Frankenstein context overview:
1815-1816 ‘the year without summer’
• In April 1815 a huge volcanic eruption in Indonesia sent thick clouds of ash into
the upper atmosphere. Much of the following year was blighted by endless rain,
black skies and plunging temperatures caused by the eruption.
• During this period, in May 1816, Mary and Percy, along with their infant son
William arrived in Geneva with Claire.
• They were later joined by Byron and his physician Dr John Polidori. The weather
was gloomy, wet and oppressive for the majority of their stay.
The VillaDiodati
• The party crossed Lake Geneva and took a number of villas including the Villa
Diodati.
• There they entertained themselves with a book of ghost stories,
Fantasmagoriana.
• It was at this villa that Byron challenged the group to a writing competition.
The birth of a monster
• For several days Mary struggled to find inspiration, until late one night the idea
came to her in what she later described as a waking dream:
• She wrote of feeling a “thrill of fear”, the words infused with memories of her dead
mother and child, a passion for the supernatural and a fascination with
galvanism. The first fragments of the monster were conceived and produced at
the Villa Diodati.
Mary’s vision of the monster:
“I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of
some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.”
Her waking dream bears resemblance to Victors?????
Mary Godwin
● Mary Shelley was born Mary Godwin in London, in 1797.
● She was the second child of the feminist philosopher, novelist and journalist
Marty Wollstonecraft and was the first child of the philosopher, novelist and
journalist William Godwin
● Wollstonecraft died of a fever shortly after Mary was born so Godwin was left
to raise her and her half-sister
Young Mary
● When Mary was fourteen she went to live with friends in Scotland
, ● She meets Percy, aged 15, whilst he has a wife
Galvanism
● Galvani was able to make a dissected frog’s legs twitch when he hooked the
animal to an electric charge
● He believed this confirmed ‘animal electricity’.
● After Galvani died, his nephew continued the practice and performed public
demonstrations.
● Mary and Percy went to watch these demonstrations.
● A newspaper: ‘the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the
adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened.’
Percy Shelley
● Born in 1792
● He was fascinated by galvanism and once attempted to reanimate a dead cat
● ‘Mad Shelley’ was expelled for his contribution to a pamphlet supporting the
decriminalisation of atheism
● He then eloped with a 16-year old (Harriet Westbrook)
● Whilst Harriet was pregnant with his second child he had an affair with Mary
The loss of a child
● In February 1815, she gave birth to a two-month premature baby girl
● She wrote to a friend, ‘my baby is dead… appearance it evidently died of
convulsions…I am no longer a mother now.’
The Return to England
● Mary and Percy moved with Claire Clairmont to Bath in 1816
● Mary received letters from Fanny Imlay alluding to an ‘unhappy life’. Percy
was sent to find her but this was unsuccessful. She was found dead in
Swansea Inn with a suicide note
● On December 10th, Harriet was found drowned in the serpentine
The completion of Frankenstein
● In Early 1817 Summer it was finished and published anonymously.
● Reviewers assumed it was Percy’s as it had his preface and was dedicated to
his political hero (William Godwin).
The Shelleys in Italy
● In March 1818, they moved to Italy due to a threat from creditors, debtor’s
prison, ill health and fears of losing children
● They devoted their time to writing and sightseeing
● In September 1818, Percy and Mary’s 1 year-old daughter died
, ● In June 1819, their 3 year-old boy William fell ill and died after a few days
Mary’s words: “I never know one moment’s ease from the wretchedness that
possesses me,”
The death of Percy
● Percy develops a love of sailing (he cannot swim)
● He designs a boat but Byron’s is bigger. Percy dangerously modifies his boat
with the hope of it being faster
● In July 1822, he returns from Byron’s house and drowns in a storm aged 29
with a friend and deckhand
● Mary receives a letter saying: “Pray write to tell us how you got home, for they
say you had bad weather”
● Mary: ‘The paper fell from me”
● She rushed to Livorno but he was dead. Percy’s washed up body appears on
the coast
The Funeral Pyre
● Percy’s body was cremated on a beach, Mary was unable to attend. Percy’s
heart was snatched from the flames as it refused to burn
● Byron: ‘I have never met a man who wasn’t a beast in comparison’
● In 1852, thirty years after Percy’s death and a year after Mary’s, Percy’s heart
was found in Mary’s desk
Frankenstein
Frankenstein is a German surname. Probably literally ‘Franconian mountains’ stein.
‘Stein’ being used for steep, rocky peaks, which in the Rhineland often were crowned
with castles. The Shelleys might have passed one in their travels
It also suggests ‘free stone’.
● ‘Franchio’= region in Germany
● ‘Franks’= Germanic tribe
● ‘Stein’= stone
Racial tensions at the time of writing
● Percey Shelley was involved in anti-slavery activity as a boy with his father
being an MP who supported the anti-slave trade bill
● The imagery of the creature’s path of destruction is similar to that of accounts
of slave rebellions in the West Indies
● Like a slave forced to educate them self through observation, so is the
creature- although the articulation of the creature rejects the most severe
stereotypes of the slaves
● The monster’s suicide draws parallels between the suicide of slaves as they
attempt to escape cruel circumstance
Neo-Freudian concept of womb envy
, ● womb envy denotes the envy that men may feel of the biological functions of
the female (pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding).
● Shelley felt effeminated by her miscarriages and loss of children
● Normalised via Victor
Prometheus
● Greek mythology
● Defied Zeus
● First tricked Zeus into accepting bones instead of the meat of a sacrifice
● As a punishment, Zeus hid fire from the mortals
● Prometheus stole the fire and returned it
● Ended up tied to a cliff where eagles would chew at his liver
● Promethean lust for power
● Links with ardour
Romanticism
● Emphasis on emotion and individualism
● The irrational and imaginative
● Idealised nature
● Modern environmentalism emulates certain features of this
Era of enlightenment
● Scepticism
● Turned to science
● Moved away from religion (Mary was Christian)
Bildungsroman
● a novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education
● Mary Shelley dreamt Chapter 5 first, therefore she moved back into his
formative years from that point
Monomania
Exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for or preoccupation with one thing.
Hobbes
● Human nature is inherently flawed
Rousseau
● Born free, pure, guiltless and savage
Locke
