Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
By
Mary Shelley
Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students of Marymount University, Ally Freeland, Amy Ridderhof, Sabrina Koumoin, Ashley Swann
prometheus
Prometheus (1750 illustration of Prometheus Attacked by an Eagle by
René-Michel Slodtz pictured from the Melbourne Museum) is a Greek trickster
Titan known as "Forethought". In one myth, Prometheus created man, but in the
more common myth, Prometheus protected man by tricking Zeus out of a prize
sacrifice of meat and giving it to humans. Zeus then prevented humans from
accessing fire, which Prometheus gave to humans by hiding it inside a
fennel-stalk. This slight against Zeus caused Zeus the Olympian to punish
Prometheus dearly; in one instance he is tied to a rock and his liver is
continually eaten and replenished every day.
While Frankenstein was being published, Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote a closet drama about the myth entitled Prometheus Unbound which can be read at
Poetry Foundation. In Shelley’s poem Zeus falls from power, allowing
Prometheus to escape his fetters. This poem is a response to Aeschylus’ drama Prometheus Bound, one of the
first classical tragedies that pits Zeus’ power against Prometheus’ ego. A full-text
version of the Aeschelus play is available at the Internet Classics
Archive. Victor Frankenstein--the "modern Prometheus"--is more akin to
the Prometheus of Aeschylus’ drama, a creator who finds his creation
"wretched." Frankenstein is very different from the Hesiodic understanding of
Prometheus, which,
as Norman Austin notes in Meaning and Being in
Myth, saw him as a benefactor and caretaker, not a creator who
abandoned his creation (77).
- [AF]epigraph
This epigraph quotes
Paradise Lost (X.743-745), where Adam
laments his expulsion from Eden. Milton’s epic poem is one of many texts
that had a profound effect on Mary Shelley. Its influence can be seen
throughout the novel, particularly in relation to the creature’s
self-education, and it is one of the books that he finds and reads while he
is living near the De Lacey’s cottage (Volume II, Chapter 7). When the
creature confronts Victor Frankenstein, his "Maker," he compares himself to
Adam (Volume II, Chapter 2). For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein,
see John Lamb’s "Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the
overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and
Victorians" exhibit at the British Library .
- [AF]paradise_lost John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank verse about the fall of man. Milton’s poem is an important intertext--even, as BBC Britain’s Benjamin Ramm notes, the inspiration, for Shelley. The Romantics placed importance in feeling and nature, and Milton epitomized that throughout his poem, showing the the evolution of human consciousness and the building up of the human spirit. The independence and individuality he gives to Satan creates sympathy for a hated stock character, redeeming him in the reader’s eyes. This in turn projects the idea of redemption of the spirit through internal means, removing the need for deliverance through an omnipotent being. See more in The Oxford Handbook of Milton by Nicholas McDowell. At the beginning of Paradise Lost, Milton states that the purpose of the poem is to "justifie the wayes of God to men" (I.26). This idea speaks to Shelley’s themes of free will and theodicy. The story of Paradise Lost is felt acutely by Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, and many allusions to it appear throughout the text. An interesting juxtaposition of religious thought to her scientific filled novel, Mary Shelley combines the contemporary understanding of science with an obvious allusion to the religious folly and fall of man. For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see Burton Pollin’s Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein, John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth", and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library. - [AF]publisher
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, was published
by the Lackington firm, founded by James Lackington in 1774. Advertised as "The
Cheapest Bookseller in the World," Lackington's business--which both sold and
lent books as well as published them--capitalized on a new, middle-class
reading public. In 1791, the bookseller moved from Chiswell Street to a large
purpose-built store in Finsbury Square, dubbed "The Temple of the Muses"--above
the entrance, an inscription advertised "The Cheapest Books in the World."
Lackington's 1799-1800 catalog, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, boasted nearly 300,000 volumes
available for sale. In 1789, the founder's cousin, George Lackington, took over
operations, and it was here that Shelley's book was sold. William St. Clair,
in The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period,
describes the publication of Frankenstein.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's husband and noted Romantic poet, arranged the
initial printing with Lackington & Co., which was known to specialize in
books about magic and the supernatural. Turned down by other publishers, likely
for reasons of self-censorship, Frankenstein found a
home at Lackington's. The first run--at 500 copies--was relatively small for
such a well-known shop, but the book was popular and sold well; St. Clair notes
that the first edition of Frankenstein "made more money
than all [Percy] Shelley's works were to fetch in his lifetime" (360). The book
was published anonymously, though because the publishing contract was
negotiated by Percy Shelley, early
reviewers assumed he had authored it, as Germaine Greer suggests. The
image above, from the British Library, shows an 1809 engraving by Rudolph
Ackermann depicting the interior of "Messrs. Lackington Allen & Co: Temple
of the Muses, Finsbury Square."
- [TH]date
The first edition of Frankenstein was written while
Mary Shelley was in the prime of her life, but it was published in January of
1818, shortly after she buried her first child. The second edition, published
in 1831, came after the loss of her husband, most of her children, and her
family. There are many differences between the two texts, which can be viewed in Dana
Wheeles’ public Juxta collation. One of the main structural differences between
the texts is the loss of the three volumes found in the 1818 edition. In the
1831 edition, after the first four letters, the chapters are numbered 1-24,
which not only removes the multiple volumes but also obscures the separated
narratives of Victor, the Creature, and Walton. Another noticeable difference
comes from the removal of the epigraph from Milton’s Paradise
Lost, which, in the beginning of the 1818 edition, announces the key
theme of the novel. Its removal from the 1831 edition obscures the importance
of the allusions to Milton’s work throughout the novel. In the newly-added forward to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley wrote, somewhat
disingenuously, "I have changed no portion of the story, nor introduced any new
ideas or circumstances." Shelley in fact makes many changes that drastically
change the interpretation and meaning of the text.
First, many of the scientific ideas written about in the 1818 edition are
removed, detaching the novel from an intellectual context and further pressing
it into the fantastical. Shelley also removes many of Elizabeth’s more
independent thoughts about women’s rights as well as her indictment of the
justice system in regards to Justine. Finally, one of the largest differences
between the editions is Victor Frankenstein’s character. Whereas in the 1818
edition, Victor’s own hubris is to blame for the outcome of the Creature, in
the 1831 edition, Victor is at the mercy of fate or chance.
To explore more about the differences between the editions, see Jill Lepore’s
article in The New Yorker, "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein", Jacqueline Foertsch’s The Right, the Wrong, and the
Ugly: Teaching Shelley's Several "Frankensteins", or James O’Rourke’s
"The 1831 Introduction
and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates
Her Legacy. To explore visual differences between the texts, see the
Shelley-Godwin Archive, which compares facsimiles of the original
manuscripts, and Brigit Katz’ article for The Smithsonian
Magazine, "‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s
Monster."
- [AF]william_godwin
Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to her father, William
Godwin, the well known author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Caleb Williams.
William Godwin was an anarchist and supporter of the French Revolution, and many
of his theories of absolute sovereignty are alluded to within the text of
Frankenstein. Shelley learned much from her father’s library growing up, and thus
was highly influenced by her father’s beliefs. To learn more about Godwin, read
Chapter 4 of Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The Birth,
Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster, "Mary’s Father, William
Godwin". To learn more about Godwin’s influence on Frankenstein, listen to the University of Oxford’s podcast on the
matter. The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, is a painting by Henry William
Pickersgill, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. - [AR]political_justice Published in 1793, William Godwin’s
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on
Morals and Happiness is a philosophical text concerning
politics. Written after the French Revolution, a ten-year period of political
upheaval in France culminating in the overthrow of the monarchy and the
creation of a republic, Godwin’s Enquiry also responds
to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in
France and Thomas Paine’s Rights of
Man--specifically, on questions of authority. Godwin wrote the Enquiry to advocate for the Enlightenment project of
social improvement. His radical writing resonated deeply with Romantic authors,
especially Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley. For a more
in-depth look at how this work affected the authors of the Romantic Period see
Andrew McCann’s "William Godwin:
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and
Manners", and for more information about Godwin’s influence on Mary
Shelley, see an online exhibit Shelley’s Ghost, developed by the
Bodleian Libraries. - [AF]caleb_williamsPublished in May 1794, Things As They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb
Williams tells the story of an impoverished young man named
Caleb Williams, who learns that his wealthy employer, Ferdinando Falkland, is
guilty of murder. When Falkland realizes that Caleb suspects him, he falsely
accuses Caleb of attempted robbery, forcing him to flee the estate. Throughout
the novel, Caleb is accused of various crimes, pursued, robbed, beaten,
arrested, and convicted, but manages ultimately to escape captivity. The novel
is a pointed critique of the English judicial system, particularly its abuse of
power, and continues to develop themes that Godwin presented in his 1793
philosophical treatise, An Enquiry concerning Political
Justice. For a detailed examination of Godwin’s writings and an
overview of Godwinian scholarship, see Pamela Clemit’s "Revisiting William Godwin" from Oxford Handbooks Online. - [AR]mary_shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in
London, England, to William
Godwin and famed feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft—the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Mary had a
difficult upbringing, as her mother died shortly after her birth and her father
remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont, who had a tenuous relationship with Mary. Mary
was never formally educated but read many of her father’s books and was introduced
to many influential writers like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Mary, while on a trip to Scotland visiting family friends, met and fell in love
with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married and also a student of her
father. The two eloped in 1814 and travelled around Europe. It was in Switzerland,
with a cohort made up of the Shelleys, Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John
Polidori, where Mary first began Frankenstein one rainy afternoon during a ghost
story writing exercise. Frankenstein was published in 1818
anonymously with a foreword by Percy Shelley, whom many people assumed wrote the
novel. The novel was a huge success, and is now often considered the first science
fiction novel. After the success of her first novel, Shelley continued to write
but her personal life declined rapidly. She lost three children in her lifetime,
her half-sister committed suicide, and her marriage, riddled with affairs, ended
in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia. Mary died at 53 of brain
cancer on February 1, 1851 in London, England. She was buried at St. Peter's Church in
Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of her late husband's heart.
