Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein:Frankenstein Belongs in the Canon

Marsha Law, M. S. Ed.CORE Academy, June 2015marshalaw3@gmail.com

“I think most readers will agree that

Frankenstein really is a good

novel, both scary and

thoughtful.” Stephen

King

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/frankenstein-by-mary-shelly

How did it all begin?

Born August 30, 1797. (Bennett, 1998)

Parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, were viewed as philosophers and novelists. (Bennett, 1998)

Wollstonecraft dies of puerperal fever. (Bennett, 1998)

Godwin remarries. (Gilbert and Gubar, 2007)

Scotland. (Gilbert and Gubar, 2007)

https://gypsyscarlett.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/mary-shelley-and-the-night-that-birthed-frankenstein/

Educates herself by reading.

Meets Percy Shelly, poet and future husband, on a trip to visit her father in London.

Death of first daughter after birth at 17 years old.

Her “preoccupation with death and resurrection prefigures some of the central concerns of Frankenstein”

Journal entries indicate dreams of her baby coming back to life.

http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/marys-journal-entry-on-harriet-shelleys-suicide

In Scotland…

Gilbert and Gubar (2007)

Frankenstein is “perhaps the most memorable and

influential science fiction fantasy ever published in

English” (493).

Gilbert and Gubar, 2007

Other Influences on Shelly’s Life

Education—Godwin’s Early Influence

Shakespeare—Plays and Wollstonecraft

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178928/

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-1994

Each monster has multiplied, “continually being re-produced in criticism, in stage

productions, and in various film versions” (27). These monsters also achieved an

afterlife beyond that of their initial creators, experiencing “a new existence

beyond the horizon of their original inception” (28).

Sawyer, 2007

Frankenstein’s Clones

1943

1944

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Frankenstein

http://www.doctormacro.com/Movie%20Summaries/H/House%20of%20Frankenstein.htm

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/586/

This newspaper page was created to promote the movie.

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/586

Universal Studios was “kept alive, actually, by the horror films—

notably the Frankensteins. They would have been broke without those pictures” (197), yet, they received little critical acclaim

while generating a great income (197–198).

Hitchcock, 2007

http://4thletter.net/2009/10/dude-youre-getting-a-dell-frankenstein/

http://4thletter.net/2009/10/dude-youre-getting-a-dell-frankenstein/

Children’sBooks

http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Makes-Sandwich-Adam-Rex/dp/0547576838

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12654902-robot-zombie-frankenstein

http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Great-Illustrated-Classics-Shelley/dp/1577656865

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/michael-burgan/frankenstein.htm

http://timothybanks.com/skill/childrens-book/

Anyonehungry?

http://www.amazon.com/Franken-Cereal-Spooky-fun-Marshmallows-Famliy/dp/B00NO3VX5Q

Political & Military Drawings

Hitler is portrayed as Dr. Frankenstein being attacked by his own monster. Hitchcock, 2007

World War II produced “its own Frankensteins […] clownish reflections of real-life horror” (193). Hitchcock, 2007

Thousands of the “Armed Services

Edition” were shipped over seas

and read by soldiers for

inspiration. Hitchcock, 2007

https://www.etsy.com/listing/203948779/frankenstein-by-mary-shelley-armed

“As part of the famous ghost-story contest that took place in

Switzerland in the summer of 1816 […] Frankenstein was the

most prodigious result.”

Stephen C. Behrendt

Final ArgumentsThree complex texts by Shelly (1818, 1823, and 1831), and many translations with early and late prefaces

Blend of the Gothic and the Godwinian psychological, sociopolitical novel with Mary Shelley’s own particular Romanticist sensibility

Many possible readings such as Gothic, political, biographical, religious, psychological, anti-male feminist, anti-Godwin and anti-Shelley

Although different, the three texts reflect Mary Shelley’s consistent, larger metaphoric questions of the exercise of power and responsibility, personal and societal (30).

Bennett, 1998

Works Cited

Barns & Noble Editors. March 31, 2014. 1:48 p.m. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/frankensteinhunter/1104729856?ean=9780393964585

Behrendt, Stephen C., ed. Approaches to Teaching Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Modern Language Association of America: New York, 1990. Print.

Bennett, Betty, T. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction. The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press: Baltimore & London, 1998. Print.

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. W. W. Norton & Company: New York and London, 2007. Print.

Hitchcock, Susan, T. Frankenstein: A Cultural History. W. W. Norton & Company: New York and London, 2007. Print.

King, Stephen. Introduction to the Marvel Edition of Frankenstein. MaryWollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Marvel Illustrated Novel. The Marvel Comic Group: New York, 1983. Print.

Sawyer, Robert. “Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations”. South Atlantic Review. South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Vol. 72, No. 2 (Spring 2007), 15-31. Retrieved 2-21-2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784706.

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/the-best-movie-you-never-saw-mary-shelleys-frankenstein