Mary Shelley’s

FRANKENSTEIN

By Patsy Brandenburg

1945

The original title was Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Prometheus was a mythological god who according to one story, steals fire from Jupiter to help the mortals on earth. Another version of this myth is that Prometheus actually creates a human being by breathing life into a

clay body.

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The author, Mary Shelley, was born Mary Wollstonecraft in London in 1797 and died in 1851 at the age of 54 from a brain tumor.

Shelley was 19 years old when she wrote this Gothic novel in 1816. At the time she was married to a poet, Percy Shelley, who helped her with the editing process of this novel.

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Mary wrote the novel one summer while she vacationed at Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

The weather was unseasonably cold. For entertainment, Mary Shelley, her husband (poet) Percy Bysshe Shelley, (poet) Lord Byron, and Jane Clairmont would sit around reading ghost stories.

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On June 15, 1816, a challenge was issued among the four of them to see who could write the most terrifying story.

Mary Shelley’s story is based on her life experiences, her dreams, and scientific research and experiments of that time period.

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Mary Shelley had previously suffered with nightmares in 1815 after her daughter died two weeks after birth.

Repeatedly Mary dreamt her baby was just cold, and that she herself brought her daughter back to life after messaging the infant’s lifeless body while sitting next to a warm fire.

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On June 15, 1816, Mary experienced a different nightmare in which she dreamt, “a pale student of ‘unhallowed arts’ creates a living being from dead parts.” (Frankenstein p.x)

[unhallowed: against what is considered holy and sacred; immoral and unethical according to society’s standards]

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That dream was the basis for her gothic story. Ironically, Mary Shelley was the only one out of the group to finish her tale of terror.

Mary Shelley’s gothic novel was published in 1818 when she was just 21. She went on to publish other works, but none ever matched the popularity of FRANKENSTEIN.

Mary Shelley’s novel wasn’t based on her dreams alone. In the early 1800’s, scientists were obsessed with finding a way to bring the dead back to life. Mary found this idea fascinating and kept current with all new science experiments taking place during her time.

Luigi Galvani was one scientist that believed that “electricity” was the life force for living beings.

He would take dead animals and shock their bodies with high currents of electricity. The corpse would jolt when shocked with electrical currents.

Luigi’s nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took the experiment one step further. In London, on January 17, 1803, he publicly performed this experiment on the corpse of a human being, a prisoner that had been executed by hanging.

Giovanni attached live wires to the corpse: 120 plates of zinc and 120 plates of copper.

Giovanni reported, “the jaw began to quiver, the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and the left eye actually opened.”(Frankenstein, p. xx)

The muscles of the corpse were shocked to such a degree that the corpse appeared “animated” to the public.

With Frankenstein, the sci-fi era began. The novel contains the 3 elements essential for all science fiction work: (1)“it’s based on valid scientific research; (2)gives a persuasive prediction of what science might achieve in the future; (3) and it offers a humanistic critique of the benefits and dangers of either the achievement or scientific thought.” (p. xx)

Romantic Movement: (1770-1870)

This movement is not about “romance or love” but

about disillusioned liberals who were tired of

the common people being oppressed by tyrant

rulers. This time period happens simultaneously

with revolutions around the world: the

American R. 1776, the French R. 1789, the

French Reign of Terror 1793, Napoleon is

crowned Emperor--1804.

Nature imagery is a key element in Romantic

literature because human tyranny could not

control nature. For the Romantics, nature

represented peace and they believed that all

emotional healing came from nature.

[Nature imagery is abundant in Frankenstein.]

Mary Shelley Mary Shelley

1997

Gothic Literature: It’s an offshoot of Romantic literature. “Along with nature having the power of healing, Gothic writers gave nature the power of destruction. Many storms arise in the book, including storms the night the creature comes to life… The most common feature of Gothic literature is the indication of mood through the weather. When bad things are going to happen in a Gothic novel, the reader knows it because there is inevitably a storm outside.” (Grudzina)

In addition, Gothic literature is “a style of

fiction, especially in the late 18th

century and early 19th century, with

historical and picturesque settings, an

atmosphere of mystery, gloom and

terror, supernatural or psychological

plot elements, with violent, gruesome

deaths.” (Webster)

The setting is usually in medieval castles

built in the Gothic style (like McMurry

University) of architecture—with

secret passageways, dungeons, and

towers.

Works Cited • Art.com. 1995. Online October 5, 2003. http://www.art.com • “Frankenstein.” U.S. National Library of Medicine. 13 February

2002. Online. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/ frank_celluloid.html>5 October 2003.

• Grudzina, Rebecca. Teaching Unit: Individual Learning Packet. Cheswold: Prestwick House Inc., 2004.

• Hamberg, Cynthia. “My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Google Images. October 27, 2004. 3 October 2006 <home-1.worldonline.nl/~hamberg/home2.html>

• Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Pocket Books. 1995.