This document displays highly detailed and analysed context for Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (1831) for A-Level English Literature using OCR. The context/AO3 ranges from Shelley's own life (the loss of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft), her husband Percy Shelley and his influence/literature ('To Ma...
Context Explanation Supporting Quote
Mary She was a feminist writer famous for her "a promised gift"/"a pretty
Wollstonecraft book "A Vindication of the Right of present" - Victor about Elizabeth
Woman". She argued that women were not
naturally inferior to men, but it was due to "I loved to tend on her, as I should
their lack of education that they are were
on a favourite animal"- Victor
perceived this way. Wollstonecraft pressed
about Elizabeth
for educational reforms
"Make women rational creatures, and free “I was now about to form another
citizens, and they will quickly become good being of whose dispositions I was
wives." alike ignorant; she might become
ten thousand times more
malignant than her mate and
delight, for its own sake, in murder
and wretchedness.”- Victor about
the female monster
Percy Shelley's He changed many details in the script of “His shrivelled complexion and
influence 1831 Frankenstein compared to the 1818 straight black lips...”- Victor about the
Frankenstein. The monster was painted monster
more vividly, and he changed Elizabeth and “Since till death she was to be mine
Victor from biological cousins to adoptive only”- Victor about Elizabeth
siblings. The monsters deathly ending was
also changed from certainty to a mystery of “He was soon borne away by the
the unknown. waves and lost in darkness and
distance.”-Victor about the monster
-Mary’s Mary lost both her children during infancy t “The fatal impulse that led to my
children sickness which left her in a deep depression. ruin”- Victor about the monster
Percy as a result wrote the poem ‘To Mary
Shelley’ claiming she left him “all alone in “A new species would bless me as its
this dreary world...” creator and source...” - Victor about
his creation without woman
Freud Freuds Oedipus complex and iceberg theory “But as I imprinted the first kiss on her
reflect that the creature and creator are two lips, they became livid with the hue of
aspects of the same person. Freud would death... and I thought I held the
use his theory of the ‘psychologically corpse of my dead mother in my
divided self’ to explain the characters as the arms.”- Victor's dream
battle between the id and the superego.
The French France underwent the French revolution in “How dangerous is the acquirement
Revolution the late 18th century due to the poverty of knowledge”- Victor about
spectrum and bankruptcy from supporting revolutionary knowledge
the American revolution. It resulted in the
abolishment of the monarchy, removing the “You are my creator, but I am your
ideal created of ‘Divine right of kings’ having master- obey!”- The monster to Victor
King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-
Antoinette executed.
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