1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

12. Mary Shelley

13. Poetry should begin as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
Poetry should begin as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” William Wordsworth

14. “The artist’s feeling is his law
“The artist’s feeling is his law.” --Casper David Friedrich Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog 1818

15. Intellectual Movements
The Enlightenment
Romanticism
18th century (1700’s)
Diderot, Voltaire, Kant, Rousseau
Focused on the use of reason and rationality, questioning of dogma, empiricism, scientific rigor, and freedom based on the idea of man as a rational being.
Byron, Keats, Coleridge, Shelley, Hawthorne, Poe, Dickinson, Whitman, Irving
A reaction to the Industrial Revolution and Enlightenment ideals.

16. Romanticism Believed emotion to be a source of aesthetic expression
Placed importance on the sublimity and beauty of nature
Looked to the past, especially medievalism and the chivalric romance
Admired the solitary genius, placing prime importance on original creation from one’s own imagination following no prior rules or structures.

22. William Godwin ( )
Mary Wollstonecraft ( )

23. Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin
Mary W. was an early feminist who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women and considered women’s lack of political power and narrow role as wives and mothers to be slavery.
She had an illegitimate child with Gilbert Imlay before meeting William Godwin.

24. Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin
William Godwin was a radical political philosopher, a proponent of anarchism, and a critic of contemporary social structures, including marriage.
He married Mary W. after she conceived Mary S.

25. Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin
Mary W. died only 10 days after Mary S. was born.
Mary S. very often hung out by her grave. That’s where her relationship with Percy began.
William published a very honest biography about Mary W. that included her many affairs, illegitimate child, and suicide attempts.
He was surprised when people were shocked and considered the biography to be heartless.

26. Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin
William raised Mary and her half-sister Fanny very lovingly.
He remarried (another Mary) with her own two children.
He educated Mary to a greater degree than most girls at the time and immersed her in the intellectual ideas of his circle.

27. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mary Shelley

28. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mary Shelley
Claire Clairmont, Mary’s step-sister

29. Lord Byron,
poet and friend
Claire Clairmont, Mary’s step-sister
Mary Shelley
Claire Claremont, Mary’s step-sister
Percy Bysshe Shelley

30. Mary Shelley 1797-1851 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
At age 16, 1814, began a relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley…who had a pregnant wife and child.
Mary and Percy ran off together and married two years later…three weeks after Percy’s wife Harriet committed suicide.

31. Mary Shelley
Much of their life was spent travelling throughout Europe with other poets and writers, especially the poet Lord Byron, and with Mary’s step-sister Claire, who conceived a child with Byron.
Percy continued to have affairs throughout their marriage, probably also with Claire.
Mary claims to have agreed that marriage was oppressive and unnecessary…maybe.

32. Mary Shelley
Mary gave birth to four children with Percy, three of whom died as infants or toddlers.
Her only surviving son was Percy Florence Shelley.

33. Mary Shelley Percy died in a boating accident on July 8, 1822.
Mary spent much of her life publishing his works and trying to publish his life story.
She supported herself with her own writing.

34. Gothic Literature

35. Gothic Literature
First Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
His aim was to find a middle ground between a medieval romance, which he found too fanciful, and a “modern” (contemporary) novel, which he found to be too confined to strict realism.

36. Gothic Literature
The name comes from its similarities to Gothic architecture—unrestrained with grotesque ornamentation putting humans in conflict with supernatural forces.
These traits show an ambition to transcend human limitations and reach the divine.
Also a fascination with the mysterious infinite of the universe, including the terror that goes along with it.

37. Lord Byron: source of the term Byronic hero.
“A man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.”
--Lord Macaulay

38. Motifs, Techniques, and Allusions
Solitary genius
Byronic hero
Satanic hero
Faust
Frame or spiral narrative
Nature as a mirror, character, or force
The conflict of logic and emotion
Doppelganger
Paradise Lost
Prometheus

39. Galvanism
Using an electrical current to make the muscles of a dead creature contract

40. Monsters

50. Monster Etymology
Originally abnormal or abnormally large animals were considered portents—monsters, signs.
12th century monster = a repulsive character or object of dread; an abomination
14th century monster = something malformed
1550 monster = a person of inhuman cruelty or wickedness

51. 21st Century Monster
What would be the worst monster for our day and age?
Draw the creature, including details that reveal what is monstrous about this creature for our world.
Label the details to explain why this thing is a modern-day monster.