The portrait of Shelley included above, painted by Richard Rothwell (1840), is
housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. - [TH]event
Frankenstein was created on a rainy afternoon in 1816 when
Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley), Percy Bysshe
Shelley, Lord Byron, and others were vacationing in Geneva. Lord Byron suggested
a gothic ghost story contest to alleviate their cabin fever--as 1816 was known as
the "year without a summer" due to a volcanic explosion in the Dutch East Indies, causing a long winter in
most of the world. After working their way through established German ghost
stories, the group decided to try their hand at writing their own. For more
information on the circumstances of the creation of Frankenstein and how it affected the development of the text, see
Marshall Brown’s "Frankenstein":
A Child’s Tale", and for images of
Shelley’s manuscript for Frankenstein see the Shelley-Godwin Archive. - [AF]erasmus_darwin
Erasmus
Darwin (1731-1802), grandfather of Charles Darwin, was a physician and
poet (pictured above is a reprint in the National Portrait Gallery, London by
Joseph Wright based on a work from the 1770’s). An industrialist, free thinker,
and inventor, he is well known for his for his classification novel, Zoonomia, Or, The Laws Of Organic Life which
created classes and categories for animals, and discussed pathology, anatomy, and
psychology. His works influenced many Romantic authors, such as William
Wordsworth, who referenced Darwin in "The Tale of Goody Blake and Harry Gill." For more information, see
Gavin Budge’s article "Erasmus Darwin and the Poetics of William Wordsworth: ‘Excitement without the
Application of Gross and Violent Stimulants’". A radical thinker for the
time, Erasmus Darwin posited the development of life from "one living filament"
(Section XXXIX, Line 8); Darwin’s arguments would later be seen precursors to the
theory of evolution. Darwin also wrote poetry about nature and science, most
notably, The
Loves of the Plants, Economy of
Vegetation, and The Temple
of Nature. His views on living organisms and the creation of life
gives authority to] Victor’s ability to create life and offers a litmus for the
Romantic era skepticism about "playing God." For more information on Erasmus
Darwin in general see Michon Scott’s website Strange Science; to
see Darwin’s influence on both Romantic and Victorian writers, see Thomas Hart’s
article on The
Victorian Web. - [AF]iliadThe Iliad, composed in approximately
the 9th century BCE, is an epic poem in elevated and formal verse, narrating the
events that occurred in the ninth year of the attack on Troy. The story begins
with Agamemnon, the wanax of Mycenae and commander of the
various independent Achaean kingdoms, insulting Achilles. Turmoil ensues among the
Achaeans, who have been laying siege to the City of Troy for nearly ten years. The
story includes the death of Achilles’ closest friend Patroclus, which causes
Achilles to defeat and defile his murderer, Hector, Prince of Troy. The story
concludes with Achilles surrendering Hector’s body to King Priam, father of
Hector, and his recognition of a kinship between them through grief. See MIT’s
full text version
of The Iliad translated by Samuel Butler. - [AF]tragedyTragedy is an elevated literary form that originated in ancient Greece. According
to Aristotle’s Poetics, "Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action
that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language
enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different
parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and
through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions."
(1449b), Romantic authors were greatly influenced by the ancient tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides,
however they often turned the genre on its head. While tragedy in the original
sense featured a hero of noble birth, the Romantics, like Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, preferred to consider the common man. Often, Romantics
turned the argument inward, invoking Shakespeare’s tragedies in lieu of Ancient
ones (Macbeth,Hamlet, Othello). - [AF]william_shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of the greatest writers
in the English language, known for composing 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long
narrative poems (pictured above is a digital print of Earl of Warwick’s 1623 first
folio of William Shakespeare’s works via the Folger Shakespeare Library).
Shakespeare’s works, known for his innovative, vivid use of language and his
exploration of individual subjectivity, were of special interest to the Romantics.
As Jonathan Bate argues in Shakespeare and the English
Romantic Imagination (1989), the idea of natural genius and the
veneration of the creative imagination was essential to the Romantic ideology, and
Shakespeare became a key sign of natural creative genius. The "bardolatry" that
began in the mid-eighteenth century, particularly through the actor David Garrick’s (1717-1779) energies,
came to a head in the Romantic era, and has in many ways persisted to this day.
For more information on the role of Shakespeare in the Romantic era, see Bate’s
important monograph as well as Joseph M. Ortiz’s
edited collection, Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism
. Mary Shelley would have been familiar with his works both through
her education at the hands of her father, William Godwin, and through her close
relationship with Byron, Shelley, Polidori, and other Romantics. Godwin, with his second wife Mary Jane Clairmont, created and published works
in a juvenlie library series for the improvement of young readers’ imaginations
that included, among histories of Greece and bible stories, Tales From Shakespeare.. All of these authors influenced her
writing, and Shakespeare colored her entire life; Shelley had lines from The Tempest carved into her husband’s tombstone. To read
more about Shakespeare’s influence on Mary Shelley’s life and writing see Robert
Sawyer’s article "Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations" or David Lee Clark’s
article, "Shelley and
Shakespeare". For a full list of Shakespeare’s works, as well as
summaries and criticisms, see the Folger Shakespeare
Library. - [AF]tempestThe Tempest
is a comedy written in 1610 by William
Shakespeare telling the story of the banished Duke of Milan, Prospero,
who has recreated his home on an island using magic--and usurped the native
inhabitants of the island to do so, imprisoning Sycorax and enslaving her son,
Caliban. Prospero causes the shipwreck of the King of Naples, Alonso, and his
brother, Antonio, who, twelve years earlier had conspired for Prospero’s position
thus banishing him from the kingdom. During the tale, Miranda, Prospero’s
daughter, and Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, fall in love, but must survive the tests
placed upon them by Prospero. Other castaways from the shipwreck land on the
island and conspire to destroy Prospero but in the end common ground and love
triumph. Explore more of the text on the Folger Shakespeare
Library. - [AF]midsummer
Midsummer Night’s
Dream
(1595) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. A play within a play, the story
is set in a fairyland Athenian forest during the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of
Athens, to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. The play’s complex subplots
involve a variety of complementary stories. The play opens with a love triangle
between Hermia, who is in love with Lysander but is being forced to marry
Demetrius by her father Egeus. Helena, Hermia’s best friend is in love with
Demetrius. On another side of the story are the "Rude Mechanicals," a group of six
skilled laborers who are planning a performance of Pyramus and
Thisbe. The last subplot involves the king and queen of the fairies,
Oberon and Titania, who are in an argument over a small child Titania is
protecting from Oberon. Oberon, in his frustration over Titania’s disobedience,
sends his sprite, Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, to create a love potion to shame
Titania into obedience. Puck wreaks havoc on all the characters, causing the men
to fall in love with Helena and rebuff Hermia, turning Bottom part donkey, and
prompting Titania to fall in love with Bottom. During this confusion, Oberon
steals the child from Titania, upon which success he orders Puck to set everything
straight. The play concludes with the Mechanicals’ inexpert play-within-a-play,
staged for the marriage festivities of Theseus and Hippolyta. Explore more about
the text at the Folger
Shakespeare Library or see David Wiles Shakespeare and Carnival: After Bakhtin,
especially chapter 4, "The Carnivalesque in A Midsummer Night's Dream." The image
here is Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing by
William Blake (1786) hosted by Tate Britain. - [AF]john_milton
John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known
for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank
Encyclopedia
Britannica. The image included here is a portrait of Milton (1690) by
Godfrey Kneller, via Wikimedia Commons. - [TH]novelThroughout the eighteenth century, the
novel as a modern form of entertainment accessible to a wide, middling-class, and
generally-educated audience grew. For more information on the "humble" novel, see John Mullan's "The Rise of the Novel" at the British Library. - [TH]time
According to a footnote in the 3rd Broadview
edition of Frankenstein, or; The Modern
Prometheus, the novel takes place in 1796. If this is true,
the entire tale takes place around the date of the author's birth and her
mother Mary Wollstonecraft's death.
- [AF]artic
According to Kathryn Shultz in "Literature's Arctic
Obsession," Shelley--like many during the early nineteenth
century--was intrigued by the prospect of arctic exploration, as her frequent
allusions to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and her letters make
clear. While Shelley may have added the arctic setting as "an afterthought"
after reading about attempts to discover the long-elusive Northwest passage, by
the time Frankenstein was published, two major
expeditions were underway; the Passage would be discovered in 1850 after many
deaths on the ice. As Shultz notes, "the book reminded readers that their world
was already full of Dr. Frankensteins." For further reading, see
"'A Paradise of My Own Creation': Frankenstein and the Improbable Romance of
Polar Expedition," by Jessica Richard. The image above, via WikiMedia
Commons, shows a portrait (c.1833) of the explorer John Ross (1777-1856).
