An Introduction to Frankenstein

1. An Introduction to Frankenstein • A novel by Mary Shelley

2. A Biography of Mary Shelley • Born August 30, 1797 as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in London. • Mother (Mary Wollstonecraft) author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women • Father (William Godwin) member of a circle of radical thinkers like Thomas Paine and William Blake

3. Her mother died while giving birth to Mary. • Her upbringing brought her in contact with some of England’s greatest minds like Lord Byron,Samuel Coleridge and later Percy Bysshe Shelley.

4. Mary met Percy as a teenager and ran away with him in 1814. As Milton puts it “Mary escaping her family and Percy his wife.” • They continued their affair while Percy stayed with his wife and Mary found another man. • Percy’s wife, Harriet, while pregnant with his child, eventually drowned herself in London in November of 1816. • Weeks later, Percy and Mary were married.

5. They had a close romantic and literary relationship. • Percy edited Mary’s manuscripts for Frankenstein and is supposed to have written the preface in her name.

6. Mary endured several tragedies. • Between 1815 and 1819 3 of her 4 children died in infancy and in 1822 Percy drowned off the shore of Tuscany. • She edited and published Percy’s Posthumous Poems in 1824 and his Poetical Works and Letters in 1839. • She died in London in February 1851 from serious illness.

7. Genesis of the Novel • Frankenstein began as a dream Mary had. • The story goes: during one unusually rainy evening in the Swiss Alps, Mary, Percy, and Lord Byron (a friend and neighbor) entertained themselves by reading ghost stories. Lord Byron suggested they try their hand at writing their own, competing to see who could write the best one. That night she dreamt of a scientist who created a monster. This turned in to the class novel we know today.

8. Discoveries and Fears of the Time • The beginning of scientific knowledge emerges during this time • Frankenstein shows our greatest scientific fears and fantasies • Lots of new discoveries concerning the human body and brain—led to a fear of where science was taking us • The more we knew, the more we knew how much we didn’t know—fear of the unknown

9. Influential Sources • Mary Wollstonecraft • Themes of motherlessness and abandonment show throughout the novel, likely influenced by the absence of Mary’s own mother.

10. William Godwin • The theme of paternal indifference is evident in novel. Mary’s own father was largely indifferent to her, perhaps associating the death of his wife with Mary. • Ironically, Godwin’s social theory stated that “virtue and happiness could only spring from social considered and constituted aims, the true solitaire can not be considered a moral being...his conduct is vicious, because it has the tendency to render him miserable” (quoted in Hindle, Frankenstein, “Introduction”, Penguin Edition, p. xxix).

11. PercyShelley • Mary was no doubt influenced by Shelley’s ideas of Romanticism, which was rooted in emotions and sentiments. It shifted from the importance of logic, to the importance of self and feelings.

12. prometheus • In Greek myth, Prometheus steals fire from the Gods for the benefit of humanity and is punished by being chained to a rock where birds eat his liver, only to have his liver grow back to be eaten again and again. • In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the fire is The Fire of Life used by Prometheus to create humans and animals.

13. Classification of the Novel • Frankenstein can be considered a Gothic Romance, or a Romantic Gothic novel.

14. Romanticism • A term applicable to philosophy, politics, and the arts in general. Emphasis is placed on subjective experience, innovation, imagination, and the individual. In Romantic works, nature is often viewed as a place of regeneration. • Also a tendency in prose or in poetry to rebel against the strictures of classicism and to exult in imagination, untamed Nature, gothic details, individualism, love of liberty, faraway places, and melancholy.

15. Gothic • Romantic writing that highlights isolated or ominous locales; large, rambling structures; implied danger to isolated or vulnerable characters; and horrific distress or menace, such as mysterious disappearances or deaths, manifestations, omens, unexplained events, or an atmosphere of terror and suspense.

16. Epistolary novel • A stylized novel told through letters.

17. Fantasy • A dimension of imaginative literature that blends the real world with incredible characters, talking beasts, and unreal beings, which may be interpreted as allegorical or symbolic.

18. Frame Story • A narrative technique whereby a main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story. The novel begins and ends in the North Pole. However, the bulk of the story is a flashback as Victor Frankenstein relates his story to Robert Walton.

19. Terms to Know • “Foil”--A character whose personality and attitude is opposite the personality and attitude of another character. The monster and Victor Frankenstein are foils. • “Alter Ego”--is a second self, a second personality or persona within a person. Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein are alter egos.

20. Themes • poverty • cruelty • intolerance • prejudice • idealism • frustration • vengeance • achievement • autonomy • self-fulfillment • compassion • sensitivity • self-destruction • doom

21. Motifs • seeking to understand the universe • coming to knowledge (moral education) • confronting failure • struggling to control cataclysmic forces and events • searching for love, friendship, and affirmation • coping with death, loss, and isolation • righting wrongs