her. The poet has "spurned her choicest gifts," or didn't take the opportunity when he had it. Then he ends up dying while searching for the maid.

How do they resemble Victor? Like the mariner he is trying to tell his story so that others might not make the same mistakes as he did. Because of his decision, everything around him becomes black and scary and makes his existence worse, as shown when he fears his old landscape when returning home and also created the monster who begins to destroy his family and friends at home. Similarly, he spurns nature's choicest gifts by going against nature and also forsaking the true nature and things he used to find joy in, like being outside and being with his family. He does not pursue relationships with women or with his family or his betrothed. Yet what were these feelings that caused him to neglect nature and his loved ones?

"On a dreary night in November" the monster becomes alive. He initially thought he was beautiful but on deeper observation he is awful, yellow and terrifying, he looks like living death. When he realizes this he runs out and decides he never wants to see the creature again, and he is horrified at what he has done. That night he dreamed that he sees Elizabeth but then changes to his dead mother, suggesting that he wanted to create the monster so that he could bring back his mother from the dead or prevent Elizabeth from dying. Thus, perhaps building the monster and ignoring Elizabeth are an attempt to prevent her from hurting him and to prevent him the pain of losing her. He is afraid of living in a world without her. It's part of what motivates him, but in a bad way.

Furthermore, the monster's first attempt at human contact was with Victor, who screams and runs out of the room. Later, Victor meets Henry Clerval and takes him back to the apartment to find that the monster has left. He has a manic attack of relief, and then falls fatally ill with hallucinations and nervous fever about the monster. Clerval then takes care of him and after some time Victor becomes "as cheerful as before I was attacked by the fatal passion" (41). In this passage he does not take responsibility for his own actions and claims that fate attacked him, and he is an innocent bystander. He is passive, saying fate attacked me, instead of I made the mistake.

This passive outlook also applies to the death of Justine for the acclaimed murder of his brother William. He doesn't say anything for fear of people thinking he was mad. He wants to step up but was unable to because of, possibly, his fear of people thinking him insane, especially Elizabeth. He will not confess to his own mistakes, he thinks that he can't prove it and says fate had it that this is the way it would be. He was the one who was guilty and lets other innocents suffer for his mistakes, claiming alone that it was fate. On p 63-4, Victor says he cannot be consoled, and while Elizabeth was sad the could not suffer like him. Victor claims the quote of Satan (who was cast out of heaven to create hell, who suffers more than anyone else), he claims that he is suffering more than anyone else; translation: feel sorry for me the most, he is an egotist. This reflects Victors greatest desire to be the greatest, at everything and ignores others.

Frankenstein: Letters - Ch. 3

Walton wants to be a poet or discoverer. Victor wants to achieve greatness through the discoveries of science. Despite these differences both men are "artists" in the romantic sense.

"Frankenstein" is a novel about why people should not meddle in those things God does not want him to. It is also an exploration of why we are so interested in human secrets. It is certainly an analysis of Victor. The 1831 version of "Frankenstein," it explores more of Victor's obsession with human secrets and he also says that he was "fated" to do this and be ruined. However, this is not Shelley letting Victor off the hook, but Victor trying to take the blame off of himself. It is in sentences like this that show the author's viewpoint behind the text by the way that it's said. We are looking for the places where Shelley contradicts Victor's self-acclaimed "fate."

Victor's childhood was heavenly, it was filled with love, family, friends, attention, education, etcetera. He states that no "creature" could have more tender parents than his. "Creature is the word he uses to describe his monster, and considers himself as a creature of his family. He says that the alchemists were the fatal impulse of his ruin. He meets Waldman at the university, who introduces him to chemistry and teaches him about the modern sciences. His desire to be famous, like the alchemists overtakes his being though in his quest to make such a discovery.

In creating the monster, Victor becomes crazed, obsessive and insane. He develops a god complex, as shown he he states "a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve their's" (34). He wants them to know that he is great and the reason for their existence, he wants to be absolutely worshiped. Yet he never considers that something might go wrong. He is too driven to see the flaw in his plans.

