Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN

For starters… It is the scientist whose name is Frankenstein…not the monster! …the following pictures are Hollywood’s representation of Frankenstein, not Mary Shelley’s…

Victor FRANKENSTEIN

The Creature

1945 The original title was Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Prometheus was a mythological god who according to one story, steals fire and gives it the humans against Zeus’s orders. Another version of this myth is that Prometheus actually creates a human being by breathing life into a clay body.

1931 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 the novel in At the time she was married to a poet, Percy Shelley, who helped her with the editing process of this novel.

1931 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.

1931 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.

1931 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 massaging the infant’s lifeless body while sitting next to a warm fire.

1931 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]

1931 That dream was the basis for her 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.It offers a humanistic critique of the benefits and dangers of either the achievement or scientific thought. (p. xx)

Romantic Movement: ( ) NOT about “romance” or “love” 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 Nature imagery is a key element –humans could not control nature nature represented peace all emotional healing comes from nature [Nature imagery is abundant in Frankenstein.] Mary Shelley

The Five I’s  Romanticism is characterized by:  Imagination Imagination  Intuition Intuition  Idealism Idealism  Inspiration Inspiration  Individuality Individuality **Check your handout for more information

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge The poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, chronicles the story of a mariner who has returned from a long sea voyage. During his voyage, the mariner shot and killed an albatross that was glorified by the ship’s crew; they thought the albatross brought them good luck. After the mariner kills the albatross, the ship sails into uncharted waters. The crew forces the mariner to wear the albatross around his neck to “bear the burden” for killing the bird. The crew then encounters a ghostly ship where “Death” and “Life-in-death” are playing dice for the men’s lives. Death wins the crewmembers’ lives, while Life-in-death wins the mariner’s life. The mariner is forced to witness his crew members die one by one. He is also cursed to roam the Earth and tell his story as compensation for killing the albatross; he must teach a lesson to those he meets. Moral of the Story: RESPECT ALL THINGS IN NATURE! (How very Romantic Era…) Bad things happen when you mess with MOTHER NATURE!

Gothic Literature : late 18th century and early 19th century historical and picturesque settings atmosphere of mystery, gloom and terror supernatural or psychological plot elements violent, gruesome deaths. setting is usually in medieval castles built in the Gothic style of architecture – secret passageways, dungeons, and towers.

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)

Science Fiction “Brian Aldiss points to Frankenstein as the first work of science fiction (which he defines as hubris clobbered by nemesis) and he may be right. It was the place where people learned we could bring life back from death, but a dark and dangerous and untamable form of life, one that would, in the end, turn on us and harm us. That idea, the crossbreeding of the gothic and the scientific romance, was released from into the world, and would become a key metaphor for our times. The glittering promise of science, offering life and miracles, and the nameless creature in the shadows, monster and miracle all in one, back from the dead, needing knowledge and love but able, in the end, only to destroy … it was Mary Shelley's gift to us, and we would be infinitely poorer without it.” -Neil Gaiman From: **Check your handout for more information

The Setting

Switzerland and the rest of Europe

Stuck in the frozen sea ice over Christmas, the Baldwin-Ziegler North Pole expedition waits out the Arctic winter in 1901.

Frame Narrative