Mary Shelley began Frankenstein around age 19. In the previous year she gave birth to a stillborn baby (while unwed, Percy Shelley was the father. He was at this time still married to his first wife). Later MWS, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Claire Clairmont (MWS's stepsister) take a six-week tour through France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. This trip provided the background for Frankenstein. Each member of the party decided to write a ghost story, and MWS's eventually became Frankenstein. Two modern films have been made about this vacation: Haunted Summer (1988) and Gothic (1986). MWS finished the novel in 1818, and significantly revised the work in 1831.
Who is the real "monster?" Victor, the creation, science?
Shelley's Influences:
William Godwin (MWS's father) wrote a number of philosophical/political essays heavily referenced throughout Frankenstein.
William Godwin information
Mary Wollstonecraft (MWS's mother) also wrote political works, many of them regarding feminist issues and women's rights. She is best known for "Vindication on the Rights of Women" (which argued for equal education for all women). Mary Wollstoncraft died thirteen days after MWS's birth due to complications from the birth. It is interesting to note that the dates of Walton's letters to his sister (the ship captain) align with MWS's birth and her mother's final days. Mary Wollstonecraft information
John Milton, specifically Paradise Lost.
PL was also a major influence on the Romantic poets (William Blake, Samuel Coleridge, Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron).
Plutarch, Roman Philosopher
Plutarch information
Prometheus. Literally, 'forethought.' One of the Titans […]. Jupiter entrusted him with the task of making men out of mud and water. Out of pity for their state, he gave them fire, stealing it from heaven, and was punished by being chained to Mount Caucasus where an eagle preyed on his liver" (Bullfinch 939).
Scientific influences:
Charles Darwin (1809-82):
Darwin struck upon the theory of evolution.
Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829):
At a young age, Davy was sent to apprentice with a surgeon in his hometown, Penzance. Such an apprenticeship let Davy to conduct chemical experiments and by nineteen years of age he was carrying out some very serious chemical studies. By age 21 he wrote Researches, Chemical and Philosophical which led to his appointment to the Royal Institution. During the early part of the 19th century, Davy was conducting experiments which led to his conclusions that many common substances were formed by the combination of oxygen and metals. This discovery further led Davy to decompose certain substances, and, in the process was to discover metals not commonly found in their pure state, such metals as: potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, etc. In 1812, Davy was knighted. In 1815, Sir Humphry invented the safety lamp, his most famous invention, which undoubtedly has saved numerous lives of those who worked in the coalmines. During the last of his years, Sir Humphry carried out studies in electromagnetism.
Romanticism in the 18th century:
(a) an increasing interest in Nature, and in the natural, primitive and uncivilized way of life.
(b) a growing interest in scenery, especially its more untamed and disorderly manifestations
(c) an association of human moods with the 'moods' of Nature - and thus a subjective feeling for it and interpretation of it
(d) a considerable emphasis on natural religion
(e) emphasis on the need for spontaneity in thought and action and in the expression of thought
(f) increasing importance attached to natural genius and the power of imagination
(g) a tendency to exalt the individual and his/her needs and emphasis on the need for a freer and more personal expression
(Cuddon, J.A. Ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory 4th Ed. Penguin Books London: 1999.)
Gothic Novel: (1760's-1820's)
Popular novels dealing with dark, morbid (often supernatural events). Mysteries set in "exotic" locations. See Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, William Godwin's Caleb Williams, and Jane Austin's Northanger Abbey (an excellent satire of the genre)
Further Reading:
MWS biography
Davy/Darwin site
Percy Bysshe Shelley:
Bio and Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama
John Polidori's "The Vampyre"
Lord Byron's Manfred
Pop Culture novel Tim Powers The Stress of Her Regard (fictionalized and supernatural account of PBS and Byron)
Jstore Articles:
Dutoit, Thomas. "Re-Specting the Face as the Moral (of) Fiction in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" MLN, Vol. 109, No. 5, Comparative Literature. (Dec., 1994), pp. 847-871.
Silvana, Leila May. "Derrida and Frankenstein, the nature of monster and appearance Sibling Revelry in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 35, No. 4, Nineteenth Century. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 669-685.
Lamb, John B. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 47, No. 3. (Dec., 1992), pp. 303-319.
For more on the Romantic period (prose and poetry) see:
British Literature 1780-1830. Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak Ed. Harcourt Brace College Publishers: 1996