His process of creation is basically locking himself up and letting it consume his existence until it is completed. His self confidence keeps him driving forward despite his failing health. He feels exalted, and never doubts his success. He's obsessive compulsive about it, and does not feel as though it is within his control to do it, as shown when he states "I appeared rather like on doomed by slavery to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade" (36). It is interesting that in giving life to the monster he is actually losing his own. Typically if your job is life-sucking its not the right job for you. However, he is not thinking should I, but only can I.

Frankenstein: The Beginning

ove and passion again take another turn in the infamous Frankenstein of Mary Shelley. The narrator (Walton) begins and embarks on a journey of being remembered. He is writing letters to his sister, Margaret, as he embarks on a journey to the North Pole. He explains that originally he wanted to be a famous poet like Shakespeare and Homer, and finds that after doing it for only one year, he finds that he cannot do it. If, however, he really wanted to be a poet, he probably wouldn't give up after a year, which suggests that he does not want to be a poet but instead just wants to be idolized.

One day the crew and ship are surrounded on all sides by ice, and on the land they see the monster and Dr. Frankenstein. After this they bring Dr. Frankenstein aboard and he begins to tell his story. He decides to share his story with Walton so that he can teach him a lesson, because they share the same madness, as Walton is willing to sacrifice everything for his "enterprise." Frankenstein exclaims to Walton, "unhappy man, do you share my madness?" Thus he is compelled to share his story with Walton in order to save him the same fate.

The End of Wuthering Heights

What happens to...

Linton Heathcliff? He marries Cathy Linton, after Heathcliff imprisons her in the house and forces them to marry so that Cathy won't get her inheritance. He is very weak and feeble, and is very selfish and willing to sacrifice her to Heathcliff so that he won't get hurt. He does pull through for her when he lets Cathy escape to see her father before he dies but he has no courage of his own. He dies shortly after he marries Cathy.

Hareton Earnshaw? He grows up completely uneducated and as a force of nature, but actually does have a good heart. Heathcliff encourages every bad unacceptable behavior in him so as to place him in the same position he was under Hindley. However Hareton really respects Heathcliff and sees him as a true father figure. Eventually, he falls for Cathy Linton and allows her to educate him and they eventually marry and move to Thruscross Grange.

Cathy Linton? She is very nice and mannered but still has a very selfish nature and still has a superiority complex about those she loves, especially regarding Hareton as she believes she is better than him. In the end she corrects her mother's mistake by overlooking the "degraded" nature of Hareton and is happy with him.

Wuthering Heights and Media con't

Things our class encountered include a scholarly article about Catherine's two loves, including Heathcliff as her transcendental love and Edgar as her more temporary, empirical love; comparing Heathcliff to Frankenstein, comparing Heathcliff to a cannibal.

Are scholarly articles going to help keep literature alive?

Yes and no, people don't read scholarly articles for fun but they are still relevant. But since the people who are writing them are also writing for people who have learned and studied the same things they may be essentially writing for themselves, or to their own elite group.

How do we make scholarship relevant and humane??

The scholar has to translate their philosophical and high flown educated language into ordinary English, which may ensure they are saying something relevant and real. If each layer is peeled back to something more basic, it might keep scholarship alive.

In the movie (1992), other important facts include that they used the same character for Catherine Earnshaw Linton and Cathy Linton Heathcliff. It suggests the entwinement of love and hate between Catherine and her daughter. Heathcliff couldn't hate the real Catherine but he could take it out on her daughter, who still looks like her but whom he does not love. (For example, Mr. Lockwood at the beginning says the ghost has the same face as Cathy Linton. Also Heathcliff tells his son Linton to write a love letter to Cathy and Heathcliff tells him what to write. As he does he pictures Catherine's face and as the camera pulls away it is actually Cathy). Having the same actress is actually medium specific -- can only do it in movies.

Also in the movie (1939), it was unique to see the facial expressions and non-verbal communication in the movies. It is not as dark and it is much calmer than when I envisioned it when I read the novel.

Is there a reason a woman would want to interrupt the traditional romance story??

Why would Bronte want to make it darker??

