Frankenstein literary analysis essay

Frankenstein Critical Analysis Evaluation Essay

For this assignment you will write your evaluation essay. You are required to submit only your final draft for this assignment (though we encourage all students to take advantage of the additional feedback a draft can provide). Use the grader’s feedback and the rubric to make revisions to your draft before submitting the final. Your second draft will be graded.

Now that you have completed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you are in a good position to consider what critics have written about the novel. You will need a total of two critiques (also known as critical analysis essays) for this assignment.

First, locate one critical analysis essay written about the 1818 version of Mary Shelley's novel. You may focus most of your attention on this first critique. Your chosen critique should be reliable and located in a university publication (written by a professor,) a literary journal, or an online literary website. Following are some examples of acceptable online literary websites.

You should choose from one of these if you want to use a website:

 ipl2 Literary Criticism collection: http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?ti=fra-63

 Professor Sherry Ginn's critique:1 http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/2003/ginn.html  Professor Naomi Hetherington’s

critique: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/hether.html The questions in the study guides should have helped you evaluate this criticism in your head. Now it’s time to write it down! Your evaluation may go more smoothly if you approach the guiding questions in this order:

1. Evaluate the critic/author:

Who wrote the criticism you read? What credentials does the author have (education, professional career, other publications, etc.)? (If you are using a credible author, you should be able to find her/his credentials fairly easily)

2. Find the thesis of the article:

What is the thesis of the critical article you’ve chosen? What point does the author want to make about Frankenstein?

3. Evaluate the thesis:

Do you agree with this thesis? Why or why not? We’ve covered many ideas in the study guides. Can you find points within the guides that support your agreement or disagreement

1 Note: You should avoid reading Ginn’s article too simplistically. A common misperception is that Ginn is arguing in favor of this novel being an autobiography, but if you read her article in full, you will find that this isn’t really the case. If you misinterpret your chosen source, it will affect your own arguments, so please read carefully.

http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?ti=fra-63
http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/hether.html
with the critical writer(s)? Look for new supporting information rather than revisiting the same ones the critics have chosen.

4. Evaluate the support:

Whether you agree or disagree with the thesis, does the critic provide sufficient research from the text and outside references to make a strong case? What does the article have for support from the text or outside sources? In your opinion, what makes these references valid? Do you feel the author uses this support properly?

Next, locate a second critique about the novel, and discuss how this second critique agrees and/or disagrees with the first one. For instance, if the first critic argues that Shelley’s writing is juvenile, does the second critic agree with this assessment? If the first critic believes the novel is autobiographical, does the second critic concur? These are just a few examples of how you can include this second critique in order to have a polished, comprehensive Evaluation Essay of your own.

In addition to addressing each of the evaluative components above, develop your essay so it has a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. You must include an evaluative thesis statement both the introduction and the conclusion. Ensure that each of your claims are supported with valid evidence from the literary criticism you have chosen, the