- [TH]electromagnetism
url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Br%C3%BAjula_azimutal_espa%C3%B1ola_s.XVIII_%28M.A.N._Madrid%29_01.jpg/506px-Br%C3%BAjula_azimutal_espa%C3%B1ola_s.XVIII_%28M.A.N._Madrid%29_01.jpg"
/> From the 13th through the 19th centuries, scholars and scientists were
investigating the nature of electromagnetism, though, as noted in the
American Physical Society newsletter of July 2008, most people thought
they were separate forces. The Economy of Vegetation, a 1791 poem by Erasmus
Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather, speculates on the nature of
electromagnetism (see canto 2 lines 193ff). In 1820, two years after the
publication of Frankenstein, Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted discovered
that electric current could produce a magnetic effect on a compass, which
normally points due north--toward the Earth’s magnetic core. For more
information on Darwin’s influence in the late eighteenth century, see Jenny Uglow’s review of his work in The
Guardian The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows an
eighteenth-century compass of Spanish origin. - [TH]enthusiasmEnthusiasm is an important concept in the development of
Romanticism. Deriving from the Greek word "enthous," meannig possessed or
inspired by a god, the concept of enthusiasm was linked to religious fanaticism (particularly Methodism) during the early
eighteenth century and described by philosophers like Locke and Hume as an
error in thinking that reason and reflection could correct. Enthusiasm was
also, however, understood as the ability to "see the truth transparently and
spontaneously without mediation" (Mee 8). Jon Mee, in Romanticism, Enthusiasm, and
Regulation, goes on to note: "Although it was often associated
with the sort of implosion of the self that came from the prophet retiring into
the wilderness, a species of melancholia and gloomy introspection, it was also
routinely construed in terms of the delirium of the senses that manifested
itself in the mania of the crowd" (10-11). Closely related to concepts of
imagination and fancy, enthusiasm is a complex term that suggests many of the
negative aspects of the Romantic sensibility. For Wordsworth and Coleridge,
enthusiasm is a kind of corruption of or detour in the imagination (Mee 12).
- [TH]HomerHomer is the figure credited
with the composition of two epic poems, The Iliad and
The Odyssey, considered to be the first extant works
of Greek literature. Though modern scholarship questions the existence of a
single person called "Homer," the idea of such authorship has had an enduring
interpretive effect from ancient times to the present. Known as the "Father of
Western Literature," Homer is credited with a number of hymns and lesser works
in addition to The Iliad and The
Odyssey. If such an individual existed, scholars have suggested his
floruit as anywhere between the 9th to 7th centuries BCE. To learn more about
Homer, see Suzanne Saïd’s entry in the Oxford Classical
Dictionary. - [AF]the_Mariner
In this excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (451- 456),
the Mariner has killed the albatross and the other sailors turn on him, viewing
his act of violence as a sin against God and nature. The luck of the ship
dissipates, and they are becalmed on the ocean. The Mariner watches as each of
the sailors die of thirst, while he alone is saved. This direct allusion
highlights the similarities between the Mariner and Frankenstein, who are both
reeling after accomplishing their respective goals--killing the albatross and
creating a sentient being--and both in the process of telling their stories.
The use of the quote is two-fold; it highlights Frankenstein’s isolation and
his decision to abandon his creature, but it also juxtaposes the Mariner’s
violence with Frankenstein’s act of creation. Explore more about Coleridge’s
poem in William Christie’s “The Search for
Meaning in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,". See Michelle Levy’s
article, “Discovery and the
Domestic Affections in Coleridge and Shelley," for a discussion of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s influence on Mary Shelley. - [AF]Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner
This is a reference to Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem,
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge’s
most famous poem is a tale narrated by an ancient sailor returned from a
long, ambitious journey during which, having shot and killed an
albatross, all other members of the crew die and the mariner is cursed.
The poem foregrounds the act of storytelling; the mariner with his "strange power of speech" (587) is compelled to tell his story,
and others, due to its fantastical nature, are compelled to pay
attention. The 1876 illustration above, via the University of Adelaide, depicts the Ancient Mariner telling
his tale to the Wedding Guest, who "cannot chuse but to hear" (18). To
learn more about Coleridge’s poem, published as the opening poem in Lyrical Ballads
, read Seamus Perry’s introduction at the British Library. - [AF]Plain_work"Plain work" here refers to sewing and needlework that
is "plain," as opposed to "fancy." Caroline Beaufort, however, is also
making money by taking orders for piece work, which refers to any work paid
for "by the piece" or according to what is produced, like modern factory
work. - [TH]cousin_marriageMarriage between cousins was a common practice in
history, often deployed to maintain family property and wealth. Read more
about marriage between cousins in Adam Kuper’s Incest and
Influence especially the Coda, or his
article in Past and Present "Incest, Cousin Marriage, and
the Origin of the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century England." In
the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza,
is Victor’s first cousin on his father’s side; however, in the 2nd edition
of 1831, Mary Shelley revises this plot point to make Elizabeth an unknown
orphan and no longer related to the Frankensteins. She is instead rescued by
Victor Frankenstein’s mother. To learn more of Mary Shelley’s revisions
between the first and second editions see the annotation linked to the
publication date in the Preface of the novel, or head to Dana Wheeles’ Juxta
Commons comparison
of the 1818 and 1831 editions of Frankenstein.
- [AF]fancyFancy and imaginagion are important concepts in that shifted in meaning
througout the eighteenth century, being associated with mental creativity
and wit. For William Wordsworth, fancy is, like the imagination, a force for
association and creation; in his Preface of 1815, he writes that fancy is
"capricious as the accidents of things... Fancy depends upon the rapidity
and profusion with which she scatters her thoughts and images" (xxxiv-xxxv). Fancy is more "given to quicken and to beguile the temporal
part of our nature," while "Imagination [works] to incite and to support the
eternal" (xxxv). For Coleridge, fancy is inferior to imagination, lighter,
and is more like wit in terms of its power to make connections between
ideas; Coleridge explores the distinctions between primary imagination,
secondary imagination, and fancy in Book 13 of Biographia
Literaria (1817). For a good general historical overview, see Fancy and Imagination (1969) by R. L. Brett.
- [TH]chivalric_romanceChivalric romance, according Oxford Reference, is a genre of literature that began in
Medieval Europe and flourished into the 17th century. Chivalric romances,
usually written in poetic verse, tell stories of the great deeds of
knight-errantry. Chivalry, in particular, refers to "an idealized code of
civilized behaviour that combines loyalty, honour, and courtly love." These
sorts of stories were often called "romans," from which the word "romance"
derives. Formally loose or episodic in structure, heroic romances written in
later periods "deliberately eschew[ed] contemporaneity"; their plots
featured courtly lovers engaged in "heroic stories of love and war in a
remote and idealized past" (1046), as Shellinger states in the Encyclopedia of the Novel. Some representative heroic
romances include Euphues by John Lyly, L'Astrée by Honore d'Urfé, Artamène by Madame de Scudéry, Orlando
Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, and Amadís de
Gaula by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. Romance of this sort declined
in popularity during the 18th century, but during the Romantic period--so
named by later scholars for its turn toward these very romantic ideals of
individualism, heroism, and the imagination--such stories were revived. For
a fuller discussion of the origins and meaning of the word "romantic" see
Michael
Ferber’s Romanticism: A Very Short Introduction
(3-7), and for a broader overview of the medieval genre, see the Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on Romance. - [TH]Orlando_Furioso
Orlando
Furioso is an epic poem published in 1532 by the Italian
poet Ludovico Arisoto, and an example of the "books of chivalry and romance"
that Clerval enjoys. Set in the 8th century, Orlando
Furioso tells the story of the protagonist Orlando, leader of the
Christian knights, fighting the so-called Saracens for
control of Europe during the reign of Charlemagne (Charles I). As the first
lines of the poem point out, its subject is "Dames, knights, and arms, and
love! The deeds that spring / From courteous minds, and venturous feats"
(1.1-2). The chivalric romance combines realism and fantasy throughout its
46 cantos. First published in English translation in 1591, Orlando Furioso is a source for Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. While the story is episodic, one
of the most important plots focuses on Orlando’s dangerous passion for the
pagan princess Angelica, which is the cause of his titular madness. The
image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows Ruggiero
Rescuing Angelica (1818-1819), painted by Jean Auguste Domininque
Ingres. Ariosto’s tale was also famously
illustrated by the late nineteenth-century artist Gustave Doré.
- [AF]Robin_Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary outlaw who stole from the rich
to give to the poor. Numerous ballads have been written about the character,
who may have been based on a real
person. Robin Hood lived the true heroic code, protecting women,
supporting the lowly, and remained faithful to the monarch. Read more about
Robin Hood in Howard Pyle’s The Merry
Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the more popular
adaptations of the legend written in 1883. The photograph above, by RichardUK2014 via Wikimedia Commons, shows a relief plaque
outside Nottingham Castle ostensibly illustrating King Richard the Lionheart
marrying Robin Hood and Maid Marian. - [AF]Amadis_de_Gaula
Amadís de
Gaula is a prose romance composed in Spain or Portugal in the 13th
or 14th century (title page of the 1533 Spanish edition by Olaf Simons
pictured above). The story’s protagonist is Amadís, the bravest and most
just of knights, who falls in love with Oriana, the daughter of Lisuarte,
the king of England. Amadís is an orphan who was separated from his English
parents at birth, but through this hardship becomes a better man. Arthurian
in nature, the story is one of chivalry, though more chaste and romanticized
than the Celtic tales of knights it was most likely based on. According to
Romantic Circles, Mary Shelley was reading Robert Southey’s
translation of the poem while writing Frankenstein.
The full text of the 1520
edition printed by Juan Cromberger can be found online at the
National Library of Spain. - [AF]St._George
St. George, a converted Roman soldier martyred for his
newfound Christian faith, is often depicted slaying a dragon, a symbolic
rendering of the triumph of Christianity over evil. Not only is St. George
the patron saint of England, but by the 14th century, he had been declared
both the patron saint and protector of the royal family. For
more information on St. George, see Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry collected by Thomas Percy and edited by D.L.
Ashliman. Pictured above is Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1432) by Rogier
van Der Weyden from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- [AF]Natural_PhilosophyNatural
Philosophy is the study of nature through a philosophical lens. The
two canonical discussions of natural philosophy occur in Aristotle’s On the
Heavens, Meteorology, and On
Generation and Corruption. In the eighteenth century,
natural philosophy was a form of science with an emphasis on scientific
inquiry, but in the Romantic period, it was seen as a method of unifying
physical nature with the spiritual. As Michael Manson and Robert Scott
Stewart point out in Heroes and Hideousness: "Frankenstein" and Failed Unity, natural
philosophy fueled the Romantic idea of the natural world as a giant
organism, in stark contrast to the Enlightenment, which saw the natural
world as more like a mechanical machine. For more information about natural
philosophy and its influence on Frankenstein, see
Patricia Fara’s "Hidden depths: Halley, Hell and Other People" or Rebecca Baumann’s
"Mad
Science." - [AF]Cornelius_Agrippa
Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) was a German alchemist and scholar.
