mary shelley frankenstein background. mary shelley 1797 – 1851 daughter of william godwin and mary...
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Mary ShelleyFrankenstein Background
Mary Shelley
1797 – 1851
Daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft – two of England’s leading intellectuals
No formal education – read from father’s library and spent time around many writers, philosophers, and thinkers
Hid under couch to hear Coleridge recite The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Mary Shelley – continued
Percy Shelley was friends with her dad
Eloped with Percy to France at age 16
They traveled – Switzerland, Germany, Italy
Gave birth to 4 children in 5 years – three died
Mary’s name not on 1818 publication of Frankenstein – Percy wrote preface, so everyone assumed it was him.
Mary wrote intro and put name on 1831 version
How Frankenstein Was Imagined
Rainy, stormy night, perhaps under the influence…Lord Byron suggests they tell ghost stories
Byron proposes that each person present write a ghost story.
Mary is stumped until she hears a conversation regarding galvanism and weird science…then she gets her idea
Writes it in a year
The Gothic Novel
Popular 1760s – 1820s
Gothic has two main meaningsHarsh, cruel…like the Gothic tribes of middle ages
Castles, knights, and armor
The Gothic Tradition
Goes all the way back to Middle Ages and still exists today
Description of a fallen world
Written to evoke terror
Connected with the Romantic movement
Recipe for a Gothic Novel
A 1797 pamphlet in The Spirit of the Public Journalists gave “recipe” for a gothic novel:
Ingredients = An old castle
Long gallery with secret doors
Three freshly murdered bodies
Assorted skeletons
“noises, whispers, and groans”
Other “Ingredients”
Midnight
Rain/lightning
Historical landmarks
Ghosts/spirits/monsters
Antique furniture
Main character should suffer for “sin”
More Gothic Elements
Unbridled space (cathedrals, heights)
Ruins
Doubles (twins, foils, doppelgangers)
Dream experience
Mob violence
Mood (manic-depressive)
Themes:Cosmic struggle of polar opposites
Over-reacher – sin of pride
Guilt
Violence
Death
Gothic NovelMystery
Horror
Supernatural
Brooding, gloomy atmosphere
Emphasis on the unknown
Wild, remote settingsHaunted castles, misty moors
Violent, mysterious events
1800s
Were a time of scientific breakthroughs
Electricity
GalvanismLuigi Galvani – prof. of anatomy in Italy
Experimented putting electricity to flesh….it moves!
Allusions
John Milton – Paradise Lost
Coleridge – Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Myth of Prometheus
Structure of NovelFrame Narrative
Letters – Walton to Sister
Victor’s StoryCreature’s Story (Ch. 11-16)
Back to Victor’s Story
Back to Walton at end
What is the effect of the epistolary/frame structure?
Walton
Victor
Creature
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