Mary Shelley and Frankenstein

EQ: What are the main connections made through Frankenstein and other

literary works?

When?

In the summer of 1816, 19 year old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover, the poet Percy Shelley, visited the Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

The Motivation

Stormy weather frequently forced them indoors, where they and Byron's other guests sometimes read from a volume of ghost stories. One evening, Byron challenged his guests to each write one themselves. Mary's story, inspired by a dream, became Frankenstein.

Her Family’s Influence

Her father, William Godwin,was a political thinker and writer.

Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a feminist.

Her Love – Percy Shelley

Met when she was 15. He was married. 1st

wife drowned.They married two

years later. She had already had 2 of his children by this time.

He was a famous poet.

The Pre-Hippies

• They were into nature, free love, and were not particulary bound by Christian ideals

• Absinthe and opium• Shelley even had a mistress Jane Clairmont

A Suspicious Death

Shelley’s first wife died by drowning.When she was found, resuscitation was

attempted - smelling salts, vigorous shaking, electricity, and artificial respiration--using resuscitation bellows were used.

These were all methods that had been used since the 1760s to revive drowning victims to life.

Harriet, however, did not survive.

What was Science Up to at this Point? During Mary’s time, scientists

and physicians were fascinated by the elusive boundary between life and death.Experimented with lower organisms, performed human anatomical studies, attempted to resuscitate drowning victims, and performed experiments using electricity to restore life to the recently dead.

Mary’s Contest Submission

• Not intended to be a tale of the supernatural – she even made her main character a scientist so that his building of a man would seem logical.

• Was a combo of Gothic elements and science

• Might be considered early sci-fi

The Structure of the Story

• The novel is constructed of three concentric layers, one within the other:– outermost--Robert Walton's letters to his

sister; – middle--Frankenstein's story as he tells it to

Walton; – innermost--Monster's description to

Frankenstein of the development of his mind at the deLaceys'.

Frame Story

Elements of the Gothic Novel

• Setting in a castle• An atmosphere of

mystery and suspense• An ancient prophecy• Omens, portents,

visions• Supernatural or

otherwise inexplicable events

• High, even overwrought emotion

• Women in distress• Women threatened by

a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male

• Metonymy of gloom and horror

• Vocabulary of the gothic

Ideas of the Enlightenment

• Scientific observation of the outer world• Logic and reason; science and technology• Believed in following standards and traditions• Appreciated elegance and refinement• Interested in maintaining the aristocracy• Sought to follow and validate authority• Favored a social hierarchy• Nature should be controlled by humans

Characteristics of Romantic Period

• Emphasis on imagination and emotion, individual passion and inspiration

• Rejection of formal, upper class works and a preference for writing (poetry) that addresses personal experiences and emotions in simple, language

• A turn to the past or an inner dream world that is thought to be more picturesque and magical than the current world (industrial age)

Characteristics of Romantic Period

• Belief in individual liberty; rebellious attitude against tyranny

• Fascination with nature; perception of nature as transformative

Style: Gothic Novel

• Frankenstein is generally categorized as a Gothic novel, a genre of fiction that uses gloomy settings and supernatural events to create and atmosphere of mystery and terror.

• Shelley adds to her development of the plot the use of psychological realism, delving into the psyches of the characters in and attempt to explain why they react as they do and what drives them to make their decisions.

Modern Prometheus

• Prometheus was the son of a Titan• the name means "forethought.“• In the battle between Zeus and the

Titans for control of Olympus he sided with Zeus and became his chief counselor. 

“The Modern Prometheus”

• Prometheus– In Greek mythology, he

was a titan who created man in the image of the gods

– Stole the gift of fire from Mt. Olympus and gave it to man

– Punished by Zeus and chained to a rock on a mountain. Every day for 30 years, Zeus’ eagle would eat his liver

Things go from bad to worse

• Prometheus stole fire• Zeus gets mega-ticked• Chains him to rock and lets birds

devour his liver • Liver grew back every night.• Next day, same deal. Not fun

Another Version

the fire stolen by Prometheus was also the fire of life with which he animated his men of clay.

Doesn’t this seem even more Frankensteinish??

Moral of the Story???

• Don’t irritate the gods

Moral of our story?????

• Don’t play God

Paradise Lost – Referenced Often• Paradise

Lost is John Milton's attempt to "justify the ways of God to man" by retelling of the story of Creation, the revolt of Lucifer and his fall from grace, and the story of Adam and Eve.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• An epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in which a sailor kills an albatross and learns (through spiritual and supernatural events) to respect the sea (the natural world). His disregard for nature and tradition leads to his and every other sailor’s demise