A Look at the author and the history

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• Born August 30, 1797

• Parents were both intellectual radicals:

• Mother: Mary Wollstonecraft• Author and female rights activist; Argued for

education and value of women

• Father: William Godwin• Political Philosopher and author; very respected and

admired

• Believed in individual rights

• As a child, Mary heard him recite “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in her living room

• Mother died 8-10 days after Mary’s birth

• William Godwin later married Mary Jane Clairmont

• Mary did not get along with her new step-mother.

Mary Shelley

• Percy Shelley was a Romantic poet and author. • SCANDALOUS! • He was married to Harriet Shelley, who was

pregnant with his child, when he met Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.

• They ran off together when she was 16 (almost 17) to France and took her step-sister, Claire Clairmont with them.

• Estrangement with father resulted for almost two years until she finally married Percy when she was 18 and his legal wife died

• Their first child was born Feb. 22, 1815 (2 months premature), but the baby died March 6. (She lost two more children in the next three years.)• Mary dreamed that the baby came back to life

multiple times, including that she was able to bring it back to life

• She began obscuring the line between life and death from this point onward.

Percy Shelley (1792-1822)

• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

• Published in 1818 when Shelley was only 19 years old

• Wrote the novel in 1 year

• She started writing it in 1816:

• She was in the Swiss Alps when they challenged each other to a ghost story competition involving Mary, Lord Byron, Percy, and Byron’s doctor, Dr. Polidori• Dr. Polidori wrote The Vampire during this competition and

had it published in 1819. Dracula and other vampire stories evolved from this novel.

• Three versions have been published, but the first version is considered the best

• It was originally published anonymously with a preface by Percy Shelley, so people assumed it had been written by a man.

• The novel is set in the late 1700’s, all over Switzerland, Germany, and the Arctic.

The Novel

• The epistolary format, which means that a novel is comprised of letters, creates a story within a story within a story (AKA Frame Story)

• Travel journals in epistolary format were a popular genre during Shelley’s time, and she even kept her own epistolary journals while she and Percy traveled together after leaving England. • She referred to her travel journal while writing

Frankenstein. Notice Victor’s hometown is Geneva, which is where Shelley was when she wrote her story.

• Through this format, three people tell the story: Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the creature.

• Part 1 = Letters• This is actually the END of the story, but you read it

FIRST.

• Part 2= Victor Frankenstein’s story• It is the BEGINNING of the story, but you read it

SECOND.

• Part 3= The monster’s tale• This is the middle of the story, but you read it LAST.

Epistolary Novel

The novel is not meant to condemn scientific exploration. Percy and Lord Byron constantly talked about scientific exploration in front of Mary, and she was interested in it.

NOTE:

• Allows an exploration of man’s duality (dual personalities, conflicting feelings/emotions/thoughts)

• Double self or shadow, which is what the creature is.

• Victor becomes parentless and isolated, like his creature.

• The creature is a product of Frankenstein’s hubris, or pride.

• The creature is also a doppelgänger for Mary• Like the creature, she was rejected by her

father (after she eloped with Percy).

Doppelgänger

• The creature has the physical description of a man (p. )

• However, it battles some of the same issues women of this time period battled: oppression, isolation, and a lack of readily-accessed education.

• Just as women were educated at home by a family member, the creature is also educated at home by the De Lacey family while they are educating Safie.

• Make a note to explore/notice these ideas while reading.

Gender?

• Frankenstein’s creature embodies the ideas of philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke

• Locke believed that humans are born with a “tabula rasa” or blank slate and our environment shapes us and molds our values. • Self-knowledge is another aspect of Locke’s

philosophy.

• Rousseau believed that humans are born instinctually good, but we learn evil from our interactions with society.

• Make a note to explore/notice how these ideas are reflected in the creature

Philosophical Ideas

• The creature starts with his senses to discover the world, then observes the family to learn the norms and codes of society.

• He learns to read and write by watching Safie

• He also reads Milton’s Paradise Lost, von Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, and Plutarch’s Lives by Plutarch to educate himself.

Creature’s Education

• Because he sympathized with the humans, he stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. • “pour torrents of light into a dark

world”

• As a result, he was punished by Zeus

• Later freed by Hercules in Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound

• Make a note to explore/notice comparisons between Victor and Prometheus.

Prometheus

• Haunts the novel (references appear throughout)

• Purgatory

• The self is trapped in isolation

• Traveling north

• All the crew/family dies, except the mariner

• A guest telling his story

• We will look at this in more detail later!

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge

Story of the creation of Adam and Eve. It focuses on God’s relationship with his two humans and Satan as well.

Likewise, Frankenstein deals with the creation of a human.

Victor Frankenstein successfully creates a natural man, but his error lies in his refusal to love it and to take responsibility for it.

He never even names his creature

Victor mocks the power of God by creating another human being. Childbearing also displaces God from the creation of humans. Shelley was wary of childbearing since she lost three children.

Make a note to explore/notice/discuss whether the creature is more like Satan or more like Adam.

Milton’s Paradise Lost

• Imagination is highly regarded as Romanticism followed the Enlightenment (a highly logical, ordered, balanced, and structured era).

• Placed new emphasis on horror, terror, and awe

• Heroic isolation of the artist or the narrator

• Passion over reason

Romantic Literature (1798-1832)

• Satanic strand based on Milton’s Paradise Lost is developed in a character.

• Supernatural, horror, and mysterious elements

• Wild, unpredictable aspects of nature

• Ominous tone

• Melancholy atmosphere

• A victimizer exists who is associated with evil.

• A helpless victim is set against his torturer.

• Extreme, desolate, and harsh landscapes

Gothicism

•Victor Frankenstein: Fascinated with science

•Henry Clerval: Victor’s best friend

•Elizabeth: Victor’s adopted sister

•William and Ernest: Victor’s younger brothers

•Justine Moritz: live-in servant

•The monster: ???? TBD!

Main Characters

•What consequences do we face if we do not take responsibility for our actions?

•How does lack of compassion and understanding lead to prejudice and stereotyping?

•How can failure be beneficial?

•What is “good”? What is “evil”?

Essential Questions to Explore

Pre Reading Discussion Topics• Good vs. Evil: Mankind’s duality• Define Good• Define Evil• Is there anything in between?

• What makes something/someone “HUMAN”?• Cogito ergo sum • I think, therefore I am

• Is it true that “Everyone knows what is right or wrong, not because we’ve learned it but because it is born in the mind?” (Kant)

• Can animals or things that are built by man have identities, and are they entitled to the same rights as humans?

• Do parents/creators have a certain obligation to their offspring?