mary shelley frankenstein background. mary shelley 1797 – 1851 daughter of william godwin and mary...
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Mary ShelleyFrankenstein Background
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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.
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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
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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
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The Gothic Novel
Popular 1760s – 1820s
Gothic has two main meaningsHarsh, cruel…like the Gothic tribes of middle ages
Castles, knights, and armor
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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
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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”
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Other “Ingredients”
Midnight
Rain/lightning
Historical landmarks
Ghosts/spirits/monsters
Antique furniture
Main character should suffer for “sin”
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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
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Gothic NovelMystery
Horror
Supernatural
Brooding, gloomy atmosphere
Emphasis on the unknown
Wild, remote settingsHaunted castles, misty moors
Violent, mysterious events
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1800s
Were a time of scientific breakthroughs
Electricity
GalvanismLuigi Galvani – prof. of anatomy in Italy
Experimented putting electricity to flesh….it moves!
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Allusions
John Milton – Paradise Lost
Coleridge – Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Myth of Prometheus
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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