'Frankenstein' Context Flashcards
Which revolutions were spreading across Europe?
America Revolution, Haitian Revolution, and the French Revolution (most influentially).
How did the revolutions spreading across Europe influence this novel?
The revolutions happened due to a need for social change and to challenge oppressive hierarchies. This reflects core themes and ideas in the novel; the Creature challenges oppressive hierarchies, yet many characters fall victim to them.
Who wrote the poem ‘Angel in the House’?
Coventry Patmore.
What is the ‘Angel in the House’ archetype?
An idealised view of women as outlined by Coventry Patmore in his poem of the same name.
Women are to be loving, submissive, silent and obedient.
What book did Mary Wollstonecraft write?
‘Vindication for the Rights of Women’, a proto-feminist exposé on gender inequalities coded into society.
Who was William Godwin?
Shelley’s father, a radical and proto-anarchist.
What book did William Godwin write?
‘An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice’, which outlined that mankind is capable of perfection through reason and eventually there will be no need for the corrupting institutions such as the state.
In part, it is responding to the French Revolution and also Rousseau’s philosophies.
How did William Godwin’s book, ‘An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice’, influence Shelley’s novel?
The book claimed that ordered society oppressed the mind from thinking freely and relegated communities into controllable circles.
This can be seen in the female characters, who accept society’s treatment of them.
However, as the Creature exists outside of society, he is aware of their prejudices (physiognomy).
Who noticed that they could use a spark to make dead frog legs move?
Luigi and Luigi Galvani (1780).
What did Luigi and Lucia Galvini discover?
They could use a spark to make dead frog legs move (1780).
How did the discovery of Luigi and Lucia Galvini, and Giovani Aldini’s experiment influence ‘Frankenstein’?
Influenced Shelley in how Victor brought the Creature to life.
She creates an alternate reality where their experiments works as a warning to scientific overreaching and ‘playing God’.
Who attempted to reanimate hanged prisoner Thomas Forster using galvanism?
Giovani Aldini (1803).
What did Giovani Aldini try to do?
Reanimate hanged prisoner Thomas Forster using galvanism (1803).
What was the ‘life-principle’ debate’?
Argument between those who argued life was simply a physical process and those who argued for the existence of an immortal soul.
How did the ‘life-principle’ debate influence Shelley’s novel?
Who were materialists?
One side of the life-principle debate: those who argued that life was simply a physical process.
Who were vitalists?
One side of the life-principle debate: those who argued for the existence of an immortal soul (like John Abernathy, President of the Royal College of Surgeons).
What was Humphey Davy’s pamphlet called?
‘A Discourse, Introductory to a Course of Lecture on Chemistry’ (1802).
What did Humphey Davy outline in his pamphlet (‘A Discourse, Introductory to a Course of Lecture on Chemistry’)?
Chemistry may provide the answer to the secret of life.
It is important for scientists to maintain their respect and reverence in their approach to nature, and to use knowledge carefully and responsibly, not for personal glorification, but for its wider benefits.
What was the Romantic movement concerned with?
Sublimity of nature.
Individual legacy.
The corruption of innocence.
The significance of emotions over scientific rationality.
What was the impact of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution?
Intellect and cultural shifts where all members of society were becoming more socially and politically conscious of individual rights and liberties.
What was Shelley’s experience of pregnancy and motherhood?
She was pregnant while writing the novel and had already suffered the birth and death of an infant. Shelley’s mother had also died in childbirth.
How do Shelley’s anxieties around maternity and birth manifest in the text?
The abnormal, unnatural birth of the Creature and Victor disrupting the female-coded role of ‘birther’.
What are key conventions of the Gothic genre?
Mirrors/windows/reflection imagery used to reveal identities.
Gothic doubling.
The uncanny.
What are the books the Creature acquires?
Volney’s ‘Ruins of Empires’.
Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’.
“Plutarch’s Lives” (from ‘Parallel Lives’).
Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of Werther’.
What happens in Volney’s ‘Ruins of Empires’?
The novel condemns the corruption of the church and discuses wealth, rank and poverty. It suggests that mankind, itself, is corrupt.
How does Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ impact Shelley’s novel?
This text was most influential to the Creature, as he learns of the imbalance and destructive relationships they have.
How does Volney’s ‘Ruins of Empires’ influence Shelley’s novel?
As it was a powerful force in English radicalism, Shelley was influenced by it.
Through it, the Creature learns humanity and institutions are corrupt (this is confirmed by the treatment he has received).
At once, this makes him both a danger to humanity, and also an enlightened being.
What happens in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’?
This text describes the Creation, the fall of Lucifer, Eden and Adam and Eve, and the expulsion from Eden.
What happens in “Plutarch’s Lives”?
It comprises of biographies of eminent Greeks and Romans. It also illuminates the moral failings in its depictions of greatness and heroism.
How does “Plutarch’s Lives” influence the Creature?
He learns some men can be good and virtuous, and some men are evil.
What happens in Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of Werther’?
It involved the tragic story of failed love culminating in the protagonist’s suicide. This ‘failed love’ was a romantic infatuation with a married women – essentially, unrequited love.
How does Goethe’s ‘The Sorrows of Werther’ influence Frankenstein?
This shows the value that humans place on love and leads to the revelation that the creature can end his life. It’s also significant that the book deals with very taboo themes, which would have appealed to the Creature as a product of transgression, himself.
How does Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ influence the Creature?
He uses it to create a sense of identity.
Who coined the phrase ‘tabula rasa’?
John Locke.
What is John Locke’s theory of ‘tabula rasa’?
The mind at birth is like a blank sheet of paper (tabula rasa), filled later through experience.
Who believes in ‘nurture’ rather than ‘nature’?
John Locke.
What did Calvinists believe?
People are pre-programmed to be either good or evil, and pre-destined for either Heaven or Hell.
Who believes in ‘nature’ rather than ‘nurture’?
Calvinists.
What does Rousseau suggest in his book ‘Émile’?
A boy is raised in the countryside (healthier and more natural), under the guardianship of a tutor who will guide him through various learning experiences.
How does Rousseau’s ‘Émile’ influence this novel?
The Creature does not have the guardian figure described to guide him through life. Through this, Shelley outlines Victors failure and how his moral education is stunted.
Which Enlightenment philosopher said that “no man will be free until the last King is strangled with the entrails of the last Priest”?
Diderot.
What did Enlightenment philosopher Diderot say?
“No man will be free until the last King is strangled with the entrails of the last Priest.”
How does Diderot influence the novel?
His disapproving views of institutions/structures of power is reflected in how institutions treat characters in the novel.
How does James D. Wilson characterise a Romantic hero?
An individual who triumphs over the “restraints of theological and social conventions”.
Who characterises a Romantic hero as an individual who triumphs over the “restraints of theological and social conventions”?
James D. Wilson.