Perhaps, this is how it really is, it makes it more realistic. It also makes it more believable, this is the real live version of the Cinderella story your parents are telling you. It also maybe gives the women more control over the love story, as it has been written by men for so long. However, Catherine's story relates to many love stories with two types of love, such as the Notebook story, and also Sweet Home Alabama. It is possible to have both kinds of love. But is it impossible to find a person who is your soulmate and the person who is socially compatible with you? If they are the same person, is that just Cinderella territory?? Is it real?

Wuthering Heights and Media: Assignment

As my other source of media for this work of Literature, I watched the 1992 version of Wuthering Heights with actors Juliette Binochet and Ralph Fiennes. It was a very interesting take on the book, which I was still reading while I watched, and did stay for the most part true to the happenings and sequence of the book. All the characters were very similar and it followed a chronological order. The scene in the movie that was most shocking to me however was the scene and the beginning of Volume II, when Ellen Dean comes to tell Heathcliff that Catherine has died.

Now, I had read Wuthering Heights before in high school and I had also read this part of the novel before I watched the movie. Yet the scene actually moved me to tears. In the book, I pictured a dark scene with Heathcliff standing in a garden or park-like scene behind Thrushcross Grange looking totally wild and dirty, having already banged his head against the tree several times before Nelly arrives. In the book, Heathcliff cannot stand to see Nelly crying, and curses Catherine for dying and leaving him on the earth. He screams at her to haunt him and drive him mad until he dies and then bashes his head against a tree, making it bleed. It is a very powerful scene, filled with passion and anger and hate and love.

However this is not how it takes place in the movie. In this version, there is a specific lone tree in the moors that was of great significance to Catherine and Heathcliff in their youth. This is where Nelly meets him. Heathcliff neither yells, nor shows any sign of violence, and is more like the Heathcliff character I envisioned in the book. He holds all his pain and anguish inside himself, scarcely letting it be seen. However to me, this made it all the more difficult to bear. He speaks to Catherine in a quiet voice, as if she is standing next to him, and sounds more pleading and desperate than angry that she died. It was absolutely heartwrenching and actually envoked a lot of sympathy from me.

The killer part for me was one line at the end. In the movie, when Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights for 3 years upon hearing Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, Catherine is physically and emotionally devastated. The scene shows her leaving the Heights to go to Thruscross Grange to marry Edgar and her voice comes over the scene and says "I cannot live without my life, I cannot live without my soul." And it is as if she is saying it to Heathcliff. This is the line Heathcliff speaks in the presence of Ellen but more to Catherine as he learns of her death. It is the first time in the movie we see Heathcliff as an openly loving character.

The only bad thing I have to say about this movie is that without reading the book, I do not think I would have had the slightest clue what was going on. I watched the movie at home with my mom this weekend and actually had to get out the family tree page in my novel to show her who was who. Also, I don't think it really conveyed the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine very well, it did not show much of their companionship but more so of their bickering toward each other. It made it much more difficult for my mom, who had neither read the book nor seen the movie, to really understand their characters or their love -- the most important part in my opinion. Other than that, I loved watching the movie, as it gave me new images while reading the rest of the book and different faces for the characters.

Wuthering Heights: Volume 1

Catherine and Nelly's Relationship
Ellen is very critical of Cathy and doesn't really understand or agree with her actions. She does nearly everything that Cathy asks of her but does not agree with her decisions. One would think that servant-served relationships would be fairly intimate because the person is so close to you every day. However, it seems that, as some philosophize about those being pampered like children on cruise ships, when things don't go her way, Catherine pulls the "social class card" and reminds Ellen as her place as a servant instead of a confidant.

Catherine on Heathcliff and Isabella:
Catherine was right to say that Heathcliff would crush Isabella like a sparrow's egg. It fits into his plan to have her fall for him but he might just do it for fun. He is open with Catherine and Ellen and Isabella that he has no use for her and is using her alone to get to her brother and to bother Cathy. He is retaliating against her for marrying someone else; he knows that she loves him more than Edgar but thought that he would degrade her social status. Heathcliff hates Isabella, but by marrying her it is a way of degrading her for degrading him and thinking he is less than a person, a servant, and treating him so poorly as a child.