He studied both medicine and law but did not receive a degree in either. His
most well-known work is the three-volume De Occulta Philosophiae, a defense
of "hidden philosophy" or magic, drawing from alchemy, astrology, and
Kabbalah. A later work, De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum (Of the Uncertainty and Vanity of the
Sciences), attacks contemporary renaissance scientific theory and
practice. To read more about his philosophy see his intellectual biography
in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The
engraved portrait of Agrippa above, via Wikimedia Commons, is housed at the
U.S. National Library of Medicine. - [NPD]Chimerical
Chimeric or chimerical was defined by
Samuel Johnson in his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language as
"A vain and wild fancy, as remote from reality as the existence of the
poetical Chimera, a monster feigned to have the
head of a lion, the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon." The
image here is a 1590–1610 drawing of a chimera attributed to Jacopo Ligozzi
(1547–1627) hosted on Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Paracelsus
Paracelsus, the adopted name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus
Bombastus von Hohenheim (1490-1541), was Swiss physician, alchemist, and
astrologer of the German Renaissance. He studied medicine and homeopathic
cures for disease, as well as alchemy and metals. A free thinker, he
believed in learning from more than just academics, and stressed experience
as a model for learning. To learn more about Paracelsus’ scientific and
medical advancements in the medieval ages see Joseph Borzelleca’s "Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology". Pictured here is Paracelsus by Quentin Matsys from the Musée du Louvre,
via Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Albertus_Magnus
Albertus
Magnus (c. 1200-1280), teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, was a German
Catholic Dominican Friar. He was canonized a saint in 1931 (despite
contemporaries considering him neglectful of theology for sorcery), has been
referred to as the one of the greatest German philosophers and theologians
of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished as one of the 36 Doctors for the
Catholic Church. A student of many disciplines, influenced by Aristotle, and
a prolific writer, he composed 38
volumes encompassing many topics such as logic, theology, botany,
geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology,
phrenology, justice, and law. Albertus’ work represents the entire body of
theological and philosophical knowledge during his time. His influence on
natural science is most important as he brought Aristotelian knowledge of
nature to the forefront as well as increasing knowledge through his
experiments promoting the idea that Christian faith and experimental science
were not hostile to one another. For more information on the alchemical
sciences, see the Hay Library exhibit on the evolution of modern chemistry and
the archived Getty Library colloquium on the "Art of Alchemy." To explore more of Albertus Magnus’ works see
the Beinecke Library’s digital edition of his "Alchemical Miscellany." For more information on the role of
alchemy and science in Frankenstein, see Alan Rauch’s Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the
March of Intellect (2001), especially chapter 3, "The
Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Frankenstein" Pictured
above is Vincenzo Onofri’s bust of Sant’ Alberto Magno (c. 1493), via
Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Philosophers_StoneIn the study of alchemy, ""the
Philosopher’s Stone" is sometimes referred to as the 5th element
(the other four being earth, water, fire, and air). The Stone was understood
to turn base metals into gold, and it was thought to be able to create an
elixir of life. The Stone has been referenced throughout literature from the
Middle Ages to modern popular culture, from Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Yeoman’s
Tale" to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Prior to the
conception of the Creature, Victor's fascination with this stone and its
apparent abilities highlights his willingness to step out of the human realm
and into the realm of the divine by "penetrating the secrets of nature"
(Shelley 38). Outside of Frankenstein, much has been
written about alchemy and the Philosopher’s Stone, but Stanton Linden’s Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to
the Restoration gives an overview of the history of alchemy
in literature. To read a book of alchemy from 1754, see The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius, by
M. de Burigny. - [AF]Economy_of_VegetationThis is a direct reference to Erasmus
Darwin’s poem, the Economy of
Vegetation, which explores the new technological
innovations and scientific discoveries of the early nineteenth century. In
Darwin’s paean to "unconquer’d steam!" (289), he imagines it "[dragging] the
slow barge, or [driving] the rapid car;/ Or on wide-waving wings…[bearing]/
The flying-chariot through the fields of air" (290-292). His poems were
helpful to the Romantics’ exploration of science as he combined poetry, the
epitome of feeling, with scientific ideas. To see more of Darwin’s influence
on the Romantics, see D. King-Hele’s book, Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets. - [AF]Boyles_Law
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), the first modern chemist and originator
of Boyle’s Law--which describes the inversely proportional
relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas--performed
experiments in the seventeenth century involving air-pumps, better known
today as vacuum pumps. Boyle’s pumps were created to his specific dimensions
by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) (also known for the bringing the use of
microscopes into the community of scientists). In his (1662) book, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air,
and its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical
Engine), Boyle detailed all of his air-pump experiments,
most notably Experiment 41, in which he studied the reactions of animals to
a vacuum. In Experiment 41, Boyle placed birds, mice, and other small
creatures into the air pump and slowly removed the air to prove the
necessity of respiration. While watching a lark in one reiteration of the
experiment, he observed: "…the Bird for a while appear'd lively enough; but
upon a greater Exsuction of the Air, she began manifestly to droop and
appear sick, and very soon after was taken with as violent and irregular
Convulsions, as are wont to be observ'd in Poultry, when their heads are
wrung off: For the Bird threw her self over and over two or three times, and
dyed with her Breast upward, her Head downwards, and her Neck awry" (cite
page 98). These experiments intrigued the public. Joseph Wright’s
(1734-1797) oil paintings imagined these experiments as subjects of
middle-class, domestic education. To read more about Robert Boyle, see
Thomas Birch’s biography from 1772, The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle.
Shelagh Stephenson’s (1955-) play An Experiment With an Air Pump", a play
revolving around two overlapping plots 100 years apart which highlight the
lack of empathy scientific thought has over human emotions and affections.
- [AF]The_Swiss_Alps
The Swiss Alps (including the Central
and the Bernese Alps) are a region in central Europe with expansive
mountains, considered both beautiful and dangerous, that span most the
southern and eastern area of Switzerland. The Jura are a range of mountains
in the northwest following the France-Switzerland border forming the
watersheds for both the Rhone and Rhine basins. These two ranges make up the
majority of the natural setting within the novel. Among the peaks named in
the novel are Mont Blanc (the highest), Mole, and Mont Saleve. Montanvert is
also part of the Alps, but is the eighteenth-century name for Mer de Glace,
a glacier on the Mont Blanc massif. Romantic artists--including Percy Shelley, Coleridge, J.M.W. Turner, and
others--frequently visited, wrote about, and painted this sublime
landscape. The image here shows landscape artist Francis Towne’s
(1739-1816) Arveyron River on the Mer de Glace
(1781), via Wikimedia Commons. See more works depicting the area described in Frankenstein in Richard Stephens’ Catalogue Raisonné of Francis
Towne. - [AF]Ben_Franklin_experiments
This is a direct allusion to
experiments performed by Benjamin Franklin and other scientists during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ben Franklin was a contemporary of Mary
Shelley’s parents, and he influenced the world of politics, culture, and
science. Well-known inventing bifocals, Franklin is also associated in the
popular imagination with his electrical experiments involving keys, storms,
and kites. Contrary to popular belief, Franklin did not discover
electricity, but he connected electrical conduits through substances like
water and metal, and he understood that electricity can be held and
discharged. Read more about his electrical experiment at The
Franklin Institute. Franklin’s experiments with electricity were
the precursor to Galvani’s and Volta’s experiments with electricity and
galvanism. These two scientists sought to prove that electricity could
animate deceased matter, namely frogs, but went so far as to momentarily
animate the bodies of beheaded criminals. To learn more about these
experiments, read Alan Brown’s "The
Science That Made Frankenstein." This is not the first time
electrical experiments had been referenced in literature; Erasmus Darwin,
whose works are alluded to in Frankenstein often
referenced Franklin, in his Economy of Vegetation.
Darwin describes Franklin as taming lightning through his invention of the
lightning rod, for instance: "-Led by the
phosphor-light, with daring tread/ Immortal Franklin sought the fiery
bed;/ Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds/ His embryon
Thunders in circumfluent clouds" (Canto 2.2 355-358). To explore
more about Darwin, see Stephen Foster’s addition to the
Victorian Web; to learn more about the science of Frankenstein, see Sharon Ruskin’s article from the British Library. The image used is a comic from
Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham hosted on Scientific American. - [AF]University_of_Ingolstadt
Victor Frankenstein attends the University
of Ingolstadt, a university founded in 1472, known for its focus on
the natural sciences. The university had a massive chemistry laboratory and
one of the finest operating theatres at the time Frankenstein was written,
making it a perfect setting for his experiments. Ingolstadt is located in Germany, within the Free State of
Bavaria. In the eighteenth century, an intellectual
movement for the reconstruction of European society was centered in
the city. Mary Shelley would have been aware of this, and the significance
of the change of European society may have been the perfect historical
setting for a tale calling into question freedom, status, and autonomy. The
image here shows an Italian operating theatre built in the sixteenth century
to give an example of what the operating theatre may have looked like to
Victor Frankenstein. The image was taken by Kalibos and is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Old_Familiar_FacesThis is a direct allusion to Charles Lamb’s
(1775-1834) poem, "Old Familiar Faces", a poem about Lamb looking back on his life
through the lens of nostalgia. Victor uses the allusion at this point in the
text because he is retelling his story from a similar place once he leaves
his family and friends, will never find them or return to them the same way
again. - [AF]Sir_Humphrey_Davy
Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) was a
Cornish scientist as well as poet, and according to Richard Holmes’ "Humphrey Davy
and the Chemical Moment," is best known today for his work on
nitrous oxide (which he coined "laughing gas"), his use of the Voltaic battery to resolve new
elements, sodium and potassium; his innovations in agricultural chemistry
and animal tanning; his invention of the arc light; and above all for his
design of the miner's safety lamp. He was the first Englishman knighted for service to science since Sir Issac
Newton and the first professional chemist to be elected President of the
Royal Society of London. Mary Shelley was intimately aware of Sir Humphrey
Davy, as he knew Coleridge, Wordsworth, and her father William Godwin.
