Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneer in women’s rights and education, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; and William Godwin, a prominent anarchist and utilitarian political and philosophical writer, author of Political Justice. Her mother died 11 days after her birth, and Mary undertook an intense study of her mother’s works, drawing much from her mother’s ideas about democracy, women’s roles and rights, and how women and men should work together to create happy homes and moral children capable of contributing to a strong democracy. Mary was also much influenced by her father’s character and political works. Although uncommon for girls, he made sure she received the best possible education. Also, his home was often a gathering place for the most illustrious minds of their time, friends of her father, with whom Mary interacted often from childhood on. In fact, Mary was nine when she first heard Samuel Taylor Coleridge recite his famous Romantic poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (in her living room!), a poem to which she alludes in the beginning of Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley’s parents believed fervently that all men should be equal, and they supported the idea that a revolution was needed to get rid of the unfair class system and abolish aristocratic rule in favor of democracy. They also felt it was the individual’s responsibility to behave in a virtuous and responsible manner, believing that virtuous individuals could change the world for the better through their own actions and behavior in daily family life. To them, a strong society was built on the foundation of a strong family, one in which women and men were equals and children were loved, cared for, and educated. The importance of a loving family and friends, distaste for inequality, and even the high hopes and ultimate failure of revolutionary impulses are key subjects of Frankenstein. Percy Bysshe Shelley and his circle of friends also had a strong influence on Mary. Mary met Shelley at the young age of 16, and they quickly began an illicit relationship, despite the fact that Percy Shelley was already married. Shelley was an extremely influential Romantic poet, and he was also one of her father’s political followers and patrons. However, her father did not approve of their relationship, believing it was wrong that they were not married, and this drove a wedge between Mary and her father, which troubled her immensely. However, after the suicide of Percy’s wife, Harriet, whom he had left with two small children, Mary and Percy did marry, giving in to immense social pressure despite being personally opposed to marriage.

The Novel’s Creation

“I busied myself to think of a story, […] One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror.”

—Mary Shelley

In the summer of 1816, when Mary was only 18, she and Percy Shelley were living with the poet Lord Byron, Byron’s friend, the doctor John Polidori, and Mary’s step-sister, Claire Clairmont on Lake Geneva in the Swiss Alps. During a period of incessant rain, the four friends were reading ghost stories to each other when Byron proposed they each try to write one. For days, Shelley could not think of anything. Then, while she was listening to Byron and Percy discussing the probability of using electricity to create life artificially, according to a new theory called galvanism, an idea began to take root in her mind. She wrote in her journal, “Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and [endued] with vital warmth.” The next day, she started work on Frankenstein. Mary had recently lost her first baby. She was also aware that Percy’s wife, Harriet, with whom he had married, had a little girl, separated, remarried, and then abandoned again while she was pregnant with his second child, a son, drowned herself, pregnant with a third child, in December of 1816. Mary’s half-sister, Fanny, had also committed suicide that year. Death, loss, and resurrection are all central motifs in her novel, which she finished in 1817 and published in 1818.

Contexts: Frankenstein

Romanticism was the major artistic movement of the age, and Mary Shelley’s husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and her good friend Lord Byron were two of the most influential Romantic poets of the time. Her father was a close friend to numerous Romantics, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Although her dark and frightening work does not mirror the positive tones and subjects of Romanticism, Shelley was deeply influenced by Romanticism, a movement in art, literature, and music dating from the French Revolution, in 1789, to the American Civil War, in the 1860s.

Earlier thinkers, called Neoclassicists (1660-1789), valued order, moderation, limits, structure, and reason. Their thinking was also extremely socially conservative. Enlightenment thinkers of the same time (1620s to 1789) agreed with most of this, but they were not socially conservative; they emphasized individualism and reason over tradition, superstition, and faith. Romanticism was a reaction to these ways of thinking, and it rejected most of these ideals; however, it did keep the Enlightenment’s rejection of tradition and its passion for individualism.

Romanticism was a new way of thinking, emphasizing imagination and emotion over reason and logic, in the belief that the deepest truths and knowledge were not to be discovered through the scientific method, but instead, through man’s emotions. Truth was to be found through man’s heart—not his head. Emotions ruled the day, especially passionate ones like love, terror, and sadness.