Against who and why does Heathcliff want revenge?
Against Edgar because he ended up with Catherine and for him its a you take my girl, I'll take yours retaliatioin. He is also taking revenge against the Lintons and all members of the upper class who kept him down. In a way he is rubbing it in their faces that he has power over them despite the differences in social class. Finally, he is taking revenge against Hindley Earnshaw, for taking away his status as a legitimate child and made him a service. Even Catherine says that without Hindley degrading him so low, she never would have thought of marrying Edgar.

Why is Heathcliff back at Wuthering Heights?
Heathcliff goes back to play cards with Hindley, who assumes that he is rich, which he is. And slowly, he is getting Hindley to bet his property because he is losing and depriving him of his inheritance and wealth at Wuthering Heights. He is also changing Hareton because he is teaching him swear words, letting him run wild, and he beats Hindley, who beats him, Hareton.

Does Heathcliff live to inflict misery?
Maybe, certainly not on Catherine. But it is perhaps his only way of settling the score with the universe. Because he was so tortured and mistreated, he feels the only way to deal with it is to inflict equal misery on others.

Are Catherine and Heathcliff soulmates?
Yes, the literally cannot bear to live without each other. Catherine dies when she is forbidden to see Heathcliff and Heathcliff bashes his head against the wall and says that his soul leaves with her to the grave. Is it the greatest love story of all time? YES.

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff

Describe Heathcliff in one paragraph.


To me, Heathcliff is the ultimate incarnation of the man all women hate to love but do anyway. He is handsome, wild, free-spirited, headstrong, quiet, and completely in love with you. His unruly temper and morose disposition make him hard to handle and can present a challenge that keeps Catherine intrigued, and their equal pride and mutual understanding give her a level of comfort that forms a perfect balance for their relationship. When I picture Heathcliff, I see a tall man with a strong, muscular build, strong facial features that make him seem as though he is thinking of beating someone up when he is actually just thinking quietly of nothing. He has dark eyes and dark skin from working outside all the time, but the seldom times he does smile is enough to compensate for all his grumpiness. He is cynical, pessimistic, a rebel, unruly, stubborn, and quiet, but also understanding, compassionate toward what he does love, and willing to do anything for Cathy, as long as he can be with her and she happy. However is also completely closed off and brutal because he has been betrayed so many times throughout his life. It is difficult to understand his character because he has such love for Cathy and such hatred for anything and everything else that tries to keep them apart and everything in his path.

Continued notes from class:
We get very differing views of Heathcliff throughout the first 10 chapters. At the beginning Mr. Earnshaw treats Heathcliff as the favorite son over Hindley and this gives Heathcliff a lot of power in the house and over Hindley.

First we see Heathcliff being cruel to his dogs and his tenant Mr. Lockwood, but on hearing Cathy Linton coming to try to see him in the middle of the night, his disposition changes and he becomes loving and passionate. Next we have a flashback to his childhood and see how he was at first favored by the late Mr. Earnshaw and then tortured and hated by Hindley Earnshaw after their father dies. Cathy and Heathcliff run wild without supervision, but after staying at the Linton's house for 5 weeks, Cathy becomes a young woman and comes home with the favor of the young Edgar Linton. She agrees to marry Edgar but knows that it is wrong because she is in love with Heathcliff, as shown when she explains "he is more myself than I am." This means that they are soulmates, she can keep up with him and acts as herself with him, they have no expectations where they can just be completely comfortable with each other. Unfortunately however, Heathcliff hears only that it will degrade her to marry him from the point of view of the people around them. He leaves and Cathy gets sick standing in the rain waiting for him, and Mrs. Linton nurses her back to health and then she and her husband die. Cathy marries Edgar and moves with Nelly to Thruscross Grange. 3 years later Heathcliff comes back, rich and successful, and Isabella falls in love with him. Cathy doesn't want him to be with her and Heathcliff beats her because he despises her brother.

She claims to be a strong character but is weak in the sense that she conforms to the social shallow ideals of money and title and power instead of an eternal love.