Explore more of her background with these iconic figures in the NIH’s
History of Medicine Exhibit, Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of
Nature. Percy Shelley, Mary’s husband, was also interested in
the work of Sir Humphrey Davy. In school he was a political and religious radical, having been expelled from Oxford
for supposedly writing a pamphlet denouncing the existence of God, he turned himself to Davy’s work.
The Shelleys were seduced by the study of galvanism, a branch of natural
philosophy discovered by Luigi
Galvani (1737-1798) who investigated the effect of electricity on
animal limbs. Sir Humphrey Davy corroborated the discovery and supported the
theory in a speech given to the Royal Society of London. Davy’s influence
can be found in all of the science of Frankenstein;
however, he is most obviously the inspiration for M. Waldman, Victor’s
mentor. Many of M. Waldman’s scientific ideas are very similar to Davy’s,
and Shelley frequently alludes to his 1802 Discourse
Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802; collected in
this accessible 1839 edition). Frankenstein is filled with allusions to Davy’s works. To read more
about Davy and his influence on the Shelleys, see Sharon Ruston’s literary
critique, Shelley and
Vitality, the Smithsonian Institute’s exhibition The Body Electric: Inspiring Frankenstein, and Theodore
Ziolkowski’s article "Science, Frankenstein, and Myth." To explore more of Davy’s work,
see his 1812 Elements
of Chemical Philosophy, via the Internet Archive. The image
above, from the British Museum, shows Scientific Researches!
New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! An Experimental Lecture on the Powers of
Air (1802) a satirical etching by James Gillray depicting Davy and
colleagues experimenting with nitrous oxide. - [AF]Lectures_in_ChemistryShelley references Humphry Davy and
his Discourse Introductory to a Course of Lectures in
Chemistry (1802). Here, both Victor and Davy are gesturing toward
the history of the development of the sciences by way of alchemy and
discussing the height to which science and discovery have come in the early
nineteenth century. Both suggest that while the views of the "ancient
teachers" of alchemy are now seen as unscientific, modern study began there:
"[The alchemists’] views of things have passed away, and a new science has
gradually arisen. The dim and uncertain twilight of discovery, which gave to
objects false or indefinite appearances, has been succeeded by the steady
light of truth, which has shown the external world in its distinct forms,
and in its true relations to human powers. The composition of the
atmosphere, and the properties of the gases, have been ascertained; the
phenomena of electricity have been developed; the lightnings have been taken
from the clouds; and, lastly, a new influence has been discovered, which has
enabled man to produce from combinations of dead matter effects which were
formerly occasioned only by animal organs" (Davy, "Discourse"
321). Note the reference at the end of this passage to
galvanism. - [TH]the_Microscope
While the idea of lenses and
magnification dates far back in time, the earliest known examples of
compound microscopes appeared in Europe around 1620, as explained in
David Bardell’s article “The Invention of the
Microscope." The inventor of the microscope is unknown, yet many
have claimed it--including Galileo. However, it wasn’t until Robert
Hooke (1635-1703) published Micrographia (1665) that the use of the
microscope became accepted and adopted by the scientific community. Hooke
held titles such as scientist, astronomer, philosopher, architect and
inventor, and was a polymath. In his book, Hooke describes in minute
detail the visions of insects, leaves, and other objects, accompanying
many of his descriptions with richly detailed illustrations. is work has
contributed to cell theories and even helped create the discipline of
paleontology. The image used is one of many that can be viewed, hosted by
the British Libraries online collection. - [AF]PenetrativeIn his Discourse Introductory to
a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802), Humphry Davy describes
the "penetrative" agency of the masculine scientist-explorer in virtually
identical terms. Davy’s writes, "Not contented with what is found upon
the surface of the earth, he has penetrated into her bosom, and has even
searched the bottom of the ocean for the purpose of allaying the
restlessness of his desires, or of extending and increasing his power."
Davy, going on to state that "[h]e [the modern chemist] is to a certain
extent the ruler of all the elements around him," emphasizes the almost
unlimited power and omnipotent will of the scientist: "he is capable of
using not only common matter according to his will and inclinations, but
likewise of subjecting to his purposes the ethereal principles of heat
and light. By his inventions they are elicited from the atmosphere; and
under his control they become, according to circumstances, instruments of
comfort and enjoyment, or of terror and destruction" (Davy,
"Discourses" 318). - [TH]Circulation_of_the_Blood
The circulation of the blood in
the body was first demonstrated by William Harvey (1578-1657) in the
early 17th century, though his seminal work on the subject, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in
Animalibus, was not published (in Latin) until 1628; the first
English translation appeared later. Harvey's theory derived from the
science of the Ancient Greek physician Galen, but he used direct
observation and experimentation--like vivisection--to illustrate and
explore his ideas. For more information, see William Harvey and the Circulation of the
Blood, an informational video produced by the Royal
College of Physicians (1971-72). For more information about anatomy
during the 16th and 17th centuries, see Anatomia Animata, a digital exhibit of works in
the Lilly Library of Indiana University. The image to the right,
via the Lilly Library exhibit, shows a page from Harvey's De Motu Cordis. - [TH]unlimited_powersThis language of “unlimited powers" refers an idea
perhaps best expressed in a letter from Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley in 1780. Franklin writes,
“It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried in a
thousand years, the power of man over matter. We may perhaps learn to
deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity, for
the sake of easy transport." This sentiment is reiterated in both
Godwin’s Political Justice and Humphry Davy’s
“Lectures on Chemistry." During this time science was thought to
be a source of unlimited powers. The idea that science was all powerful
forms an important context for Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley would have been very aware of
Franklin’s experiments with electricity. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft
was tutored Dr. Richard Price (a supporter of the American Revolution)
and uses the same publisher as Franklin, Joseph Johnson. Her father,
William Godwin, was a member of the Royal Society of London, of which
Franklin was also a member. For more information on the reach of Ben
Franklin’s experiments and his views of science, see Draw
the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in
the Age of Enlightenment by Michael Schiffer. - [AF]Ariosto
Victor references Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), an Italian poet from the 16th
century, when talking about Justine’s "frank-hearted and happy"
expression. In Orlando Furioso, the first 10 stanzas of Canto 10
describe the cause of female desirability as resistance and flight,
using in stanza 7 a classical hunting metaphor to do so: "So the keen
hunter follows up the hare / In heat and cold, on shore, or
mountain-height; / Nor, when 'tis taken, more esteems the prize; / And
only hurries after that which flies" (10.7.5-8). While it is not clear
that this is "the reason…[for] the beauty of Angelica," Ita Mac Carthy
points out in Women and the Making of Poetry in Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso (Chapter 3) that Angelica is the
"supreme object of [unattainable] desire" who repeatedly flees sexual
pursuit and generates the narrative of the poem. Her beauty is
described as angelic, and capable of making her suitors--like the
titular Orlando--lose their wits. In Ariosto’s epic romance, Angelica
is a pagan princess besought by many knights. The image here shows a
scene from Orlando Furioso of a man bending
over and holding the hand of a woman, presumably Angelica, who sits on
the ground beneath a tree, the trunk inscribed "ANCE MEDO," created by
Angelica Kauffman (1740-1807) and hosted by the British museum.
- [AF]cato
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95 BC-46 BC), also known as Cato
the Younger, was a Roman statesman known for his sense of justice and
fairness. Cato was immensely close to his brother, Caepio, and when his
brother passed, Cato spared no expense for his funeral. Clerval invokes
this sentiment when he tells Victor, "even Cato wept over the dead body
of his brother." Read more about Cato in Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives. The image of Cato, above, housed in the British Museum, is an
etching from Lucan's Pharsalia, Book IX (1718).
- [AF]ByronAn
allusion to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), a
somewhat autobiographical narrative poem in four cantos by Romantic poet George Gordon Lord Byron
(1788-1824), which "The poem tells of a disillusioned young man, a
melancholy, solitary, cynical ‘Byronic hero’, who tires of his sinful,
pleasure-seeking lifestyle and decides to travel" (British
Library). This line is from Canto III: But these recede. Above
me are the Alps,
The Palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned Eternity in icy halls
Of cold Sublimity, where forms and falls
The Avalanche—the thunderbolt of snow!
