Historical Background of "Frankenstein"

Question 1

What is another name for Age of Enlightenment?

Answer 1

Age of Reason

Question 2

What was the Age of Enlightenment?

Answer 2

Cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe and the American colonies

Question 3

What was the purpose of the Enlightenment?

Answer 3

To reform society using reason (rather than tradition, faith and revelation) and advance knowledge through science

Question 4

What did the Enlightenment promote?

Answer 4

Science and intellectual interchange

Question 5

What did the Industrial Revolution bring (positive)?

Answer 5

Great wealth and opportunity for some

Question 6

What did the Industrial Revolution bring (negative)?

Answer 6

Great fear to others

Question 7

Why did some people have fear during the Industrial Revolution?

Answer 7

All work might be replaced by machines; technology was considered a threat

Question 8

What is Deism?

Answer 8

Rejects supernatural events and tend to assert that God does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe

Question 9

How did Deist views contradict with organized religions?

Answer 9

What organized religions see as divine revelations and holy books, most of them see as interpretations made by other humans

Question 10

What is the central metaphor of Deism?

Answer 10

God is a clock maker; he creates an elaborate mechanism (universe, life) and now stands back enjoying his handiwork, not interfering with its progress. God is both the creator and abandoner

Question 11

When and why did the Enlightenment stop flourishing?

Answer 11

It grew until about 1790 after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism’s emphasis on emotion

Question 12

What was Romanticism?

Answer 12

Era of artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that most scholars see as a reaction against previous era’s emphasis on reason and rationality

Question 13

What was important to Romantics?

Answer 13

Romantics looked to nature as the most important inspiration for human experience and to emotions as the means to understand those experiences

Question 14

What new emotions were emphasized during Romanticism?

Answer 14

The movement validated strong emotions, placing emphasis on such emotions as horror, apprehension, terror and awe- ESPECIALLY that which is experienced in untamed nature and its picturesque qualities

Question 15

What did Romanticism escape?

Answer 15

Romanticism escaped the confines of population growth, urban sprawl and industrialism while embracing the exotic and unfamiliar

Question 16

How did Romanticism compare to the Enlightenment?

Answer 16

The movement prized intuition and emotion over rationalism

Question 17

What was one common widespread belief during Romanticism?

Answer 17

The importance of nature and the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded in it

Question 18

What were Romantics distrustful of?

Answer 18

Romantics were distrustful of the world of men and tended to believe that a close connection with nature was mentally and morally healthy

Question 19

What were Dark Romantics much less confident about?

Answer 19

The notion that perfection is a quality of mankind

Question 20

How do Dark Romantics present individuals?

Answer 20

As prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom

Question 21

How did Dark Romantics perceive the world?

Answer 21

They still believed that nature is a deeply spiritual force, however, they see the natural world as dark and mysterious

Question 22

How do Dark Romantics typically show individuals?

Answer 22

Failing in their attempts to make changes for the better

Question 23

What was the lecture that Shelley attended?

Answer 23

One by a British scientists whose experiments with electricity bore some resemblance to Frankenstein’s fascinations. Fueled her imagination to suggest Frankenstein’s step-by-step invention of the creature in her novel

Question 24

Who is Luigi Galvani?

Answer 24

He stimulated movement in frog legs by adding electricity; he became one of the first scientists to appreciate the connection between electricity and animation (Galvanism!!)