Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Author
• Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin:
born August 1797 in London,
England.
• Father: William Godwin,
famous political philosopher;
work attacked political
institutions and aristocratic
privilege.
Author (cont.)
• Mother: Mary Wollstonecraft,
famous philosopher and feminist;
work promoted education for
women.
• Husband: Percy Bysshe Shelley,
famous Romantic poet.
• Wrote Frankenstein at age 19; first
published in 1818.
• Mary Shelley died in 1851 (age 53)
in England.
Frankenstein:
or The Modern Prometheus
• Romanticism: embraced human emotion,
imagination, nature, the exotic, unfamiliar,
and distant.
• Gothic fiction: Romanticism and horror.
Structure
• Frame Tale: story within a story;
main narrative introduces a more
emphasized narrative.
• Introductory Frame Story: Robert
Walton’s story; Arctic explorer
who rescues Victor Frankenstein;
writes letters to sister, Margaret.
• Story within: Victor’s story and
Creature’s experience.
• Concluding Frame Story: back to
Robert Walton; conclusion of his
and Victor’s stories.
Allusions
• Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus
• Greek Mythology: Prometheus is a
Titan who created mankind at Zeus’s
request; teaches man to outsmart Zeus;
Zeus takes away fire, but Prometheus
steals it back; he is punished by Zeus.
• Latin Mythology: Prometheus molds
man out of clay and water; steals fire
from the gods to give to man and is
punished.
Allusions (cont.)
• Allusion: reference in a literary work to
another literary work or a person, place,
thing or idea of historical, political or
cultural significance.
• Bible
• Paradise Lost: John Milton’s epic poem
about the fall of man.
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner: Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s poem about a man lost at sea.
• Tintern Abbey: William Wordsworth’s poem
about nature and memory.
Characters
• Which characters are members of Victor
Frankenstein’s family?
• Which other characters are related to each
other?
• Which characters work in the following fields:
– Law?
– Education?
– Sea exploration?
• What are the names of the characters you have
not yet listed?
Do Now:
What image comes to mind when you hear the
name Frankenstein? Describe or draw it in your
notebook.
Images of Frankenstein’s Creature
Mary Shelley’s text:
“… when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished
light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open;
it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated
its limbs… His limbs were in proportion, and I had
selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great
God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of
muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of
lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly
whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a
more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
seemed almost the same color as the dun-white
sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled
complexion and straight back lips.”
Graphic Novel
• Text and images to tell story; novellength work if written in different
format; fictional or non-fictional.
• If we were making Julius Caesar into
a graphic novel, which scenes would
you include? List top five. What
images would you include with the
scene?
• Rank your scenes in order of
importance.
• How might you convey to your
audience that one scene is more
important than another in a graphic
novel?
Do Now:
• What scientific advancement recently occurred in the
UK?
• According to Article #1, what are people’s concerns
about these recent scientific advancements?
• According to Article #2, what is the goal of synthetic
biology?
• Is the writer of Article #2, for or against creating
artificial life?
• What conditions do the coalition against biotechnology
advances wish to place on research?
• What does Brent Ericksen believe drives people’s fear
of biotechnology?
• On what side of the debate do you stand? Do you think
scientists should be able to create new life forms? Why
or why not?