the context of frankenstein
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The Context of Frankenstein
Alison Aitken, 2012
Mary Shelley
• Born 1797• Died 1851• Wrote Frankenstein 1816• Published 1818
Image source: http://alextrenoweth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mary-shelley1.jpg
Mary Shelley’s Parents
• Mary Shelley described (accurately) that she was the “daughter of two persons of distinguished literary celebrity”
• Two of the most radical writers/thinkers of the previous generation
• Mother: Mary Wollestonecraft• Father: William Godwin
Shelley’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft
• Wrote The Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Early feminist piece• “I do not wish [women] to have
power over men; but over themselves.”
• “Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; — that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.”
• Died 11 days after Mary Shelley’s birth.
• Had an illegitimate child• Believed in sexual freedom of women
Image source: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/resources/images/1071170/?type=display
Mary Shelley’s Father William Godwin
• Wrote An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
• A leader in radical intellectual circles
• Believed in human perfectibility and enlightenment
• Believed that governments, marriage, property monopoly and monarchy restrained the progress of humankind
Image source: http://www.utilitarian.net/godwin.jpg
William Godwin – cont’d
• After Mary Wollstonecraft’s death, Godwin raised Mary Shelley and her half-sister.
• Despite his alleged coldness, he surrounded his children with:
• Extensive library• Intellectual conversations• Creative intellectuals
The Enlightenment – The Age of Reason
• Human perfectibility• “The proper employment of reason will
result in the full achievement of human potential."
• Progress• Scientific and mathematical discoveries • The innate goodness of man –
“benevolent heart”• Logic• Reason• Research and science over God and
church
The Enlightenment – The Age of Reason
• Scientific method• Rationality • Discovery• Astronomy• Darwin’s Theory of Evolution• Order• Concern for peace• Beginnings of
Industrialisation• Measurement
• Interest in the past, antiquity• World was expanding –
geographical discoveries (EG. Australia!)
• Growth of international trade• Imperialism• Colonisation• Published media = • Masses interested in science,
alchemy, philosophy, natural history…
Romanticism • Began in 18th century• Response to the “reason” of The
Enlightenment. • A movement in literature and other arts• Art (not science or reason) as way to
inner truths of life, one’s soul• Nature as “sublime”• Hatred of industrialisation • Response to rationalism of the
Enlightenment • Strong emotion as authentic source of
aesthetic experience• Intuition, imagination, feeling
• Listen: Tintern Abbey - http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/audio/mp3/wordsworth_tintern_abbey.mp3
Galvanism• Luigi Galvani• Italian physicist/physician• Late 18th century• Discovered that an electrical
current applied to a dead frog’s leg caused it to twitch
• Caused others to theorise that enough current (either by electrical current or chemical reaction) to the brain might “re-animate” a human corpse
Image sourced 19/01/12 at http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Luigi_galvani.jpg
Shelley Surrounded by Creative Intellectuals of the Time
• William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Poets who began the Romantic movement)
• William Hazlitt (Major Essayist in English Literature)
• Mary Shelley heard their conversations!
Images sourced from: 1) http://www.searchbeat.com/bookshop/index.php?psps_search=William+Wordsworth2) http://www.english.ucla.edu/faculty/fburwick/bibweb.html 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Hazlitt_self-portrait_(1802).jpg
The French Revolution• Radical social and political
upheaval• Aim: end to aristocracy and
monarchy• Liberty, Fraternity, Equality!• At first - English and others
looked to the French model for inspiration, but later, as the horror took shape, became fearful of similar chaos
Gothic Fiction• Popular art form – Late 18th century• Settings: castles, dungeons, secret
passages• Omens, phenomena, portents,
dreams, visions• Supernatural elements – ghosts,
hauntings• High emotions – often overwrought• Mystery, doom, gloomy, foreboding• Metonymy (something standing for
something else) of horror – wind, rain
• Panic, threatening atmosphere, terror,
• Sentimental narration• Breathless, heart pounding• Female heroine, without male
protector – oppressed or lonely• Heroine often threatened by
powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male to do something they don’t want to (reflects patriarchal context, women without power)
• Footsteps approaching, groaning, maniacal laughter, thunder, lightning, ruins, howling winds etc..
Info sourced on 19/01/12 from http://www.virtualsalt.com/gothic.htm
To read The Castle of Otronto, the “first” Gothic novel, click here.
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