Context for Frankenstein:
Myth of Prometheus (Greco-Roman)
http://www.maicar.com/GML/000Images/pim/prometheus1-3804.jpg
Myth of Pygmalion (Greco-Roman)
http://thanasis.com/pygmal.htm
Myth of the homunculus (Medieval alchemy)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Homunculus_Faust.jpg
Myth of the golem (Jewish Kabbalah mysticism)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vtgXrfqqdHE/Sb_avIAN6nI/AAAAAAAAAdA/hP9q
-hUOUSc/s1600-h/golem.jpg
Paradise Lost: Poet John Milton's epic of Satan's fall from heaven. The
monster reads this book and sympathizes with Satan:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_1/
http://marveld.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/0420gustave20dore20paradise
20lost20satan20profile2.jpg
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley:
1797- 1851
Considered the mother of the science fiction and horror genres. It's
debatable whether she "invented" these genres, but she's certainly one of
the earliest contributors, decades before Dracula, The Picture of Dorian
Gray, Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, The Time Machine, Bram Stoker, Jules
Verne, HG Wells, Oscar Wilde, etc.
Frankenstein timeline of context:
1797- Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin born to parents William Godwin and
Mary Wollstonecraft. Both of her parents are authors and political radicals.
Her mother dies eleven days after Mary's birth.
1814: Mary and Percy Shelley become "friends." He's still married to his
first wife, who is pregnant. Mary and Percy run off to continental Europe
together, accompanied by Mary's step sister Claire.
1815: Mary gives birth to a daughter who dies a few days later. It's Percy's
baby.
1816: Mary gives birth to a second child, William (also Percy's).
The volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora (1815) results in altered weather
patterns around the world, often called The Year Without a Summer or
Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death. During the cold and rainy summer,
Mary and her lover (later husband), the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, visit
Lord Byron (George Gordon) in Switzerland. Byron has been exiled from
England for his generally scandalous promiscuity, etc. We can only
speculate about what went on at his chateau with Mary, Percy, Byron, and
others.
They entertain each other by reading ghost stories, then have a contest to
write/tell the best supernatural tale. This is when Mary begins to write
Frankenstein.
Mary's half-sister, another child of her dead mother, commits suicide.
Harriet, Percy's estranged wife, commits suicide.
Mary and Percy get married.
1817: Mary and Percy have another child, Clara.
1818: The first edition of Frankenstein is released anonymously in London.
Mary finished writing it in 1817.
1819: William Shelley, three years old, dies of malaria. They have one
more child together.
1822: Mary has a miscarriage. Percy drowns off the coast of Italy. Mary
continues to publish her own work and to publish Percy's writing
posthumously.
1826: Mary publishes another sci-fi novel, The Last Man.
1831: A new version of the book is published, attributed to Mary this time.
She has edited out many of Percy Shelley's political statements and made
the character of Elizabeth, Victor's fiancee, an adopted sister rather than a
blood-cousin.
1835: Mary's father dies.
1851: Mary dies.
1910: Thomas Edison film studios releases a silent film adaptation of
Frankenstein.
1915: Life Without Soul, another silent film adaptation, is released.
1931: James Whale's classic, black and white Frankenstein is released in
theaters, starring Boris Karloff as The Monster. It changes the story
considerably and focuses more on the first half of the book. The Monster
becomes a classic Universal Studios movie monster, along with Dracula,
The Wolfman, The Mummy, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
1935: The Bride of Frankenstein, also directed by James Whale, is
released. It explores more of the second half of the book.
1971: Franken Berry cereal and Count Chocula are introduced by General
Mills.
1973: Andy Warhol produces Flesh for Frankenstein, rated X and in 3-D.
1974: Mel Brooks directs Young Frankenstein, a parody.
1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a gay version of Frankenstein, is
released to theaters to little enthusiasm at first. The film soon becomes the
longest-running film and a pop-culture cult phenomenon.