Frankenstein

• Gothic


  • Set in dark and gloomy places
  • Focus on the mysterious
• Frankenstein's 'workshop of filthy creation'

  Captures Gothic elements
• 'gigantic stature' of the creature


  Captures Gothic elements
• 'the dissecting room and the slaughter-house'


  Captures Gothic elements
• Transgression


  • Key feature of Gothic genre
  • Frankenstein transgresses society's rules by collecting materials from charnel-houses, dissecting rooms and slaughter-houses
  • Frankenstein transgresses strong ideas about religion by creating a living creature
• Women in Gothic literature


  Often portrayed as helpless victims, damsels in distress whose deaths are tragically beautiful
• Elizabeth's death


  • Perfectly fits the mould of a tragically beautiful Gothic death
• Tragedy


  • Frankenstein's character fits into the category of a tragic hero
  • His hamartia is his ambition which quickly turns destructive
  • His downfall turns him from a person with a loving family and bright future to a complete wreck
• Walton: 'What a glorious creature he must have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin!'
• Science Fiction


  • Deals with futuristic scientific concepts
  • The creation of the creature fits into this category
• Frankenstein's creation of life

  Inspired by scientific discoveries around the time the novel was written, such as Luigi Galvani's finding that dead frog's legs twitched when struck by electricity
• Mary Wollstonecraft


  Mary Shelley's mother, one of the first feminists, had 'radical' views that were criticized by the establishment
• Mary Wollstonecraft: '"I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves"'
• Mary Wollstonecraft


  • Criticized the patriarchal society of the time by speaking out about how limited education was for females
  • Author of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women'
• Mary Wollstonecraft's views


  Fit with other radical thinkers of the time such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: '"man is born free and everywhere he is in chains"'
• William Godwin


  Mary Shelley's father, regarded as an icon of radical thought and an inspiration for the Romantic poets
• William Godwin


  • Strongly believed that society needed to become more equal in order to progress and for everyone to reach their full potential
  • Believed in the power of the individual and that each person could change the corruption and inequality present in society
• Mary Shelley


  • Grew up with her father and was introduced to his intellectual circle at a young age
  • Met Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was 15 and ran off with him to France when she was 16, later marrying him
• When her husband died in 1822, Mary Shelley dedicated herself to her work and to publishing his poetry. She did not remarry.
• In 1815, Mary Shelley fell pregnant. Her daughter was premature and died after 12 days.
• In 1816, Mary Shelley gave birth to a baby boy named William who died in 1819.
• In 1817, Mary Shelley gave birth to a baby girl called Clara who died a year later.
• The Genesis of Frankenstein

  1. In 1816, Shelley (Godwin at the time) spent the summer with her future husband, their son William and Lord Byron in a villa Byron was renting in Geneva

  2. Due to the awful weather, they spent a lot of time confined to the villa and talked about political and scientific ideas of the time such as the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani's experiments with electricity and dead frogs

  3. Byron suggested they each write their own supernatural tale, and this is when Frankenstein was born
• Frankenstein was first published in 1818 anonymously, and most people believed it was written by Percy Shelley.
• The book became an immediate sensation.