SHELLEY PRIV LIFE Flashcards
Key Themes
The desire for knowledge
The desire to understand and control nature
Pro-creation without a woman
Shelley is certainly warning of the dangers of pushing medical boundaries into realms where, in her opinion, they should not be pushed
Shelley provides a prediction of what would happen if humans held the secret of life. Danger of humans controlling life
Shelley provides a prediction of what would happen if knowledge is pursued recklessly and obsessively
Shelley is warning about the new science of the age
Biographical Context - Mary Shelley
- Born in London in 1797 to radical philosopher,
- William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Mother died 11 days after giving birth
In 1814 Mary met and fell in love with, Percy Shelley
She ran away with him to France and they were married in 1816 after Shelley’s wife committed suicide
Percy was a prominent poet of the Romantic Movement
Mary was exposed to the same influences as her husband, and this Romanticism influenced her work
She wrote Frankenstein after Byron introduced a challenge to discern whom among the three writers — Percy, Mary and Byron – could write the best ghost story
How appropriate is it that the original idea for Frankenstein appeared to Shelley in a nightmare?
Frankenstein deals with loss, which Mary Shelley knew a great deal about
rowing up motherless, Mary also lost her sister to suicide, as well as losing three of her own children to miscarriage and early childhood deaths
In 1822 Percy Shelley drowned and Mary remained unmarried and died in London in 1851
Social Background
1789 – French Revolution
This showed what happens when the lower classes are treated badly by the state – they rebel
First stages of the Industrial Revolution (threaten the Romantic ideals of the importance of the individual and nature)
Written at a time of social unrest. (e.g. Luddites)
The promise of freedom of the French Revolution soon gave way to the misery and suffering of the Industrial Revolution (see London) by Blake
The novel is perhaps the strongest reminder from the Romantic period of the dangers of industrialization – creating monsters we cannot control and dabbling with nature
Frankenstein remains a relevant analysis of the dangers of science, a sensitive, complex exploration of the tension between developing the mind and knowing too much, creating and playing the Creator, exploring new ground and crossing into forbidden territory
French revolution 2:
-“What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.” (90)
-This quote of the creatures and his emotions and feelings behind it resemble those of the citizens of France during the revolution. It was a period of enlightenment
-The people began to ask questions and this opened up their minds to so much more
-They began to realise the power they held as a whole
-They wanted to understand and they wanted change.
-“I learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow-creatures were, high and unsullied descent united with riches. A man might be respected with only one of the acquisitions, but without either he was considered, except in very rare occasions, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the profit of the chosen few.” (115)
Nature/Nurture:
-Nurture: experiences shape behaviour
-Nature: we are born with our behaviour and personality
-This is a hefty theme within Frankenstein: Is the creature the way he is because of his nature, or has he been shaped into a hateful being by the circumstances of his life?
-The Enlightenment philosopher John Locke conceived of the human mind as a “blank slate” at birth
-This opposed the long standing idea that innate qualities, such as goodness or sin, existed
-Rather, what a person experiences in their life creates their character
-He supports the nurture side of the debate
-When Victor’s smaller brother sees the creature he screams at him, calling him an “ogre” and states that he is a “hideous monster” (117)
-Not even an innocent child, free from most prejudices of the world, will accept the creature’s being
-Victor falls victim to his nature–he describes his passion for science as an innate quality, believing that his success in science is destiny
-As a result he supports the nature side of the debate
The sublime in Romanticism:
-For Romantics, the sublime is a meeting of the emotional and natural world: we allow our emotions to overwhelm our rationality as we experience the wonder of creation
-The Enlightened scientist rationally observes the natural world, isolating and shutting off his emotions and biases to understand objective, quantifiable truths in the form of facts —The Romantic participates emotionally and imaginatively with the natural world, actively breaking down the very same walls so carefully erected by the Enlightenment
-Because the sublime is emotional, it is traditionally considered something one must experience alone
-It’s no coincidence that Rousseau’s last work was titled Reveries of a Solitary Walker
-Note how Wordsworth writes of himself experiencing nature alone
-Note how Victor Frankenstein finds peace either walking in the mountains or sailing alone
-The Romantic does not go up in the hills with his buddies and a 12 pack of Keystone Lite; he wanders the wilderness or back roads alone: the cowboy riding off into the sunset
Gothic fiction + the doppelganger:
-The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion. These emotions can include fear and suspense
-A common occurrence in gothic literature is the appearance of a doppelgänger — someone’s double or alter ego
-Doppelgänger is a German word meaning “look-alike” or “double walker.”
