This document contains detailed analysis, context and in-depth tragic convention exploration for the Drama section of the Edexcel A-Level English Literature course. Further support is given to students with the inclusion of quotation banks and critical theory providing students with the foundations...
Frankenstein Key Context Organised Into Literary, Historical + Authors Context
Mary Shelley
● Mary Shelley’s mother died 10 days after her birth and Mary blamed herself for the death of
her mother.
● Radical thinkers had been influenced by the French revolution where a repressed and
brutalised lower class had overthrown the king and the aristocracy in the name of fairer
treatment.
● On Mary’s journey across Europe she travelled close to the castle Frankenstein in Germany.
● Mary gave birth prematurely and her first daughter died a few days after birth. Her second
child William died as a result of cholera.
● While at Lake Geneva Mary’s half sister committed suicide and 2 months after her sister
drowned herself in a lake.
● Mary and Percy left for Italy where she gave birth to Percy who was her only surviving child.
● Percy drowned in the Gulf of Spezia and Mary returned to England. She wrapped Percy’s
heart in pages of his last poem and carried it with her until the day she died.
● Mary did not accept her step-mother showing a lack of female presence in her life and she
held a resentment against her father showing a resentment to males.
● After Percey’s death she had a struggle with societal disapproval as a result of her
relationship with Percey.
● Shelley’s father was a radical philosopher and her mother was a radical feminist
Enlightenment vs Romanticism
● The enlightenment was a movement in the 18 century that rejected the idea that the
th
church and king should have control over peoples lives.
● The main principles were liberty, a belief in human progress and improving human
happiness and democracy with an emphasis on scientific and rational thought.
● Enlightenment philosopher John Locke thought of the human mind as a “blank slate” at birth
not created by God but a construct of our society.
● Romanticism was focused on emotion, individualism and experience celebrating nature.
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