All that expands the spirit, yet appals,
Gather around these summits, as to show
How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. Read more about Byron's poem at The Guardian. - [TH]Switzerland_Frankenstein_Trail
Switzerland
is not only the setting of most of the novel but also the place that
inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. As
Switzerland was the birthplace of the novel, many people follow the
"Frankenstein Trail" and have written about the experience. See Tony
Perrottet’s article in
The New York Times and Nigel Richardson’s in
The Telegraph for wonderful descriptions of
the landscape and countryside. In honor of the 200th anniversary of the
novel, an art collective KLAT created and erected a bronze cast statue of
the Creature in the city of
Plainpolis. The image here is a panorama taken by Attila Terbócs of the view
of Geneva from the top of St. Peter’s Cathedral and it is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. In the summer of 1814, Mary Shelley and her then-lover,
Percy Shelley, travelled in secret to the continent, visiting France,
Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. The couple published a collection
of letters about their travels, titled History of a Six-Week Tour. In Letter II, Switzerland is
depicted as a place "with more equality of classes...than in England" (103);
this interest in the freer and more natural lives of the "lower orders"
(103) was also central to the Romantic ideology. As the discussion of the Six Week History on the
British Library website makes clear, this idea is "echoed in
chapter 6 of Frankenstein, where Elizabeth writes
‘the lower orders, being neither so poor nor so despised, their manners are
more refined and moral’." - [AF]RomanticismIn order to truly explain the Romantic imagery
throughout the text, one must have a full understanding of what constitutes
Romanticism. Romanticism has little to do with feelings of romance and more
to do with a philosophical way of thinking that prioritizes imagination,
nature, and the self. Romanticism began in England and Germany (two
countries not home to the romance languages begotten from Vulgar Latin),
most notably with the poets William
Wordsworth, John
Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The early Romantic period is one of
revolutionary thought heavily influenced with the American and French
revolutions. These revolutions are important to note as they changed the
political and individual structure and thought of their countries,
overthrowing monarchies and creating democracies. The Romantics valued
imagination over reason as the imagination was the primary method of
creation. Nature, to the Romantics, was a work of art created by the divine
imagination, full of symbolism and meaning. Nature plays a central symbolic
role in Frankenstein. Victor’s mood is often
reflected in the nature he observes around him, and once he creates the
Creature, he describes storms and ominous natural elements meant to instill
foreboding in the reader. However, nature is also beautiful and could only
be created by a higher power, so while it mimics Victor’s interior state of
duress, it is also a reminder that something is a more powerful and a better
creator than Victor, whose creation is “grotesque" and “malformed." To learn
more about Romanticism, read Glen Levin Swiggett’s article "What is
Romanticism?" or explore the British Library’s resources on Romanticism. - [AF]Gospel_of_Mark Frankenstein references a passage from Chapter 9 of
the Gospel of Mark,
in which Christ describes the wicked undergoing eternal torment in Hell:
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." This sentiment
is also reflected in Lord Byron’s The Bride of Abydos ("The worm that will not
sleep-- and never dies… That winds around and tears the quivering heart!"
[2.644-649]) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost (Satan’s torment is "th’undying
Worm" VI.739). - [AF]Satans_SoliloquyShelley alludes to Satan's soliloquy upon Mount
Niphates in Book IV of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton’s narrator
reflects upon Satan’s "dire Attempt" to cause the fall of humankind,
characterizing his wrath as "a devillish Engine [that] back recoiles / Upon
himself" (IV.17-18). Satan’s "Hell" is an internal, self-perpetuating engine
of doubt, pride, and torment recoiling upon itself; " within him Hell / He
brings, and round about him, nor from Hell / One step no more then from
himself can fly / By change of place" (IV.20-23). For more information about
the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the
overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and
Victorians" exhibit at the British Library. - [AF]Sorrows_of_Young_Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary novel by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774. The story follows
the life of Werther, a young artist, who is writing to his friend Wilhelm.
Werther falls in love with Charlotte, a woman already promised to his
friend, Albert. Despite the agony caused by this love triangle, Werther
cultivates a friendship with the couple, until the pain and sorrow of his
love overpowers him and he leaves. When Werther returns, he finds the
couple now married. He lessens his visits to Charlotte, out of respect
for her husband, but ultimately realizes that in order to resolve the
love triangle, he must die. He commits suicide, and the novel ends with
Charlotte potentially dying of a broken heart. The novel was an amazing
hit, creating a wave not only in literary circles but also across fashion
and society. As Patrick Devitt summarizes, "It was widely believed that von
Goethe’s work led to a wave of young men deciding to end their lives all
over Europe, many of whom were dressed in the same clothing as von
Goethe’s description of Werther and using similar pistols. Some even had
the copies of the novel beside their bodies with the page opened to the
page of the suicide scene." This became known as the "Werther Effect."The novel was banned in several countries,
only escalating its popularity. To learn more about the Werther Effect,
see David Phillips’
article in The American Sociological
Review. The image to the right shows the title page of the
first edition of Sorrows, via Wikimedia Commons.
Due to its unbridled passion, valuing human emotion over human life and
rational thought Sorrows was popular among the
Romantics. obvious influence over Mary Shelley’s novel, from the
epistolary format of Frankenstein to the
reflections on the value of life, not only in creating life but ending
life (Victor contemplates suicide and the Creature praises suicide).
Finally, Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a book of
unrequited love: Frankenstein’s bride is killed on their wedding night,
the Creature’s love is ripped apart by Frankenstein, and the Creature
never receives or love from another. Ultimately, the Creature most
identifies with Sorrows as he is desperate to feel
complete through love. By invoking Sorrows in
conjunction with her Creature, Shelley is both highlighting and
criticizing Goethe’s novel for the theme of love triumphing over all.
First, Shelley is critiquing Enlightenment
thinking by pointing out that problems cannot always be solved
using logic, especially in regards to building a human being as humans
are more than a series of automations or mechanical processes—humans are
emotional and unpredictable. In the same vein, Shelley is critiquing the
idea that love can be engineered to solve problems. Instead, she argues
the romantic idea of organically developing love, like that between Safi
and Felix, is desirable, unlike the engineered or arranged romances of
Frankenstein and Elizabeth (or the Creature’s partner to-be). To read
more on the reception and meanings within Sorrows
see Bruce Duncan’s Goethe’s ‘Werther’ and the Critics. For
the influence Sorrows on Frankenstein, see Joyce Carol Oates’’Frankenstein’s Fallen
Angel, Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The
Birth, Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster
(especially
"Case 8: The Monster’s Books"), and Clayton Koelb’s The Revivifying Word: Literature, Philosophy, and the
Theory of Life in Europe's Romantic Age (especially "Chapter
8: "I sickened as I read": Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein"). - [AF]
Prometheus (1750 illustration of Prometheus Attacked by an Eagle by
René-Michel Slodtz pictured from the Melbourne Museum) is a Greek trickster
Titan known as "Forethought". In one myth, Prometheus created man, but in the
more common myth, Prometheus protected man by tricking Zeus out of a prize
sacrifice of meat and giving it to humans. Zeus then prevented humans from
accessing fire, which Prometheus gave to humans by hiding it inside a
fennel-stalk. This slight against Zeus caused Zeus the Olympian to punish
Prometheus dearly; in one instance he is tied to a rock and his liver is
continually eaten and replenished every day.
While Frankenstein was being published, Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote a closet drama about the myth entitled Prometheus Unbound which can be read at
Poetry Foundation. In Shelley’s poem Zeus falls from power, allowing
Prometheus to escape his fetters. This poem is a response to Aeschylus’ drama Prometheus Bound, one of the
first classical tragedies that pits Zeus’ power against Prometheus’ ego. A full-text
version of the Aeschelus play is available at the Internet Classics
Archive. Victor Frankenstein--the "modern Prometheus"--is more akin to
the Prometheus of Aeschylus’ drama, a creator who finds his creation
"wretched." Frankenstein is very different from the Hesiodic understanding of
Prometheus, which,
as Norman Austin notes in Meaning and Being in
Myth, saw him as a benefactor and caretaker, not a creator who
abandoned his creation (77).
- [AF]epigraph
This epigraph quotes
Paradise Lost (X.743-745), where Adam
laments his expulsion from Eden. Milton’s epic poem is one of many texts
that had a profound effect on Mary Shelley. Its influence can be seen
throughout the novel, particularly in relation to the creature’s
self-education, and it is one of the books that he finds and reads while he
is living near the De Lacey’s cottage (Volume II, Chapter 7). When the
creature confronts Victor Frankenstein, his "Maker," he compares himself to
Adam (Volume II, Chapter 2). For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein,
see John Lamb’s "Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the
overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and
Victorians" exhibit at the British Library .
- [AF]paradise_lost John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank verse about the fall of man. Milton’s poem is an important intertext--even, as BBC Britain’s Benjamin Ramm notes, the inspiration, for Shelley. The Romantics placed importance in feeling and nature, and Milton epitomized that throughout his poem, showing the the evolution of human consciousness and the building up of the human spirit. The independence and individuality he gives to Satan creates sympathy for a hated stock character, redeeming him in the reader’s eyes. This in turn projects the idea of redemption of the spirit through internal means, removing the need for deliverance through an omnipotent being. See more in The Oxford Handbook of Milton by Nicholas McDowell. At the beginning of Paradise Lost, Milton states that the purpose of the poem is to "justifie the wayes of God to men" (I.26). This idea speaks to Shelley’s themes of free will and theodicy. The story of Paradise Lost is felt acutely by Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, and many allusions to it appear throughout the text. An interesting juxtaposition of religious thought to her scientific filled novel, Mary Shelley combines the contemporary understanding of science with an obvious allusion to the religious folly and fall of man. For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see Burton Pollin’s Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein, John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth", and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library. - [AF]publisher
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, was published
by the Lackington firm, founded by James Lackington in 1774. Advertised as "The
Cheapest Bookseller in the World," Lackington's business--which both sold and
lent books as well as published them--capitalized on a new, middle-class
reading public. In 1791, the bookseller moved from Chiswell Street to a large
purpose-built store in Finsbury Square, dubbed "The Temple of the Muses"--above
the entrance, an inscription advertised "The Cheapest Books in the World."
Lackington's 1799-1800 catalog, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, boasted nearly 300,000 volumes
available for sale. In 1789, the founder's cousin, George Lackington, took over
operations, and it was here that Shelley's book was sold. William St. Clair,
in The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period,
describes the publication of Frankenstein.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's husband and noted Romantic poet, arranged the
initial printing with Lackington & Co., which was known to specialize in
books about magic and the supernatural. Turned down by other publishers, likely
for reasons of self-censorship, Frankenstein found a
home at Lackington's. The first run--at 500 copies--was relatively small for
such a well-known shop, but the book was popular and sold well; St. Clair notes
that the first edition of Frankenstein "made more money
than all [Percy] Shelley's works were to fetch in his lifetime" (360). The book
was published anonymously, though because the publishing contract was
negotiated by Percy Shelley, early
reviewers assumed he had authored it, as Germaine Greer suggests. The
image above, from the British Library, shows an 1809 engraving by Rudolph
Ackermann depicting the interior of "Messrs. Lackington Allen & Co: Temple
of the Muses, Finsbury Square."