-In literature, a doppelgänger is usually shaped as a twin, shadow or a mirror image (character foil) of a protagonist
-In Frankenstein, the doppelganger is the creature. While Victor and the creature are entirely different their are undeniably linked in their likeness. They are both alone and consumed by their emotions and they continually hunt each other done–almost as like chasing your own shadow
-The taste for Gothic fiction begins in the Enlightenment period, when the truth claims of religion were being questioned
-The idea of a doppelganger or alter ego allows for an exploration of human duality
-The doppelganger is both duplicate and opposite, showing how opposing forces can exist in one being and forcing us to confront our divided selves
-In many of these stories, when the doppelganger is killed, its counterpart dies as well—suggesting the divided selves, though opposite and often contradictory, are inseparable
-The doppelganger is also generally a cause of extreme anxiety for its counterpart, who may be in denial or reluctant to acknowledge this part of himself
-In the 19th century Gothic fiction, attention moved to the horrors that lurk in our own personality
-Although the haunting by a second self may appear to confirm the existence of the supernatural, this apparition has been understood not as a true spiritual presence but as a figure of repression
Luigi Galvani
-Galvanism is defined as the contraction of the muscle resulting from the application of electrical currents to specific tissues of an organism
-When Luigi Galvani discovered that severed frog legs would respond to electricity, he developed galvanism, or the idea that “animal electricity” yielded life
-Mary Shelley was familiar with the theory and incorporated it into her novel Frankenstein.
-Many were strictly opposed to this practice since they believed science was a type of witchcraft, especially animating dead organisms. Mary does not necessary condemn the advancements in the scientific field -She is rather ambivalent towards it. However, she does criticize the single-minded pursuit of knowledge and power. It was Victor’s single-mindedness that led him to social isolation, which eventually resulted in his creation. He crossed many boundaries without taking into consideration the consequences of nature and humankind his actions might bring
Mary Wollstonecraft:
- -Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear to be only because they lack education
- -She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason
Religion:
-Mary Shelly portrays Victor as a criminal, condemning his unchecked pursuit of knowledge which she considers to be a sacrilige
-Through Victor’s character Mary Shelly expresses the consequences of trying to play God
-Victor is the creature’s God and assuming such a position by dabbling in unexplored natural forces evidently backfires
-Victor’s life starts falling apart the moment he undertakes the task of creating new life
Prometheus
-When Prometheus stole fire from the gods, there were unintended consequences
-He thought by bringing humans a tool he would make their lives better in every sense
-But powerful technology must be used responsibly. Giving humans fire also meant giving humans a moral choice: to use the tool for good or for evil
-Prometheus was punished by Zeus because he stole fire to give back to mankind
-He was chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains, and every day an eagle came and ate part of his liver. Each night, his liver would regrow, which meant he had to endure his punishment for eternity
-To give life to an inanimate body Victor must go against every law of nature and fulfill the task of generating life, which usually belongs to God
-For these reasons Dr. Frankenstein is an overreacher because he tried to go beyond the limits imposed to mankind by God or Nature
-Victor searches for forbidden knowledge
-He is one of those Promethean overreachers who refuse to accept limitations and are subsequently punished
-He is, however, more specifically a ‘modern’ Prometheus
-There are no gods for this Prometheus to steal fire from - and all is achieved through science
-Like Prometheus’ sacred fire, Victor Frankenstein’s science gives humans what once had belonged only to the gods: immortality
-Like the eagle tearing out Prometheus’ liver, Victor’s loved ones are torn from him
-Victor does not consider the consequences of bestowing life similarly to how Prometheus doesn’t think of how humans might use the fire to cause harm
-Victor’s monster also resembles the modern Prometheus in that he signifies liberation from a creator
