Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein:
Frankenstein Belongs in the Canon
Marsha Law, M. S. Ed.
CORE Academy, June 2015
marshalaw3@gmail.com
“I think most
readers will agree
that Frankenstein
really is a good
novel, both scary
and thoughtful.”
Stephen King
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/frankenstein-by-mary-shelly
How did it all begin?
Born August 30, 1797.
(Bennett, 1998)
Parents, William Godwin
and Mary Wollstonecraft,
were viewed as philosophers
and novelists.
(Bennett, 1998)
Wollstonecraft dies of
puerperal fever.
(Bennett, 1998)
Godwin remarries.
Scotland.
(Gilbert and Gubar, 2007)
(Gilbert and Gubar, 2007)
https://gypsyscarlett.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/mary-shelley-and-the-night-that-birthed-frankenstein/
In Scotland…
Educates herself by reading.
Meets Percy Shelly, poet and
future husband, on a trip to
visit her father in London.
Death of first daughter after
birth at 17 years old.
Her “preoccupation with
death and resurrection
prefigures some of the central
concerns of Frankenstein”
Journal entries indicate
dreams of her baby coming
back to life.
Gilbert and Gubar (2007)
http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/marys-journal-entry-on-harriet-shelleys-suicide
Frankenstein is “perhaps the most
memorable and influential science
fiction fantasy ever published in
English” (493).
Gilbert and Gubar, 2007
Other Influences on Shelly’s Life
Education—
Godwin’s Early
Influence
Shakespeare—
Plays and
Wollstonecraft
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178928/
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-1994
Each monster has multiplied, “continually
being re-produced in criticism, in stage
productions, and in various film versions” (27).
These monsters also achieved an afterlife
beyond that of their initial creators,
experiencing “a new existence beyond the
horizon of their original inception” (28).
Sawyer, 2007
Frankenstein’s Clones
1943
http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/H/House%20of%20Frankenstein.htm
1944
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Frankenstein
This newspaper page was created
to promote the movie.
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/586
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/586/
Universal Studios was “kept alive, actually,
by the horror films—notably the
Frankensteins. They would have been broke
without those pictures” (197), yet, they
received little critical acclaim while
generating a great income (197–198).
Hitchcock, 2007
http://4thletter.net/2009/10/dude-youre-getting-a-dell-frankenstein/
http://4thletter.net/2009/10/dude-youre-getting-a-dell-frankenstein/
Children’s
Books
http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Makes-Sandwich-Adam-Rex/dp/0547576838
http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-GreatIllustratedClassics-Shelley/dp/1577656865
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk
/b/michael-burgan/frankenstein.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/
12654902-robot-zombie-frankenstein
http://timothybanks.com/skill/childrens-book/
Anyone
hungry?
http://www.amazon.com/Franken-Cereal-Spooky-fun-Marshmallows-Famliy/dp/B00NO3VX5Q
Political & Military Drawings
Hitler is portrayed as Dr. Frankenstein being
attacked by his own monster.
Hitchcock, 2007
World War II produced “its own Frankensteins […]
clownish reflections of real-life horror” (193).
Hitchcock, 2007
Thousands of the
“Armed Services
Edition” were shipped
over seas and read by
soldiers for inspiration.
Hitchcock, 2007
https://www.etsy.com/listing/203948779/frankenstein-by-mary-shelley-armed
“As part of the famous ghost-story contest
that took place in Switzerland in the
summer of 1816 […] Frankenstein was the
most prodigious result.”
Stephen C. Behrendt
Final Arguments
Three complex texts by Shelly (1818, 1823, and 1831), and
many translations with early and late prefaces
Blend of the Gothic and the Godwinian psychological,
sociopolitical novel with Mary Shelley’s own particular
Romanticist sensibility
Many possible readings such as Gothic, political,
biographical, religious, psychological, anti-male feminist,
anti-Godwin and anti-Shelley
Although different, the three texts reflect Mary Shelley’s
consistent, larger metaphoric questions of the exercise of
power and responsibility, personal and societal (30).
Bennett, 1998
Works Cited
Barns & Noble Editors. March 31, 2014. 1:48 p.m.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/frankensteinhunter/1104729856?ean=9780393964585
Behrendt, Stephen C., ed. Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Modern
Language Association of America: New York, 1990. Print.
Bennett, Betty, T. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction. The Johns
HopkinsUniversity Press: Baltimore & London, 1998. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The
Traditions in English. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. W. W. Norton & Company: New York and
London, 2007. Print.
Hitchcock, Susan, T. Frankenstein: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company: New
York and London, 2007. Print.
King, Stephen. Introduction to the Marvel Edition of Frankenstein. MaryWollstonecraft
Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Marvel Illustrated Novel. The Marvel Comic Group: New
York, 1983. Print.
Sawyer, Robert. “Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations”. South Atlantic
Review. South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Vol. 72, No. 2 (Spring
2007), 15-31. Retrieved 2-21-2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784706.
http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/the-best-movie-you-never-saw-mary-shelleys-frankenstein