Frankenstein - Context Flashcards
Mary Shelley’s Parents:
William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft: both radicals who believed in social reform by deconstructing societal institutions.
Mary Shelley relations:
Married to Percy Shelley, the Romantic poet. Ran away to France together when she was 16 and he was 21: had an affair. Percy’s previous wife then drowned herself.
Context behind the novel:
Frankenstein was written as a result of a ghost story competition between Byron and Shelley at their summer villa in Geneva, Switzerland.
Godwin:
Wasn’t religious/didn’t believe in original sin (unconventional at the time). Believed that the evil actions of men were a result of negative social conditions (nurture > nature).
- The control of man by man was wrong.
- Believed in the ‘perfectibility’ of the human race, each man does what’s best for the community and is guided by pure reason.
Wollstonecraft:
Died after giving birth to Shelley, believed that the shortcomings of women were due to their upbringings. Was the ‘Founder of Feminism’, wrote ‘A Vindication on the Rights of Women’ in 1792.
All women in the novel have a somewhat maternal role; they all die. - Could be a reflection of Shelley’s own absent mother.
Science:
- Religion was challenged by science due to the Enlightenment (‘Age of Reason’) which was pushed by Darwin. Scientific demonstrations became popular due to interest in science growing.
Difference between scholar-scientist and master-scientist (uses science to understand OR uses science to control).
Galvanism:
Luigi Galvani believed that animal tissues carried ‘animal electricity’ which could cause muscles to move. (Animation).
This caused many people to conduct experiments to pass electrical currents through dead body parts of animals and humans (most famously frog legs).
Giovani Adihi:
Practiced on the corpse of Thomas Forster. Attached wires to the corpse, began to move. People genuinely believed that this was the first step to bringing people back to life. This made ‘Frankenstein’ more terrifying to an 18th century audience as it could be true.
“one eye was actually opened” - The Newgate Calendar.
Tabula Rusa (Clean Slate):
The belief that individuals were born without built-in mental content: all knowledge comes from experiences or perception.
John Locke, ‘Concerning Human Understanding’ 1689, the mind was like “white paper”.
Godwin was a believer of this, wrote: “the moral qualities of men are the produce of the impressions made upon them, and that there is no instance of an original propensity to evil. Our virtues and vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives.”
