The Modern Prometheus

 Daughter of two distinguished writers, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft  Her mother died giving birth to her  Left home at 15 to live with friends of her father  Met the famous poet Percy Shelley, although Shelley was married the two fell in love and ran off together  Her first child died at 3 weeks old  She, Shelley, and Lord Byron proposed a contest to write the scariest story  Frankenstein was born from this contest  Two of her remaining three children fell sick and died before their fifth birthday  Shelley and two companions drowned when they were caught in a storm in 1822

 The French Revolution and the rise of Industrialism  Revolution signaled rejection of the wealthy ruling class and a shift of power to the middle class  Industry made workers replaceable and led to horrid working conditions  Science and Technology  New machines such as the steam engine led to unparalleled production  Erasmus Darwin introduced the idea of biological evolution which was carried on by his grandson  Scientists conducted several experiments with electricity  Arctic Exploration  In the late 1700’s travelers began searching for a trade route through the Arctic that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific

 Narrative Structure  The novel employs a framing structure that encompasses three different narrators  The novel also utilizes the epistolary form— where letters tell a story  Setting  The Swiss Alps and Arctic are the setting for the majority of the novel  These locations were favorites of the Romantics for their sublime and awe inspiring examples of nature  Gothicism  Gothic novels typically feature the sinister and supernatural occurring as the result of human evil or misdeed  Gothic novels also express our deepest psychological fears and insecurities

 Romanticism  Romantic writers concerned themselves with the plight of the underprivileged, the exploration of the imagination, scenes of natural beauty, and the supernatural  Doppelganger  The idea that a person has a ghostly double haunting them  This “dark” side has been referred to as the Id by Sigmund Freud and the “shadow” by Carl Jung

 Loneliness and Alienation  Does ambition and the quest for knowledge drive us further and further away from society?  How does isolation affect Victor and his creation psychologically?  Monstrosity and appearance  Is the creature the only “monster” in the novel?  Is monstrosity defined only by appearance?  Why do humans naturally react with fear and loathing to what they perceive to be ugly?  Nature vs. Nurture  Look for the abundant examples of nurturing relationships that contrast Victor’s treatment of his creature  Duty and Responsibility  What duties and responsibilities do we have to our family and loved ones?

 Justice vs. Injustice  Shelley invites her readers to judge which characters are just and which are not  Forbidden Knowledge  Are there things that humanity was just not meant to know?  What unforeseen consequences might we suffer as a result of scientific progress?  Science vs. Nature  Is science just a man made substitute for the perfect system of nature?  Is scientific progress good if it upsets a natural balance?  Language  The novel is full of various documents all of which attempt to preserve different types of language  Three different narrators bring three types of language into the novel