Social/Historical/Cultural Context Flashcards
What is the Enlightenment
- An ‘age’ where reason, rationality and scientific discoveries became valued
Importance was being placed on observation, analysis over tradition and belief
What were the features of enlightenment
Scientific observation
Logic and Reason
Science and technology
How did Shelly feel about Enlightenment
Believed it could improve society through responsible exercise of political power
But irresponsibility of power could lead to chaos
How does enlightenment fit with Frankenstein
Victor represents the beginning of enlightenment as he’s someone who entirely adopts science as his method of reason and moves away from faith/belief throughout the novel
He also shows the dangers of enlightenment as Victor was irresponsible in his creations and ventures and went unchecked
When did the Romantic movement begin
1789
What was Romanticism
A movement that placed importance on art, music and literature
Focused on liberty and self expression and imagination over authority, order, the tradition of society
What did romantics typically have
a rebellious attitude toward tyranny (eg. Seeing Satan in paradise lost as a rebellious hero - a view that the monster shares)
How does romansticsm play a role in Frankenstein
- Constant romantic focus on nature and the sublime
- Victor represents the NEGATIVE effects of prioritising self expression/imagination and defying authority/tradition as he creates life and is responsible for death/destruction
Shelly shows her skeptical views of Romantic’s glorification of imagination
The sublime?
THE SUBLIME: Put basically, the Sublime is an overpowering sense of the greatness and power of nature, which can be uplifting, awe-inspiring and terrifying, caused by experience of beauty, vastness or grandeur. Sublime moments lead us to consider the place of humanity in the universe, and the power exhibited in the world. We see an example of Gothic usurpation of a Romantically sublime space in the monster’s interruption of Victor’s Alpine reveries in Frankenstein.
Outline Galvanism
A 1791 discovery that showed how electricity could cause movement/spasms in the muscle - giving the appearance of reanimation (this is used to make the creature)
Outline the key revolutions that took place around Frankenstein’s writing (18th-19th century)
American/French Revolution - called for individual freedom and overthrow rigid hierarchy
- Early stages of industrial revolution (new technology damaged the lives of certain social classes)
- British government feared the ‘common’ people and their power due to French revolutions (causing civil unrest)
Monster acts as a lens to explore injustice and Shelly’s sympathies towards it (as the monster is attacked and judged)
How does female inequality show in Frankenstein
3 narrators all male
represents society’s lack of a female voice
women are only talked/explored through male gaze/perception
Women’s injustice is shown through creature
Frankenstein when published in 1818 was done anonymously as female writers weren’t common or respected