- [TH]date
The first edition of Frankenstein was written while
Mary Shelley was in the prime of her life, but it was published in January of
1818, shortly after she buried her first child. The second edition, published
in 1831, came after the loss of her husband, most of her children, and her
family. There are many differences between the two texts, which can be viewed in Dana
Wheeles’ public Juxta collation. One of the main structural differences between
the texts is the loss of the three volumes found in the 1818 edition. In the
1831 edition, after the first four letters, the chapters are numbered 1-24,
which not only removes the multiple volumes but also obscures the separated
narratives of Victor, the Creature, and Walton. Another noticeable difference
comes from the removal of the epigraph from Milton’s Paradise
Lost, which, in the beginning of the 1818 edition, announces the key
theme of the novel. Its removal from the 1831 edition obscures the importance
of the allusions to Milton’s work throughout the novel. In the newly-added forward to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley wrote, somewhat
disingenuously, "I have changed no portion of the story, nor introduced any new
ideas or circumstances." Shelley in fact makes many changes that drastically
change the interpretation and meaning of the text.
First, many of the scientific ideas written about in the 1818 edition are
removed, detaching the novel from an intellectual context and further pressing
it into the fantastical. Shelley also removes many of Elizabeth’s more
independent thoughts about women’s rights as well as her indictment of the
justice system in regards to Justine. Finally, one of the largest differences
between the editions is Victor Frankenstein’s character. Whereas in the 1818
edition, Victor’s own hubris is to blame for the outcome of the Creature, in
the 1831 edition, Victor is at the mercy of fate or chance.
To explore more about the differences between the editions, see Jill Lepore’s
article in The New Yorker, "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein", Jacqueline Foertsch’s The Right, the Wrong, and the
Ugly: Teaching Shelley's Several "Frankensteins", or James O’Rourke’s
"The 1831 Introduction
and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates
Her Legacy. To explore visual differences between the texts, see the
Shelley-Godwin Archive, which compares facsimiles of the original
manuscripts, and Brigit Katz’ article for The Smithsonian
Magazine, "‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s
Monster."
- [AF]william_godwin
Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to her father, William
Godwin, the well known author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Caleb Williams.
William Godwin was an anarchist and supporter of the French Revolution, and many
of his theories of absolute sovereignty are alluded to within the text of
Frankenstein. Shelley learned much from her father’s library growing up, and thus
was highly influenced by her father’s beliefs. To learn more about Godwin, read
Chapter 4 of Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The Birth,
Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster, "Mary’s Father, William
Godwin". To learn more about Godwin’s influence on Frankenstein, listen to the University of Oxford’s podcast on the
matter. The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, is a painting by Henry William
Pickersgill, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. - [AR]political_justice Published in 1793, William Godwin’s
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on
Morals and Happiness is a philosophical text concerning
politics. Written after the French Revolution, a ten-year period of political
upheaval in France culminating in the overthrow of the monarchy and the
creation of a republic, Godwin’s Enquiry also responds
to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in
France and Thomas Paine’s Rights of
Man--specifically, on questions of authority. Godwin wrote the Enquiry to advocate for the Enlightenment project of
social improvement. His radical writing resonated deeply with Romantic authors,
especially Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley. For a more
in-depth look at how this work affected the authors of the Romantic Period see
Andrew McCann’s "William Godwin:
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and
Manners", and for more information about Godwin’s influence on Mary
Shelley, see an online exhibit Shelley’s Ghost, developed by the
Bodleian Libraries. - [AF]caleb_williamsPublished in May 1794, Things As They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb
Williams tells the story of an impoverished young man named
Caleb Williams, who learns that his wealthy employer, Ferdinando Falkland, is
guilty of murder. When Falkland realizes that Caleb suspects him, he falsely
accuses Caleb of attempted robbery, forcing him to flee the estate. Throughout
the novel, Caleb is accused of various crimes, pursued, robbed, beaten,
arrested, and convicted, but manages ultimately to escape captivity. The novel
is a pointed critique of the English judicial system, particularly its abuse of
power, and continues to develop themes that Godwin presented in his 1793
philosophical treatise, An Enquiry concerning Political
Justice. For a detailed examination of Godwin’s writings and an
overview of Godwinian scholarship, see Pamela Clemit’s "Revisiting William Godwin" from Oxford Handbooks Online. - [AR]mary_shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in
London, England, to William
Godwin and famed feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft—the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Mary had a
difficult upbringing, as her mother died shortly after her birth and her father
remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont, who had a tenuous relationship with Mary. Mary
was never formally educated but read many of her father’s books and was introduced
to many influential writers like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Mary, while on a trip to Scotland visiting family friends, met and fell in love
with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married and also a student of her
father. The two eloped in 1814 and travelled around Europe. It was in Switzerland,
with a cohort made up of the Shelleys, Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John
Polidori, where Mary first began Frankenstein one rainy afternoon during a ghost
story writing exercise. Frankenstein was published in 1818
anonymously with a foreword by Percy Shelley, whom many people assumed wrote the
novel. The novel was a huge success, and is now often considered the first science
fiction novel. After the success of her first novel, Shelley continued to write
but her personal life declined rapidly. She lost three children in her lifetime,
her half-sister committed suicide, and her marriage, riddled with affairs, ended
in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia. Mary died at 53 of brain
cancer on February 1, 1851 in London, England. She was buried at St. Peter's Church in
Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of her late husband's heart.
The portrait of Shelley included above, painted by Richard Rothwell (1840), is
housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. - [TH]event
Frankenstein was created on a rainy afternoon in 1816 when
Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley), Percy Bysshe
Shelley, Lord Byron, and others were vacationing in Geneva. Lord Byron suggested
a gothic ghost story contest to alleviate their cabin fever--as 1816 was known as
the "year without a summer" due to a volcanic explosion in the Dutch East Indies, causing a long winter in
most of the world. After working their way through established German ghost
stories, the group decided to try their hand at writing their own. For more
information on the circumstances of the creation of Frankenstein and how it affected the development of the text, see
Marshall Brown’s "Frankenstein":
A Child’s Tale", and for images of
Shelley’s manuscript for Frankenstein see the Shelley-Godwin Archive. - [AF]erasmus_darwin
Erasmus
Darwin (1731-1802), grandfather of Charles Darwin, was a physician and
poet (pictured above is a reprint in the National Portrait Gallery, London by
Joseph Wright based on a work from the 1770’s). An industrialist, free thinker,
and inventor, he is well known for his for his classification novel, Zoonomia, Or, The Laws Of Organic Life which
created classes and categories for animals, and discussed pathology, anatomy, and
psychology. His works influenced many Romantic authors, such as William
Wordsworth, who referenced Darwin in "The Tale of Goody Blake and Harry Gill." For more information, see
Gavin Budge’s article "Erasmus Darwin and the Poetics of William Wordsworth: ‘Excitement without the
Application of Gross and Violent Stimulants’". A radical thinker for the
time, Erasmus Darwin posited the development of life from "one living filament"
(Section XXXIX, Line 8); Darwin’s arguments would later be seen precursors to the
theory of evolution. Darwin also wrote poetry about nature and science, most
notably, The
Loves of the Plants, Economy of
Vegetation, and The Temple
of Nature. His views on living organisms and the creation of life
gives authority to] Victor’s ability to create life and offers a litmus for the
Romantic era skepticism about "playing God." For more information on Erasmus
Darwin in general see Michon Scott’s website Strange Science; to
see Darwin’s influence on both Romantic and Victorian writers, see Thomas Hart’s
article on The
Victorian Web. - [AF]iliadThe Iliad, composed in approximately
the 9th century BCE, is an epic poem in elevated and formal verse, narrating the
events that occurred in the ninth year of the attack on Troy. The story begins
with Agamemnon, the wanax of Mycenae and commander of the
various independent Achaean kingdoms, insulting Achilles. Turmoil ensues among the
Achaeans, who have been laying siege to the City of Troy for nearly ten years. The
story includes the death of Achilles’ closest friend Patroclus, which causes
Achilles to defeat and defile his murderer, Hector, Prince of Troy. The story
concludes with Achilles surrendering Hector’s body to King Priam, father of
Hector, and his recognition of a kinship between them through grief. See MIT’s
full text version
of The Iliad translated by Samuel Butler. - [AF]tragedyTragedy is an elevated literary form that originated in ancient Greece. According
to Aristotle’s Poetics, "Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action
that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language
enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different
parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and
through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions."
(1449b), Romantic authors were greatly influenced by the ancient tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides,
however they often turned the genre on its head. While tragedy in the original
sense featured a hero of noble birth, the Romantics, like Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, preferred to consider the common man. Often, Romantics
turned the argument inward, invoking Shakespeare’s tragedies in lieu of Ancient
ones (Macbeth,Hamlet, Othello). - [AF]william_shakespeare William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of the greatest writers
in the English language, known for composing 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long
narrative poems (pictured above is a digital print of Earl of Warwick’s 1623 first
folio of William Shakespeare’s works via the Folger Shakespeare Library).
Shakespeare’s works, known for his innovative, vivid use of language and his
exploration of individual subjectivity, were of special interest to the Romantics.
As Jonathan Bate argues in Shakespeare and the English
Romantic Imagination (1989), the idea of natural genius and the
veneration of the creative imagination was essential to the Romantic ideology, and
Shakespeare became a key sign of natural creative genius. The "bardolatry" that
began in the mid-eighteenth century, particularly through the actor David Garrick’s (1717-1779) energies,
came to a head in the Romantic era, and has in many ways persisted to this day.
