FRANKENSTEIN BY MARY
SHELLEY
AP Literature
Kimberly Livaudais
Fall 2013
LIFE AND TIMES OF MARY
SHELLEY
Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstoncraft in 1797 to William
Godwin and Mary
Wollstoncraft both very prominent and liberal writers. Her
mother had written A Vindication on the Rights of Woman,
which was a very popular feminist work. Mary spent much of
her teen years writing stories in Scotland until she returned to
London at age 16. In her childhood, Mary Shelley educated
herself amongst her father's intellectual circle, which included
critic William Hazlitt, essayist Charles Lamb and poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge. Another prominent intellectual in Godwin's
circle was poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
LIFE AND TIMES OF MARY
SHELLEY
Mary met Percy Shelley in 1812, when she was fifteen. Shelley
was married at the time, but the two spent the summer of 1814
traveling together. A baby girl was born prematurely to the
couple in February, 1815, and died twelve days later. In her
journal of March 19, 1815, Mary recorded the following dream,
a possible inspiration for Frankenstein: "Dream that my little
baby came to life again - that it had only been cold & that we
rubbed it before the fire & it lived." A son, William, was born
to the couple in January, 1816.
ORIGINS OF THE NOVEL
Mary Shelley was a nineteen-year-old Romantic thinker
spending the summer of 1816 in Geneva in the company of her
husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poet Lord Byron, when
she penned one of the most well-known horror stories of all
time. The writers were confined indoors for much of the stormy
summer, and Byron set forth the challenge to write a horror
story. As Mary Shelley pondered what her story might be, she
listened to the conversations of her husband and Byron
regarding the latest achievements—and limitations—of science.
Could life be given to the lifeless? Where and how did life
begin?
ORIGINS OF THE NOVEL
It was in this environment that Frankenstein: Or, The Modern
Prometheus was conceived. Frankenstein is the story of an
obsessed, glory-driven scientist whose unnatural creation
corrupts his maker’s character and destroys the lives of those he
loves most. It is a story of human loss and revenge, of guilt and
debilitating remorse. It serves as a cautionary tale about
unchecked ambition and progress, contrasting the powerful
beauty of the natural world with an abhorrent creation of man.
In the end, Frankenstein is a story of an abominable creature,
its abominable creator, and their inextricable connection to one
another.
LIT TERMS TO KNOW
Frame narrative
Character types: round, flat, static,
dynamic
Literary allusion
Symbol
Epistolary
Romantic Movement
Gothic Literature
Catalyst
Tabula Rasa
BILDUNGSROMAN
1. A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and
development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at
its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a
"search for meaningful existence within society."
2. To spur the hero or heroine on to their journey, some form of loss or
discontent must jar them at an early stage away from the home or family setting.
3. The process of maturity is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated
clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments
enforced by an unbending social order.
4. Eventually, the spirit and values of the social order become manifest in the
protagonist, who is then accommodated into society. The novel ends with an
assessment by the protagonist of himself and his new place in that society.
THEMES, MOTIFS, AND SYMBOLS
Themes
Motifs
Science vs. nature
Purity of man
Ego and glory
Knowledge/Education
Beauty and the importance of
appearance
Passion derived from books
Hiking/walking as a source of
comfort
Selflessness
Gothic elements
THEMES, MOTIFS, AND SYMBOLS
Symbols
William’s locket
Mont Blanc
Scientific instruments
Captain Walton
Letters
QUESTIONS EVOKED
What are the consequences when the wishes of God or nature are defied?
Which fate is worse—to die or to live and suffer?
WORKS CITED
“Frankenstein. Mary Shelley.” AP Learning Packet. Prestwick House. Pdf. 07
June 2013.
“Frankenstein: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.” Duluth Public Library. 24
October 2005. Web. 07 June 2013.
“Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.” Enotes. Pdf. 07 June 2013.
“The Bildungsroman Genre.” Victorian Web. 21 February 2005. Web. 07
June 2013