Frankenstein Influences on the Novel PDF

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Influences on the novel © 2023 BritLitWit  Frankenstein now and then A mad scientist shouts, “It’s alive!” as a green, boxy-headed figure with bolts in its neck sits...

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Influences on the novel © 2023 BritLitWit  Frankenstein now and then A mad scientist shouts, “It’s alive!” as a green, boxy-headed figure with bolts in its neck sits up on a lab table and walks around like a zombie. Frankenstein, right? That’s usually how film and TV adaptations portray the story. They entertain with spookiness and humor, but most reinterpret the characters and settings and leave out the complexities of the original novel. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, first published in 1818, is strikingly different from the often goofy adaptations that dominate in popular The Frankenstein films of the 1930s were culture. not faithful adaptations of the novel, but they had a big impact on what we think of when we hear the name “Frankenstein.” © 2023 BritLitWit  Frankenstein now and then The novel starts with letters from Robert Walton, a lonely man who’s determined to explore the arctic. Then, it transitions to the narration of Victor Frankenstein, a former scientist in a frail state. Eventually, we hear from the nameless creature that Frankenstein made. Like Walton and Frankenstein, the creature shares what he’s discovered and how he’s struggled in his life. Frankenstein begins with the frame tale of a ○ Important note: The creature is not struggling arctic expedition. referred to as “Frankenstein” in the Art: HMS Terror in the Arctic Regions Summer 1837 by William Smyth novel. © 2023 BritLitWit  The origins of Frankenstein Although many consider Frankenstein to be an early example of science fiction, the novel emerged from so many influences on Mary Shelley’s real life, including: ○ Pressure to compete within her social circle of creative writers ○ Her difficult upbringing ○ The death of her child ○ Scientific exploration of the time ○ The Industrial Revolution ○ Classic literature and popular novels Let’s look at how each element contributed to Shelley’s story of a scientist creating a new type of being. Mary Shelley (1797-1851) © 2023 BritLitWit  Influence on Frankenstein: Mary Shelley’s friends © 2023 BritLitWit  The ghost story contest In 1816, low temperatures, frost, and floods caused worldwide crop failures that led to famines. ○ Known as “The Year Without a Summer” ○ The change in weather and strangely colored skies made people wonder if the apocalypse was happening. The actual cause: The eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia launched so much ash into the atmosphere that it caused a “volcanic winter.” ○ The eruption resulted in Mary Shelley, her The painting Two Men by the Sea (1817) by Caspar David Friedrich shows how husband Percy, and their friends volcanic ash in the atmosphere after the experiencing a rainy vacation at Lake Geneva eruption of Mt. Tambora created unusual sunsets throughout the world. in Switzerland. © 2023 BritLitWit  The ghost story contest George Gordon, Lord Byron, poet To pass the time on the ruined and friend of vacation, poet Lord Byron suggested a Mary and Percy Shelley ghost story contest. ○ Mary Shelley struggled for days to come up with an idea. ○ But as she was falling asleep, she had a vision of a student kneeling beside a being that was coming to Villa Diodati in Geneva, life. Switzerland, the ○ She later developed the story into rented summer house where Mary the novel Frankenstein. She Shelley came up finished it when she was 19. with the initial idea for Frankenstein © 2023 BritLitWit  Influence on Frankenstein: Mary Shelley’s family © 2023 BritLitWit  Mary Shelley’s upbringing Anxiety about creating life and grief about death looms throughout the novel, likely because of tragic events Shelley experienced from the start of her life: ○ Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist writer who was considered a radical in her time, died 10 days after she gave birth to her. She felt that her mother traded her own life in giving birth to her. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein’s life is Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary upended and his family is harmed when he Wollstonecraft, who was best known makes the creature. for her essay A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) © 2023 BritLitWit  Mary Shelley’s upbringing Shelley also felt rejected by her family: ○ She learned that when she was born, her parents were disappointed to have a girl. ○ Her father, anarchist writer William Godwin, was distant and she had a difficult relationship with her stepmother. ○ Godwin sent her to live with his acquaintances in Scotland. ○ Interestingly, she dedicated Frankenstein to her father. The creature in Frankenstein also misses out Mary Shelley’s father, William on a loving family experience. Godwin, was a novelist, publisher, and political philosopher known for his radical views. © 2023 BritLitWit  Deaths of Mary Shelley’s children Later, the first child of Mary and Percy Shelley was born prematurely and died a few weeks later. ○ Frankenstein focuses on the mysteries of why, exactly, a life starts and ends. Shortly after Shelley published the first edition of Frankenstein, two more of her children died young and she also had a miscarriage that threatened her own life. One child, Percy Florence Shelley, survived to adulthood. Mary’s husband writer Percy Shelley, who died in a boating accident when he was 29 years old and Mary was 25 © 2023 BritLitWit  Influence on Frankenstein: Scientific exploration © 2023 BritLitWit  Electricity Discoveries about the nature of electricity and speculating about its possible uses excited many scientists and thinkers during Shelley’s time. ○ Luigi Galvani’s 1780 experiment to make the muscles of dead frogs’ legs twitch with a spark of electricity inspired Shelley as she wrote Frankenstein. Illustration of the electrical experiment Italian scientist Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) conducted on frogs’ legs © 2023 BritLitWit  Electricity In the novel, Victor Frankenstein becomes interested in studying science when he sees lightning strike a tree. ○ This incident was likely inspired by stories of Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment in 1752. Franklin proved that lightning was electrical when he flew a kite with a key attached in a storm and observed a spark when he moved his hand near the key. The name “Frankenstein” may be an homage to Benjamin Franklin. © 2023 BritLitWit  Navigation Mastering navigational techniques was another major scientific interest during the late 1700s and early 1800s. ○ Many people hoped that improved navigation would make them rich by shortening trade routes. ○ Locating a Northwest Passage through the arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific was a common goal. Frankenstein begins with an account of Map from 2009 showing arctic routes from the character Robert Walton’s expedition to Atlantic to the Pacific. It wasn’t until 1905 that locate the North Pole. Roald Amundsen was the first person to navigate the Northwest Passage by water. © 2023 BritLitWit  Navigation Londoners like Shelley were fascinated by published accounts of voyages to lands yet unknown to Europeans. ○ In particular, stories about Captain Cook’s voyages around the Pacific stoked dreams of adventure and fortune, but many people, including Shelley, were concerned by how exploration led to conflict with native populations and destroyed nature. ○ The moral implications of exploration in general are brought into question throughout Frankenstein. Captain James Cook (1728–1779) © 2023 BritLitWit  Influence on Frankenstein: Literature © 2023 BritLitWit  Literary allusions Shelley incorporates many literary allusions into Frankenstein. A literary allusion is an author’s purposeful reference to another work of literature. It usually highlights a theme or experience important in the text at hand. ○ Shelley’s literary allusions emphasize how a variety of components led to the “birth” of the novel Frankenstein. This is echoed in the description of the creature being made from parts of multiple bodies. “What makes us who we are?” is a A sculptural interpretation of the creature question that Frankenstein calls us to in Geneva, Switzerland emphasizes how ask about the characters and the character was constructed from parts from multiple bodies. ourselves. © 2023 BritLitWit  Gothic novels Frankenstein reflects Mary Shelley’s reading of popular gothic novels, a genre high in entertainment value. Typical characteristics of gothic novels include: ○ Atmosphere of mystery, suspense, and fear heightened by elements of the unknown ○ Spooky settings like run-down houses and graveyards ○ Visions of the past, spiritual visitations, or bad omens that foreshadow events ○ Supernatural or unexplained experiences ○ Powerful men who threaten helpless, Illustration for Northanger Abbey (1817), Jane Austen’s innocent, and/or naive women novel that parodied the gothic ○ Melodrama created through overwrought characteristics popular in fiction emotion at the time © 2023 BritLitWit  Greek myth of Prometheus Frankenstein is subtitled The Modern Prometheus, an allusion to the Greek myth. In the version that inspired Shelley: ○ Prometheus, a descendent of Titans (the generation of gods before the Olympians led by Zeus), created mortals (humans) from clay and stole fire from heaven to animate them. ○ Zeus punished him by binding him to a rock where an eagle ate his liver every day. The myth implies that creation, at times, can have dangerous consequences—especially Prometheus was punished for creating when the creator oversteps boundaries. and animating mortals © 2023 BritLitWit  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) was another major literary influence on Frankenstein. Essential events of the poem: ○ An old sailor stops a wedding guest to tell him the story of how, on a journey that took his ship to the Antarctic, he needlessly killed an albatross—an event that is portrayed as a transgression against nature. ○ Spirits punish the mariner and he suffers until he shows appreciation for all creatures. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, author of ○ He continues to atone for his mistake by The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, telling his story to people he senses need to was a friend of Mary Shelley’s father. Shelley saw Coleridge recite hear it. the poem at her house when she was a child. © 2023 BritLitWit  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Elements from the poem that Shelley incorporated into Frankenstein include: ○ A frame tale (a situation in a story that creates the opportunity to tell other stories) Overall emphasis on the importance of storytelling to human connections ○ A polar setting ○ A protagonist who offends nature by taking creation and destruction into his own hands and suffers as a result ○ Loss of innocent life because of the Illustration by Gustave Doré of the protagonist’s irresponsible actions mariner wearing an albatross around his neck as punishment for killing it © 2023 BritLitWit  Paradise Lost In Frankenstein, the creature reads Paradise Lost, an epic poem by John Milton (1667) that expands on the biblical story of Satan (formerly known as the fallen angel Lucifer) tempting Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. ○ The creature identifies with the ways Satan: Is rejected by God Feels jealous of Adam and Eve’s happiness in the Garden of Eden, because he feels excluded from society and experiencing happiness with a companion. Satan Overlooking Paradise, illustration by Gustave Doré for John Milton’s Paradise Lost © 2023 BritLitWit  Influences from other reading material