An Introduction to Frankenstein Mary Shelley, Romanticism, and Gothic Literature.

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Presentation transcript:

An Introduction to Frankenstein Mary Shelley, Romanticism, and Gothic Literature

Mary Shelley ► The daughter of politically radical parents who married a few months before her birth to preserve her legal status ► Father was a philosopher and writer ► Mother was a famous writer and feminist; died within days of giving birth to Mary ► No formal education – taught at home by her father (listened to discussions by literary talents and read in her father’s vast library)

Mary Shelley ► Eloped with the famous poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, when she was 17 ► He was already married and had two children ► Mary and Percy married in 1817, a few weeks after the suicide of Percy’s first wife ► Kept company with Lord Byron and other famous writers of the day

Mary Shelley ► The inspiration for Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus came to Mary Shelley during a story-telling contest with friends ► It was published anonymously in 1818 to mixed reviews

The Prometheus Legend According to Greek and Roman legend, Prometheus was one of the Titans, a group of giants created by Zeus, the primary god. Promethus defied Zeus by giving fire to humans, elevating humans above animals. As an eternal punishment, Zeus chained Promethus to a rock. During the night, vultures would eat out his liver, and during the day it would grow back.

Romanticism As a movement, Romanticism was: ► A reaction against the Enlightenment (advancement of Science) ► emphasized importance of the self and the value of individual experience (examination of inner feelings, emotions, imagination)

Attitudes and Interests of Romantic Writers ► Idealistic ► Interest in the mysterious and supernatural ► Love of nature ► Sought to develop new forms of expression ► Romanticized the past ► Tendency toward excess and spontaneity ► Appreciated folk traditions ► Concern for the particular

Social Concerns ► Desired radical change/ favored democracy ► Concerned with the individual ► Concerned with the common people ► Felt that nature should be untamed; that man should not interfere with the natural course of things.

The Gothic Tradition ► A type of romance popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ► Involved supernatural characters including ghosts, monsters, vampires, werewolves; mad scientists, children and women as victims (men always cause the death of these innocents)

The Gothic Tradition ► Settings include haunted castles, abbeys, graveyards, laboratories, foreign lands, or ruins, deserted or isolated locations, such as forests, mountains, lakes, etc., and wild picturesque landscapes ► Atmosphere is dark, gloomy, and/or mysterious with symbolic manifestations of the character’s own unconscious fears or spiritual confusions; designed to invoke fear of the unknown and powers beyond our control.

The Gothic Tradition Gothic heroes are trapped in gloom unable to appreciate the light of day. They are the descendants of Cain, Satan, and Prometheus – heroic in their rebellion yet pathetic in their destiny. Their pain and suffering exalt them above the collective and enshrine them in their excruciating settings.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was inspired, as Shelley explains in her introduction to the edition of 1831, by a communal reading of German ghost stories with her husband and Byron during bad weather on the shores of Lake Geneva. Frankenstein is the single most important product of the Gothic tradition, but it considerably transcends its sources. Its numerous thematic resonances relate to science, isolation, psychology, alienation, education, family relationships, and much else. Even so, one cannot imagine a more archetypically Gothic circumstance than the secret creation of an eight-foot-tall monster out of separate body parts collected from tombs in graveyards.

Values stressed in the novel ► The human fulfillment of the pursuit of knowledge. ► The importance of individual creative effort and achievement. ► The need to measure the ongoing race for achievement against the yardstick of potential benefit to the human community. ► The wealth and support of family love. ► Man’s desire to be God ► The enriching power of friendship. ► The healing power of nature. ► The importance of assuming responsibility for one’s relationship with others.

“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay / To mould me man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?” Lines from John Milton's Paradise Lost From the title page of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheuse, 1818