But what does it really mean to value the heart over the head? Rather than using empirical data, data drawn from sensory observation and experience, to find truth, Romantics felt people should use their “intuition,” which meant listening to one’s natural feelings, emotions, impulses, and instincts to determine what is true or good. This led to their emphasis on individualism. Romantics believed people should follow their own moral compasses to guide their actions and to find what is truly good and right, rather than just following whatever society dictated.

The belief that all human beings were capable of determining truth and goodness—if only they listened to their hearts—made Romantics very idealistic; they were optimistic about man’s potential to perfect himself and the societies in which he lived. Victor Frankenstein is a Romantic character because he reflects the Romantic writers’ emphasis on this new way of seeing, the belief that man’s imagination would create a new understanding of the world and lead to more perfect versions of human beings and their societies. Victor Frankenstein is the ultimate dreamer; in his idealism and dreaming, he is highly Romantic.

Neoclassical thinkers would have said people should respect tradition and follow what society says is right or good. Victor certainly doesn’t do that when he sets out to use science to create a new human being! Enlightenment thinkers, inspired by the Scientific Revolution (1543, Copernicus proposes a heliocentric universe, to 1727, Newton’s death), would have said people should use the scientific method to reach truth. Romantics, on the other hand, felt society was bad and led man to false truths, and they felt logic and a focus on the material world missed out on something deeper within mankind; thus, they felt each person should be a true individual and use his or her intuition to search for his or her own, individual, truths. Victor does use science to create the Creature; however, in the creation scenes, readers see that his success and process are figured more as spontaneous, creative, mystical, and imaginative, as opposed to logical, process-based, scientific endeavors.

In order to tap into that mystical “something deeper within man,” Romantic poetry and prose was intended to express the imagination. In creative endeavors, Romantics believed one should follow one’s feelings and impulses rather than aim for technical perfection. One imaginative element in their thinking was called “the sublime.” It was a feeling of profound awe and primal terror that could tap into one’s deepest feelings and innate impulses, a feeling one might get when viewing Niagara Falls. Mary Shelley’s protagonist, the young student Victor Frankenstein, can be read as undertaking a Romantic quest to achieve the sublime when he undertakes the effort to create a spark of life within dead material in his laboratory.

A reverence for nature was also a major component of Romanticism. Because Romantics believed emotions lead to truth, they sought out intense emotional experiences, often in nature. They felt nature was capable of stirring intense emotions because it was so powerful, immense, and majestic; nature could easily make people feel awe and fear at the same time (the sublime). Mary Shelley’s use of nature to evoke intense emotions in both her characters and the reader is another Romantic element in Frankenstein. The setting often either mirrors or contradicts the inner states of the main characters, and significant pairings of characters with their environments are emphasized again and again, with the physical qualities of the settings provoking contemplative thought for most of the main characters, especially Victor and the Creature.

Overall, Frankenstein is clearly a novel about Romantic striving against the customary boundaries or limitations placed on man’s existence. First, there is the obvious example of Victor Frankenstein pushing against his limitations as a human being by striving to play a God in making the Creature.

For Victor, it is not enough to simply study philosophy and science and then proceed on to a respectable profession. He must perfect the role of the scientist by accomplishing the impossible, a desire which is inevitably frustrated, as it must be, by the fact that overstepping human boundaries has significant consequences (this is where Mary Shelley’s criticism of Romantic ideas emerges).

Furthermore, Victor Frankenstein is not the only character to strive against and challenge traditional boundaries. The Creature is engaged in his own struggle to experience a sublime connection with his environment and with other living beings. The Creature makes multiple attempts to connect with other beings, especially before he realizes he is different from them. Most of his efforts are in vain, however, because he is viewed as an abomination.

In a twist on the typical Romantic text, which, if it does not end happily, will still end on a thoughtful, meditative note, this novel ends with characters having reached no significant resolution. They all realize the impossibility of striving against the roles they have been assigned in life, and they do not seem able to identify any other options for themselves. The novel is exemplary of the Romantic period in its frame narrative and interest in the fantastic; however, it challenges Romanticism in that it presents the problems that arise when one pushes Romantic thinking and ideals to their limits.

By masterfully appropriating elements of the Romantic and combining them with characteristics that are clearly Gothic, Mary Shelley is not only expanding the possibilities of both genres, but also using juxtaposition to its greatest effect. The Gothic plays off the Romantic, questioning and subverting the ideals of the latter.

