“Two Beginnings”
You are tasked with writing the first page of a literary analysis essay on any aspect of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) that has caught your attention—you must then write a second, alternative beginning to that same essay. In other words, this assignment challenges you to envision, organize, and begin writing the same essay, twice. Each start is capped at one page (Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced), should be carefully proofread, and follow MLA style in-text citation guidelines.
Each essay-start will share a thesis (the main, argumentative claim) that should be placed as the last sentence of your introductory paragraph. In other words, each essay-start will make the same argument, but introduce and present that argument differently.
Your essay might set up a “reading” that traces a particular pattern (and its significance) or re-occurring theme (and its possible implications) in the novel, or you might choose to focus on the form of the novel and its epistolary structure. Your essay might be drawn toward climate, or the elemental and atmospheric descriptions in the novel (describing how light, or shadow, or silence, or storms are present and meaningful), or you might put forth an argument about how the body is figured scientifically, poetically, or religiously in the novel. You might explore gender, friendship, loneliness, death, beauty, fear, reading, music, illness, domesticity, travel, or the novel’s many descriptions of nature.
Each opening page must clearly articulate what the paper is about, the claim it is making (via a clear thesis statement), and what aspects of the text you will use to support your claim. After introducing the central topic of your paper, strive to refine and clarify both the parameters and stakes (the purpose or pay-off) of your project. What do readers of Frankenstein stand to gain or learn by paying attention to what you are asking them to pay attention to (in the ways you are asking them to pay attention to it)?
Structural organization is key to this assignment. You have great freedom in framing your two essay-starts, but not much space; typically, two-to-three paragraphs fill the page. Avoid extended introductions summarizing the plot, history of the novel, or biography of its author. Assume an interested, but knowledgeable reader. Remember that your writing is always best when it is engaged with the specifics of the text and its language.
