Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Notes Flashcards
When was Mary Shelley born?
August 30, 1797
Mary Shelley’s mother?
Mary Wollstonecraft
What did Mary Wollstonecraft write?
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
What were Mary Wollstonecraft’s occupations?
Author and female rights activist
What did Mary Wollstonecraft argue for?
Education and value of women
Who was Mary Shelley’s father?
William Godwin
What were William Godwin’s occupations?
Author and philosopher
Mary Shelley was born in the aftermath of the _____________ ________ (1803-1815) and the rise of the _____________ __________.
Napoleonic Wars, Industrial Revolution
Mary Shelley’s mother died of __________ _______ 8 days after Mary’s birth.
Puerperal Fever
William Godwin later married ________ _______ ____________.
Mary Jane Clairmont
Did Mary get along with her step mother?
no
Percy B. Shelley was married ________ _______, who was pregnant with his child, when he met Mary Shelley. She was translating the ___________ when he met her.
Harriet Shelley, Aeneid
Mary and Percy ran off together when she was 16 (almost 17) to France and took her step-sister, __________ ___________ with them.
Claire Clairmont
Estrangement with _________ resulted for almost 2 years until she finally married Percy.
father
Percy Shelley was a ___________ poet and author.
Romantic
meaning of Romantic
heightened awareness, nature
Mary and Percy’s first child was born 22 Feb 1815 (2 months premature), but the baby died 6 March. (She lost __ more children in the next __ years.)
2, 3
What made Mary Shelley begin obscuring the line between life and death?
She dreamed that her baby came back to life.
Mary Shelley’s works (4)
Frankenstein (1818)
Mathilda (1819)
Valperga; or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca (1823)
The Last Man (1826)
Full name of Frankenstein
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Meaning of modern in Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Scientific
Frankenstein was published in ________ when Shelley was only ____ years old.
1818, 19
She started writing it in 1816 as a result of a _____ ______ __________ involving Mary, Lord Byron, Percy, and Byron’s doctor, Dr. Polidori.
ghost story competition
Dr. Polidori wrote _____ __________ during this competition and had it published in 1819. _________ and other vampire stories evolved from this novel.
The Vampire, Dracula
How many versions of Frankenstein have been published? Best?
3, 1st
It was originally published ____________ with a preface by Percy Shelley, so people assumed it had been written by __ ______.
anonymously, a man
The novel is set in the late _______, all over Switzerland, Germany, and the Arctic.
1700s
The _________ form, which means that a novel is comprised of ________, creates a story within a story within a story.
epistolary, letters
_______ ________ in epistolary format were a popular genre during Shelley’s time, and she even kept her own epistolary journals when she and Percy travelled together after leaving England.
Travel journals
She referred to her travel journal while writing Frankenstein. Notice Victor’s hometown is ________, which is where Shelley was when she wrote her story.
Geneva
Through this format 3 people tell the story: _______ ________, ________ _______ and ______ _________.
Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the creature
Significance of Justine’s name
mock justice
Significance of Victor’s name
mock victory (made life, ended badly)
Significance of the creature not having a name
dehumanizes, not worthy of a name, not claimed by anyone
Is the novel meant to condemn scientific exploration?
no
__________ and _______ _________ constantly talked about scientific exploration in front of Mary, and she was interested in it.
Percy and Lord Byron
muscle spasms in dead form when electricity is used.
galvanism
Double self or shadow
doppelgänger
_______ become parentless and isolated, like his ________.
Victor, creature
How does Frankenstein become a Cain figure?
He kills loved ones through his creature
Why is the creature a doppelgänger for Mary?
She was rejected by her father (after she eloped with Percy)
The creature has the physical description of a ______. (p. 35)
man
The creature is a product of Frankenstein’s hubris, or _______.
pride (Frankenstein’s pride made the creature that killed him)
The creature battles some of the same issues _______ of this time period battled.
women
Some of the issues the creature and women of this time faced. (3)
oppression
isolation
lack of readily accessed education
Just as women were educated at home by a _______ ________, the creature is also educated at home by the De Lacey family while they are educating Safie.
family member
Frankenstein’s creature embodies the ideas of philosophers ______-________ _________ and ______ _______.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke
Locke believed that humans are born with a ________ _____ or a blank slate and our environment shapes and molds our values.
tabula rasa
_______-_________ is another aspect of Locke’s philosophy.
Self-knowledge
Rousseau believed that humans are born instinctually ______, but we learn evil from our interactions with _______.
good, society
How does the creatures education begin and continue?
It starts with its senses to discover the world, then observes the family to learn the norms and codes of society.
The creature learns to read and write by watching _______.
Safie
The creature reads _________ ______, ________ ____ ________ _________, and __________ _________.
Paradise Lost, Sorrows of Young Werter, and Plutarch’s Lives
Author of Paradise Lost
John Milton
Author of Sorrows of Young Werter
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Author of Plutarch’s Lives
Plutarch
Because Prometheus sympathized with the humans, he stole ____ from the ____ and gave it to the ______.
fire, gods, humans
“Pour torrents of light into a dark world” is from _________
Prometheus
For stealing fire from the gods to give to the humans, Prometheus was punished by ______.
Zeus
Prometheus is later freed by ________ in Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound.
Hercules
Author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Coleridge
What is similar to the Purgatory in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Frankenstein?
Victor-creates the creature and is punished by the creature.
Creature-denied humanity, not alive but not dead.
In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the self is trapped in isolation similar to _______ in Frankenstein.
Victor
In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein they are traveling _______ (direction)
north
In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner all of the crew/family dies similar to how all of _________’s family dies.
Victor
In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner a guest is telling the story similar to how __________ ________ is telling ________’s story.
Robert Walton, Victor
In Paradise Lost, the story of the creation of ______ and ______ is told. It focuses on God’s relationship with his two humans and ________ as well.
Adam, Eve, Satan
Like Paradise Lost, Frankenstein deals with the creation of a ________.
human
Victor Frankenstein successfully creates a natural man, but his error lies in his refusal to ______ ___ and to take responsibility for it. He never ever gives the creature a _______.
love it, name
Victor mocks the power of God by creating another human being. ___________ also displaces God from the creation of humans. Shelley was wary of childbearing since she lost 3 children.
Childbearing
When was Romanticism?
1798-1832
__________ is highly regarded as Romanticism followed by the Enlightenment (a highly logical, ordered, balanced, and structured era).
Imagination
What placed new emphasis on horror, terror, and awe?
Romanticism
Romanticism included _______ _________ of the artist or narrator.
heroic isolation
Romanticism valued ________ over ________.
passion, reason
This period began with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.
Gothicism
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey _______ the values of Gothicism.
mocks
In Gothicism, _____________ strand based on Milton’s Paradise Lost is developed in a character.
Satanic
What style includes supernatural, horror, and mysterious elements?
Gothicism
What style has an ominous tone?
Gothicism
Gothicism has _______ in the atmosphere
darkness
In Gothicism, a victimizer exists who is associated with _____. A helpless victim is set against his _________.
evil, torturer
In Gothicism, there are ________ landscapes.
extreme
a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. It may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context.
epigraph
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?” is the epigraph for __________.
Frankenstein
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?” is originally from _________ _____.
Paradise Lost
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?” in Paradise Lost ________ says this.
Adam
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?” in Frankenstein the _________ would have said this.
creature
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?” ______ is aligned with the _________ through this epigraph.
Adam, creature
Responsibilities of creator?
Take care of creation
Responsibilities of creation?
Listen to creator and learn