The supernatural or fantastic, for example, was a key element in many Romantic works. The Romantic disregard for logic and desire to tap into man’s deepest emotions led them to often include dream states, the supernatural, the weird, and the horrifying in their works. Obviously, Frankenstein includes all of these elements, and this is where Romanticism shares some common ground with the Gothic.

Gothic literature (1754-1847) arose around the same time as Romanticism (1789-1865), and both Gothic and Romantic writers were reacting to the Age of Enlightenment (1620s-1789). Like the Romantics, the Gothics rejected the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason and wanted to free the imagination. Unlike the Romantics, however, the Gothics were pessimistic. While the Romantics were idealists, believing man was good and could make the world a better place and seeing hope and triumph within the individual, Gothics emphasized man’s frailty, failings, and potential for evil. Frankenstein shares these Gothic leanings, and it is most certainly not an optimistic novel. However, readers should remember that this does not negate the novel’s numerous Romantic qualities. The negative elements in it lead to it being categorized as both Romantic and Gothic.

Gothic Conventions include specific settings: ancient castles, decaying estates, weird or haunted places, and strange or isolated places. They tend to include strange and terrifying events, supernatural events, and extreme situations (murder, torture, revenge). The Gothics believed these situations bring out man’s true nature, and his true nature is not good. Gothic characters include supernatural ones, like ghosts, demons, and monsters (such as werewolves or vampires); insane male characters; and damsels in distress (kind, gentle, beautiful women who are dead, dying, or in danger). Stylistically, Gothic literature is macabre, which means it includes gruesome and horrific details of death and decay; it includes an imaginative distortion of reality; and a dark atmosphere or mood.

In Frankenstein, Shelley incorporates mysterious and supernatural circumstances surrounding the creation of the monster; she employs the supernatural elements of raising the dead and introduces macabre research into unexplored fields of science—especially galvanism—unknown to most readers. She develops a mood of revulsion, horror, and dread through her depictions of the creature and through her selection of a terrifying and distasteful subject: raising the dead.

She also employs a Gothic setting by using far away places that seem mysterious to the readers. Frankenstein is set in continental Europe, specifically Switzerland and Germany, where many of Shelley's readers had not been. Furthermore, the incorporation of the chase scenes through the Arctic regions takes readers even farther from England into regions unexplored by most of humankind. Finally, Victor's laboratory is the perfect place for her protagonist to create a new type of human being; laboratories and scientific experiments were not known to the average reader, so this element adds even more to the mood of mystery and gloom.

Finally, in Gothic novels, the characters seem to bridge the mortal world and the supernatural world. Shelley includes a mystical sort of communicative connection between the Creature and his creator, because the monster appears wherever Victor goes. The monster also moves with amazing superhuman speed, yet Victor is somehow able to match him in the chase toward the North Pole.

Interestingly, both the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution heavily influenced the literature of Mary Shelley’s time. Shelley’s readers lived in a hopeful, but also turbulent era. Many were extremely optimistic about what the future held, and optimistic types, like the Romantics, saw democracy for all and an increasing standard of living as the wave of the future.

However, there was also a dark side, a pessimistic notion, which the Gothics latched onto, rearing its head. The French Revolution had turned to violence and destruction with the Reign of Terror. As rural, close-knit farm life gave way to alienation within industrial, urban societies, the shift to mass production, factory work, and an improved standard of living for some, also led to grim working and living conditions for the poor and working classes. In many ways, this was a time of economic suffering and social disorder.

Mary Shelley’s novel is far more than a simple regurgitation of Romantic or Gothic ideas. It is also far more than a simple horror story. Her novel poses profound questions about science, society, and the positive and destructive sides of human nature. Frankenstein tackles great questions about man’s quest for knowledge, need for acceptance, propensity to judge others based upon their appearances, and what happens when he oversteps his bounds, when he “plays God.”

Literary Devices in Frankenstein

Frame

The story of an Arctic adventurer, Robert Walton, creates a frame for the novel. Romantic literature was often highly stylized, containing elaborate frame stories; Frankenstein is no exception. The beginning and end of the story are made up of letters from Walton to his sister. He writes of meeting Victor Frankenstein, the man who created the “monster,” and he relates the unfortunate story the man related to him.

Near the beginning of the second volume, the monster himself takes control of the story to tell about his own experiences, introducing another layer to the framing.

