Frankestein Historical context Flashcards
Historical context
- Fear of technology; Luddite disturbances of 1811-17, destruction of factories and mills.
- Dangers of revolutionary violence; admirable motives, defiance of God’s laws executing the King.
- Changing paradigms; metaphysical/theological investigations -> Humphrey Davy: chemistry = secret to life.
- Fear of galvanism: Giovanni Adini’s experiment of re-animating murderer Thomas Forster.
Explain Fear of technology; Luddite disturbances of 1811-17, destruction of factories and mills.
Back in the early 1800s, some people called Luddites didn’t like the new big machines that were popping up in factories. They were scared that these machines would take over their jobs, so they went around smashing them up. This kind of worry about new technology is also in the story of “Frankenstein.” In the book, Victor Frankenstein makes a living being by himself, which is a pretty new and scary use of science. He didn’t think about what might go wrong. It’s like when the Luddites were scared of machines messing things up, Victor’s monster ends up causing a lot of trouble that Victor didn’t expect.
Explain Dangers of Revolutionary Violence; admirable motives, defiance of God’s laws executing the King
A long time ago in France, people got together to change their country because they wanted everyone to be treated fairly and have the same rights. This was the French Revolution. At first, their goals were really good—they wanted to get rid of the king and let everyone have a say in the government. But then, things got really out of hand, and they even chopped off the king’s head!
In “Frankenstein,” the scientist, Victor, wants to do something amazing and good—he wants to figure out how to bring people back to life and beat death. But even though he starts off wanting to help, his experiment goes wrong and causes a lot of problems. It’s kind of like the French Revolution—what started with a great idea ends up being pretty scary and dangerous.
Changing Paradigms; metaphysical/theological investigations -> Humphrey Davy: chemistry = secret to life.
Back in Mary Shelley’s time, people were starting to look at the world differently. They used to believe that only God could create life or explain how things worked. But then, scientists like Humphrey Davy came along and started to think that maybe chemistry (the science of mixing stuff together to make new things) could help us understand what makes something alive. In “Frankenstein,” the character Victor takes this idea and uses his science experiments to make a dead body come back to life. This was kind of like stepping on God’s toes, because he was doing something that people thought only God could do.
Fear of Galvanism; Giovanni Aldini’s experiment of re-animating murderer Thomas Forster.
Galvanism is a bit like jump-starting a car, but imagine doing it with a dead frog or even a person! Luigi Galvani found out that you could make a dead frog’s leg twitch if you zapped it with electricity. His nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took this to the next level and tried it on a dead person, making the body move. It was pretty scary to people back then. This idea shows up in “Frankenstein” when Victor uses electricity to wake up his monster. It’s like Victor is using a really big battery to turn on his creation, which freaks people out because it makes them think about what it means to be alive and who has the power to create life.