Do you want to be in a kind of relationship like that?
There are good and bad things about it. I think that I would like that sort of relationship. It could be sort of suffocating but I think that it allows you to have a sense of home and comfort in that person, especially in the sense that they are so isolated from everyone and everything. I think that there is something irreplaceably amazing about having someone who is so like you in knowing and understanding you in your life. It is the ideal love but is it realistic?

There is good and bad intertwined throughout this novel. No character is completely good or evil, it is important because their are no black and white characters, there are no good guys or bad guys, it is more realistic.

Perhaps the three directions of the crossing, Wuthering Heights, Gimmerton - the town, and Thrushcross Grange represent the 3 directions your soul can take. One is the town which is community, one is WH which is isolation and darkness, and one is TG which is perhaps too controlled by societal pressures.

Wuthering Heights: LOVE

First of all I would just like to say this is one of my favorite books of all time. And second, as opposed to reverting to cyber rape, Emily Bronte gives us a different approach to love in power in her classic love tale Wuthering Heights.



Emily Bronte, sister of the author of Jane Eyre. Emily, Charlotte and Anne Bronte all wrote together with pen names that could be interpreted as men. Emily Bronte was called a female Shakespeare, and I agree.

The atmosphere in the first two chapters in very dark, and kind of comical, especially Heathcliff and Joseph's take on life and humanity. Mr. Lockwood is a very interesting character; we find out early that he thinks he is a misanthrope, however he certainly changes his mind once he meets Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. He moves away to come to Wuthering Heights because of his inability to show his feelings for a woman he loved. She showed affection for him but he was so cold that she thinks she misunderstood and leaves him alone. Mr. Lockwood has thus gained the reputation of being completely heartless and cold, because, possibly, he was afraid of love. It seems as though Lockwood's obsession with Heathcliff is derived from their equal association and affinity for loneliness.

Within the family, Catherine Linton hates Heathcliff. Heathcliff is also brutal to his pets, as shown when he kicks his mothering spaniel, and is brutal in general to the rest of the people who surround him. However his relationship with Catherine is unbelievably loving.

Here's the Genealogy of the Wuthering Heights' characters.

Mr. Bungle and Cyber Rape

Did Mr. Bungle commit rape? Explain yes or no.

This article was very interesting for me to know because, in general I am technologically un-savvy and do not understand anything of blogging, MUDs, or MOO rooms. I found myself reading and re-reading the explanations of what each abbreviation meant and what one could do with each.

Do I think Mr. Bungle committed rape? Yes, I do. Since rape is any forceful and unwilling act of intercourse, I think Mr. Bungle's actions fit well in that description. By using the VooDoo doll application on LambdaMOO, he forced those two women to engage in an unwilling and forceful virtual rape in a virtual reality. The line that perhaps convinced me most of this assertion was that, in the internet and any virtual technology "the body IS the mind" and thus assault on one is equally harmful and meaningful to assault on the other. I certainly believe that he violated these users in an unacceptable manner, and as rape would describe the actions he took in reality, I believe they apply to his character in this case as well.

Continuation in Class

Rape is a very charged word to use for verbal slander in this case. In general, there are certainly psychological and emotional ramifications but it's not based in reality; its an alter reality, there is no real person or victim, it's a character not a person. However, there is emotional investment in the characters in novels or stories. It is definitely possible to be traumatized by works of modern literature and work, like movies, it can be "rape" in that sense but not rape in the reality sense. Thus there is no "real victim" but it can still be horrifying.

This type of media brings into focus the human capacity for imagination, which can be terrifying. In this digital reality,you also have a choice to be on the internet and in the room but you don't have a choice to be raped. Also, you can stop once you've been violated, but it has already happened.

I grew up with fears of meeting strangers who turn out to be psycho on the internet. We have been constantly told to question the internet, asking questions about who they really are. However, what if the person you are talking to says that he's actually in the room next to you, then the internet virtual reality can tip over into real world? This type of cross over reminds me a lot of the recent film, Stranger than Fiction, a movie in which the author, writing a novel, finds that her character is a real person, and his life reflects the events in her book. It makes us realize that there is a huge difference between what you can do to a character and what you will do in reality.