There is also yet a third, short, framed story within the monster’s story. It is the story of a family the monster secretly lived near and what happened to them when they helped a girl named Safie and her father.

Point of View

The “frame” sets up a double perspective: Walton’s and Frankenstein’s. Walton writes the letters at the beginning and end of the story, and the chapters are Frankenstein’s story, as told to Walton and recorded by Walton.

Readers must remember that they are getting the story from Victor Frankenstein. Consider, for instance, that although Frankenstein views his creation with fear and hatred, the creature might not actually be as grotesque as Frankenstein’s version of the story would lead one to believe.

Mary Shelley also often adds letters even in the main chapters; this helps readers see other people’s point of view, as well.

Foreshadowing

Readers come across Frankenstein’s tale in media res, meaning “in the middle of the action.” In the beginning, Walton’s crew comes across him chasing the Creature through the Arctic. However, then the story turns into Victor’s story, and he tells what happened to lead up to this. Thus, he is positioned to constantly give clues to what will happen in “the future” – things that happened ahead of where he is at in the telling of his tale, but that he obviously already knows because he is telling this in retrospect. For example, as he describes his schooling, he refers to his studies as “the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.”

Allusions

Shelley draws heavily on Adam and Eve’s creation and fall, Miltonʼs Paradise Lost, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” and the Prometheus story.

Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve—how they came to be created and how they came to lose their place in the Garden of Eden, also called Paradise. It's the same story one finds in the first pages of Genesis, expanded by Milton into a very long, detailed, narrative poem.

Paradise Lost also includes the story of the origin of Satan. Originally, he was called Lucifer, an angel in heaven who led his followers in a war against God, and who was ultimately sent with them to hell. Thirst for revenge led him to cause man's downfall by turning into a serpent and tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” starts with a wedding guest who is told a tale by an ancient mariner. This ancient mariner had killed an albatross, bringing a curse upon himself and the rest of the crew. After this, the ancient mariner traveled the world, telling his story to everyone who needs to hear it; the wedding guest is just his latest audience.

Robert Walton is similar to the wedding guest, and Victor Frankenstein is like the ancient mariner. Victor, also, feels compelled to tell his story. The biggest theme in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is that love conquers all; this is a clue as to how the tragedy of Frankenstein could have been avoided.

In the Prometheus story, the gods made all creatures on Earth, and Epimetheus and Prometheus were given the task of endowing them with gifts. Epimetheus liberally spread the gifts around, but by the time he got around to man, he had run out.

Feeling sorry for man’s weak and naked state, Prometheus raided the workshop of Hephaestus and Athena and stole fire, giving the valuable gift to man to help him in life’s struggle. He also taught man how to use this gift in metalwork, so he came to be associated with science and culture.

Zeus, outraged by Prometheus' theft of fire, punished the Titan by having him chained to a rock where an eagle returned each day to eat his liver, which re-grew every night. Zeus then punished man for receiving the fire by instructing Hephaestus to create the first

woman, Pandora, and through her all the negative aspects of life would befall the human race—toil, illness, war, and death—definitively separating mankind from the gods.Motifs

1. Curiosity: The novel is subtitled “The Modern Prometheus.” Obviously, readers can make connections here to the Adam and Eve story. Readers will also be able to make connections to Victor Frankenstein and his creation of the monster.

2. Nature: Both Victor Frankenstein and his Creature find the sublime (fear and awe) in nature. The story also shows that man may wish to recreate nature’s power, but he cannot. The monster is an “unnatural” being, which makes Victor Frankenstein feel nothing but horror and loathing toward it.

3. Responsibility: All of Victor Frankenstein’s woes can be traced back to him not taking responsibility for his actions. He hides what he has done and shuns his creation. Parents should be responsible for their children, as people should be responsible for their actions more generally. This relates to Mary Shelley’s parents’ writings, especially her mother’s, about the proper aims and organization for family units.

4. Isolation: Frankenstein, his Creature, and Walton all must deal with being or feeling isolated, and they all intensely seek out or hope for acceptance from others. The need to belong and the need to be cared for are central ideas in this text.

Anticipation Questions

True or False?

1. Everyone has the potential to become monstrous.

2. It is important to “fit in.”

3. Parents have a never-ending responsibility for their children.

4. Man should not try to recreate the power of nature (or God’s power).

5. It is better to deal with our problems on our own and not involve other people.

6. It is always good to seek knowledge; there should be no forbidden knowledge.