Shelley incorporated influences from many other sources into Frankenstein including: ○ Shakespeare’s plays ○ The Inferno by Dante ○ Ghost stories ○ Political tracts ○ The Bible ○ Her husband Percy’s writing In Frankenstein, Shelley alludes to Hamlet’s eerie atmosphere, its emphasis on storytelling and its dealings with the mysteries of fate and free will. Hamlet and His Father’s Ghost (1806), by Romantic poet William Blake © 2023 BritLitWit  Influence on Frankenstein: Romanticism © 2023 BritLitWit  Romanticism Romanticism was an intellectual and artistic movement that was a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and its related events including the American and French revolutions, Industrial Revolution, and the rise of science. ○ Thinkers and artists now categorized as “Romantics” questioned how the elitism, urbanization, and emphasis on reason that resulted from the Age of Enlightenment would affect humanity. ○ Romanticism peaked between 1800 and Artwork for poem “Infant Joy” by William Blake, an early Romantic-era poet whose 1850. works emphasized natural beauty and a simple lifestyle. Many of his illustrations have a mystical quality. © 2023 BritLitWit  Romanticism Characteristics of Romantic thought and art include appreciation of: ○ Emotion ○ Individuality and unconventionality ○ Nature ○ Living simply in rural areas ○ Folk wisdom and ancient stories ○ Social equality In Frankenstein, the contrasts of the privileged Victor and the unconventional creature are one way Mary Shelley’s involvement with Romanticism is reflected. Shelley included many descriptions in Frankenstein that emphasize the beauty and power nature, including Mont Blanc in the Alps. © 2023 BritLitWit  To note before you read © 2023 BritLitWit  Narrative Structure Reminder: Frankenstein begins with a frame tale featuring a character other than Victor or the creature! We meet Victor and the creature in later chapters. However, the characters of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the creature have similarities and their stories overlap. Letters 1–4 Chapters 1–10 Chapters 11–24 Chapter 24 Robert Walton’s story Victor Frankenstein’s story The creature’s story Robert Walton’s story Frame tale begins Still within his letters, Walton switches to the Frame tale ends Arctic explorer Robert Walton switches to the voice of the creature. He Near the end of the Walton writes voice of “the stranger.” He retells the life story of the chapter, Walton returns to letters to his sister about retells the life story of the creature, who initially told his own voice to provide his expedition and “the stranger, who is this story to Victor, who updates on his expedition stranger” who has eventually revealed to be then told it to Walton. and his interactions with boarded his ship. Victor Frankenstein. Victor and the creature. © 2023 BritLitWit  Themes & Motifs The prominent influences on Frankenstein emerge as the text’s themes and motifs. Themes are the central concerns and debates of a text. As you read, consider how each theme and the related questions matter in Frankenstein and real life. Ambition & Exploration Creation & Destruction Fate & Free Will What are the impacts of exploration? How What leads to creation? What leads to Who or what controls how things turn out? do we know whether something is worth destruction? How do we know if these are exploring? good or bad things? Responsibility Socialization vs. Isolation Social Inequality What responsibilities do we have to How do our relationships shape our lives? What creates social inequality? How does ourselves, other people, and nature? What causes people to be isolated? What social inequality shape lives? effects does isolation have? Motifs are repeated features like images, actions, and phrases that support the themes. Language & Storytelling Light & Darkness Nature’s power Physical appearances Note: Various study aids and literary criticism may phrase or emphasize these elements in different ways. Authors usually don’t leave notes about the themes and motifs they included, so they are somewhat up to interpretation!! © 2023 BritLitWit  Connect Shelley’s influences to the themes How do the previously mentioned influences on Frankenstein align with the themes? Ambition & Exploration Creation & Destruction Fate & Free Will Responsibility Socialization vs. Isolation Social Inequality © 2023 BritLitWit  Connect Shelley’s influences to the themes How do the previously mentioned influences on Frankenstein align with the themes? Ambition & Exploration Creation & Destruction Fate & Free Will Discoveries related to electricity and Mary Wollstonecraft’s death that Volcano eruption leading to famine, speculating about its uses resulted from Mary Shelley’s birth worry about the end of the Improving navigation Death of Shelley’s child world—and also the creation of Exploring lands unknown to Prometheus getting punished for Frankenstein Europeans creating mortals Mary’s grief over family members’ Ancient Mariner killing the albatross deaths that were out of her control The novel Frankenstein resulting from numerous influences on Shelley Responsibility William Godwin mostly giving up on Social Inequality parenting daughter Mary Socialization vs. Isolation Consequences of exploration like Elitism resulting from Age of conflict with natives and destruction William Godwin sending Mary to live Enlightenment of nature with acquaintances Satan’s jealousy of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost Possible answers © 2023 BritLitWit  Sources Burgess, Adam. “An Introduction to Gothic Literature.” ThoughtCo, 15 Sept. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/what-is-gothic-literature-739030 Category:Illustrations of Paradise Lost by Gustave Doré - Wikimedia Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Illustrations_of_Paradise_Lost_by_Gustave_Dor%C3%A9#/media/File:Paradise_Lost_14.jpg. 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