Thomas C. Foster's How To Read Literature Like A Professor

Literature is a two way relationship, when an author writes a work they are simultaneously entrusting that whomever picks up that work will seek to understand its intentioned purpose and how that purpose applies to them. In other words, a prominent work of literature does not become prominent until readers put something of themselves into it. This is one of the primary themes Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In the chapter “Is That a Symbol?” Foster indicates that as readers “We tend to give writers all the credit, but reading is also an event of the imagination: our creativity, our inventiveness, encounters that of the writer, and in that meeting we puzzle out what she means” (Foster 107). Thus, when a reader …show more content…
Science appears to be an innocent pursuit until one’s ambitions become too lofty. Humanity appears pure until one realizes its potential for evil. Similarly, light has within it the potential to be both positive and negative. In a sense, light is treacherous; its appearance is deceiving of its potential to harm. It seems pure until one gets close and gets burned; this is a natural form of betrayal. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the most blatant event of betrayal in Frankenstein involves a reference to light. When Victor promises to make the creature a companion, the creature is overcome with joy and claims that there is a “...fire of love that burns in my heart…” ( Shelley 143). However, when Victor breaks this vow and destroys the creature’s only hope for a friend a new flame is lit. Until the day the creature dies a “...feverish fire still glimmers in his eyes…” (Shelley 206). When Victor made his promise to the creature he was a beacon of light and hope, but when he betrayed this promise, that beacon of light set fire to a storm of revenge. This fire of treachery is only extinguished when both Victor and the creature are diminished to states of regret and succumb to death. Like a flame finally being put out, the novel ends when the creature throws himself into the ocean. Just like water puts out a fire, the waves of the ocean extinguished the conflict between Victor and the creature. The fire that consumed both the creature and victor was “...lost in darkness and distances” (Shelley 215). Shelley concludes the novel in this way to demonstrate that betrayal and revenge only lead to regret and inevitable downfall. This brings about yet another theme of of the novel: just as light does, people have a tendency for betrayal. Shelley cautions her readers that betrayal can lead to a fire of revenge consuming the whole of a person that only ends when the fire (and thus the person)