Mary Shelley
• She was born Mary Wollstonecraft
Godwin. Her mother, a feminist
author, wrote A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman.
• She met and fell in love with
Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
and became pregnant. They lost all
of their three children.
• The two continued their affair until
his estranged wife committed suicide,
at which point they married.
• At the age of 24, she was an
impoverished widow, and she
supported herself with her writing.
• Frankenstein was published in 1818
when she was only twenty years
old.
The Gothic Novel
•
Shelley addresses two opposing philosophical
movements of the late 1700s:
The Enlightenment and Romanticism
•
Enlightenment:
Romanticism:
•
•
Reason
Inquiry
Human emotion
Personal connection
•
Mary Shelley gave birth to the genre of science fiction
and to a creature who is able to evoke in readers
contradictory reactions of empathy and horror.
Gothic View of Mankind
• The Romantics were, for the most part,
disheartened liberals, who sought solace in
nature.
• The idea of the disenfranchised man was also very
common. Such men, who found
themselves unable to live in society, were often
revered and/or sympathized with.
• Frankenstein and his creature are both
disenfranchised men—the creature because his
form keeps him from any human company, and
Frankenstein because he eventually
feels that he cannot enjoy the company of his
fellow men after unleashing a monster among
them.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The
Modern Prometheus
What is wrong with this common depiction of
the creature?
Setting and Mood
The most common feature of Gothic literature is the
indication of mood through the weather. When bad
events happen in a Gothic novel, the reader knows it
because there is inevitably a storm outside. This is
still true in many books and films.
Nature as the “Sublime” and the
“Destructor”
• They sought solitude in
nature, believing that the
key to all emotional
healing could be found in
nature.
• Along with nature having
the power to heal, Gothic
writers gave nature the
power of destruction.
Frankenstein is full of the
harsh reality of nature.
Romantic view of science
• Prior to the eighteenth century, what we call
“science” and what we call “philosophy” were
essentially the same disciplines.
• The study of nature and the desire to know
how nature functions eventually came to be
called “natural philosophy,” but the quest for
such knowledge was still more what we
would consider philosophical than scientific.
• Gothic view of science leads one to the
occult, and therefore to the destruction of
mankind.
Some famous Gothic novels:
• Frankenstein (Shelley)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3dFh6GA-A
• The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Laroux)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44w6elsJr_I
• Dracula (Bram Stoker)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2-ZMhxTUs
• Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4clztbOrFps
• The Castle at Otranto (Horace Walpole)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2rNs1UE0hs
Literary allusion in Frankenstein
• The story of Adam and
Eve, especially Milton’s
version of Paradise
Lost, is one that is very
well known in Western
culture.
• Shelley wanted the idea
of the proud and
inquisitive creature
being cast out, as well
as the idea that being
ostrascized was a
horrible thing.
Frankenstein:
The Modern Prometheus (novel’s actual subtitle)
• Prometheus was a Greek god who
was in charge of giving out gifts to
the various creatures on Earth.
• He gave man fire (symbolic of
knowledge).
• The other gods were angered by his
disobedience (partly because now
man was too godlike).
• Prometheus’s punishment was that
he was chained to a rock. Every
day a vulture came and devoured
his liver. Every night the liver grew
back to be devoured the next day.
How is the ancient
Greek story of
Prometheus
closely connected
to Frankenstein?
Quick-write
"How dangerous is the
acquirement of knowledge and how much
happier that man is who believes his native
town to be the world, than he who aspires to be
greater than his nature will allow."
Based on the quote above from Mary Shelley, how can
the acquirement of knowledge be dangerous?
•
Group Quick-write
• List some elements of Romanticism
that Shelley conveys in the novel.
Cite examples from the text to
support your ideas.
• Why is Frankenstein a solid example
of the gothic novel?
Think/pair/share
• Friendship is a common theme
throughout the novel. Walton,
the creature, and Victor all
express the need for a friend in
their own ways. Discuss with your
group some examples where
these are depicted and developed
by Shelley. Cite specific examples
from the text to support your
ideas.
Think/pair/share
• Gothic literature has given way
to modern horror literature and
films, including several
renditions of Frankenstein.
• With a partner, describe what
common Gothic conventions are
still in use today. Use specific
examples from modern films or
books.