For more information on the role of Shakespeare in the Romantic era, see Bate’s
important monograph as well as Joseph M. Ortiz’s
edited collection, Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism
. Mary Shelley would have been familiar with his works both through
her education at the hands of her father, William Godwin, and through her close
relationship with Byron, Shelley, Polidori, and other Romantics. Godwin, with his second wife Mary Jane Clairmont, created and published works
in a juvenlie library series for the improvement of young readers’ imaginations
that included, among histories of Greece and bible stories, Tales From Shakespeare.. All of these authors influenced her
writing, and Shakespeare colored her entire life; Shelley had lines from The Tempest carved into her husband’s tombstone. To read
more about Shakespeare’s influence on Mary Shelley’s life and writing see Robert
Sawyer’s article "Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations" or David Lee Clark’s
article, "Shelley and
Shakespeare". For a full list of Shakespeare’s works, as well as
summaries and criticisms, see the Folger Shakespeare
Library. - [AF]tempestThe Tempest
is a comedy written in 1610 by William
Shakespeare telling the story of the banished Duke of Milan, Prospero,
who has recreated his home on an island using magic--and usurped the native
inhabitants of the island to do so, imprisoning Sycorax and enslaving her son,
Caliban. Prospero causes the shipwreck of the King of Naples, Alonso, and his
brother, Antonio, who, twelve years earlier had conspired for Prospero’s position
thus banishing him from the kingdom. During the tale, Miranda, Prospero’s
daughter, and Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, fall in love, but must survive the tests
placed upon them by Prospero. Other castaways from the shipwreck land on the
island and conspire to destroy Prospero but in the end common ground and love
triumph. Explore more of the text on the Folger Shakespeare
Library. - [AF]midsummer
Midsummer Night’s
Dream
(1595) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. A play within a play, the story
is set in a fairyland Athenian forest during the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of
Athens, to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. The play’s complex subplots
involve a variety of complementary stories. The play opens with a love triangle
between Hermia, who is in love with Lysander but is being forced to marry
Demetrius by her father Egeus. Helena, Hermia’s best friend is in love with
Demetrius. On another side of the story are the "Rude Mechanicals," a group of six
skilled laborers who are planning a performance of Pyramus and
Thisbe. The last subplot involves the king and queen of the fairies,
Oberon and Titania, who are in an argument over a small child Titania is
protecting from Oberon. Oberon, in his frustration over Titania’s disobedience,
sends his sprite, Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, to create a love potion to shame
Titania into obedience. Puck wreaks havoc on all the characters, causing the men
to fall in love with Helena and rebuff Hermia, turning Bottom part donkey, and
prompting Titania to fall in love with Bottom. During this confusion, Oberon
steals the child from Titania, upon which success he orders Puck to set everything
straight. The play concludes with the Mechanicals’ inexpert play-within-a-play,
staged for the marriage festivities of Theseus and Hippolyta. Explore more about
the text at the Folger
Shakespeare Library or see David Wiles Shakespeare and Carnival: After Bakhtin,
especially chapter 4, "The Carnivalesque in A Midsummer Night's Dream." The image
here is Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing by
William Blake (1786) hosted by Tate Britain. - [AF]john_miltonJohn Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known
for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank
Encyclopedia
Britannica. The image included here is a portrait of Milton (1690) by
Godfrey Kneller, via Wikimedia Commons. - [TH]novelThroughout the eighteenth century, the
novel as a modern form of entertainment accessible to a wide, middling-class, and
generally-educated audience grew. For more information on the "humble" novel, see John Mullan's "The Rise of the Novel" at the British Library. - [TH]time
According to a footnote in the 3rd Broadview
edition of Frankenstein, or; The Modern
Prometheus, the novel takes place in 1796. If this is true,
the entire tale takes place around the date of the author's birth and her
mother Mary Wollstonecraft's death.
- [AF]artic
According to Kathryn Shultz in "Literature's Arctic
Obsession," Shelley--like many during the early nineteenth
century--was intrigued by the prospect of arctic exploration, as her frequent
allusions to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and her letters make
clear. While Shelley may have added the arctic setting as "an afterthought"
after reading about attempts to discover the long-elusive Northwest passage, by
the time Frankenstein was published, two major
expeditions were underway; the Passage would be discovered in 1850 after many
deaths on the ice. As Shultz notes, "the book reminded readers that their world
was already full of Dr. Frankensteins." For further reading, see
"'A Paradise of My Own Creation': Frankenstein and the Improbable Romance of
Polar Expedition," by Jessica Richard. The image above, via WikiMedia
Commons, shows a portrait (c.1833) of the explorer John Ross (1777-1856).
- [TH]electromagnetism
url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Br%C3%BAjula_azimutal_espa%C3%B1ola_s.XVIII_%28M.A.N._Madrid%29_01.jpg/506px-Br%C3%BAjula_azimutal_espa%C3%B1ola_s.XVIII_%28M.A.N._Madrid%29_01.jpg"
/> From the 13th through the 19th centuries, scholars and scientists were
investigating the nature of electromagnetism, though, as noted in the
American Physical Society newsletter of July 2008, most people thought
they were separate forces. The Economy of Vegetation, a 1791 poem by Erasmus
Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather, speculates on the nature of
electromagnetism (see canto 2 lines 193ff). In 1820, two years after the
publication of Frankenstein, Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted discovered
that electric current could produce a magnetic effect on a compass, which
normally points due north--toward the Earth’s magnetic core. For more
information on Darwin’s influence in the late eighteenth century, see Jenny Uglow’s review of his work in The
Guardian The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows an
eighteenth-century compass of Spanish origin. - [TH]enthusiasmEnthusiasm is an important concept in the development of
Romanticism. Deriving from the Greek word "enthous," meannig possessed or
inspired by a god, the concept of enthusiasm was linked to religious fanaticism (particularly Methodism) during the early
eighteenth century and described by philosophers like Locke and Hume as an
error in thinking that reason and reflection could correct. Enthusiasm was
also, however, understood as the ability to "see the truth transparently and
spontaneously without mediation" (Mee 8). Jon Mee, in Romanticism, Enthusiasm, and
Regulation, goes on to note: "Although it was often associated
with the sort of implosion of the self that came from the prophet retiring into
the wilderness, a species of melancholia and gloomy introspection, it was also
routinely construed in terms of the delirium of the senses that manifested
itself in the mania of the crowd" (10-11). Closely related to concepts of
imagination and fancy, enthusiasm is a complex term that suggests many of the
negative aspects of the Romantic sensibility. For Wordsworth and Coleridge,
enthusiasm is a kind of corruption of or detour in the imagination (Mee 12).
- [TH]HomerHomer is the figure credited
with the composition of two epic poems, The Iliad and
The Odyssey, considered to be the first extant works
of Greek literature. Though modern scholarship questions the existence of a
single person called "Homer," the idea of such authorship has had an enduring
interpretive effect from ancient times to the present. Known as the "Father of
Western Literature," Homer is credited with a number of hymns and lesser works
in addition to The Iliad and The
Odyssey. If such an individual existed, scholars have suggested his
floruit as anywhere between the 9th to 7th centuries BCE. To learn more about
Homer, see Suzanne Saïd’s entry in the Oxford Classical
Dictionary. - [AF]the_Mariner
In this excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (451- 456),
the Mariner has killed the albatross and the other sailors turn on him, viewing
his act of violence as a sin against God and nature. The luck of the ship
dissipates, and they are becalmed on the ocean. The Mariner watches as each of
the sailors die of thirst, while he alone is saved. This direct allusion
highlights the similarities between the Mariner and Frankenstein, who are both
reeling after accomplishing their respective goals--killing the albatross and
creating a sentient being--and both in the process of telling their stories.
The use of the quote is two-fold; it highlights Frankenstein’s isolation and
his decision to abandon his creature, but it also juxtaposes the Mariner’s
violence with Frankenstein’s act of creation. Explore more about Coleridge’s
poem in William Christie’s “The Search for
Meaning in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,". See Michelle Levy’s
article, “Discovery and the
Domestic Affections in Coleridge and Shelley," for a discussion of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s influence on Mary Shelley. - [AF]Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner
This is a reference to Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem,
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge’s
most famous poem is a tale narrated by an ancient sailor returned from a
long, ambitious journey during which, having shot and killed an
albatross, all other members of the crew die and the mariner is cursed.
The poem foregrounds the act of storytelling; the mariner with his "strange power of speech" (587) is compelled to tell his story,
and others, due to its fantastical nature, are compelled to pay
attention. The 1876 illustration above, via the University of Adelaide, depicts the Ancient Mariner telling
his tale to the Wedding Guest, who "cannot chuse but to hear" (18). To
learn more about Coleridge’s poem, published as the opening poem in Lyrical Ballads
, read Seamus Perry’s introduction at the British Library. - [AF]Plain_work"Plain work" here refers to sewing and needlework that
is "plain," as opposed to "fancy." Caroline Beaufort, however, is also
making money by taking orders for piece work, which refers to any work paid
for "by the piece" or according to what is produced, like modern factory
work. - [TH]cousin_marriageMarriage between cousins was a common practice in
history, often deployed to maintain family property and wealth. Read more
about marriage between cousins in Adam Kuper’s Incest and
Influence especially the Coda, or his
article in Past and Present "Incest, Cousin Marriage, and
the Origin of the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century England." In
the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza,
is Victor’s first cousin on his father’s side; however, in the 2nd edition
of 1831, Mary Shelley revises this plot point to make Elizabeth an unknown
orphan and no longer related to the Frankensteins. She is instead rescued by
Victor Frankenstein’s mother. To learn more of Mary Shelley’s revisions
between the first and second editions see the annotation linked to the
publication date in the Preface of the novel, or head to Dana Wheeles’ Juxta
Commons comparison
of the 1818 and 1831 editions of Frankenstein.
- [AF]fancyFancy and imaginagion are important concepts in that shifted in meaning
througout the eighteenth century, being associated with mental creativity
and wit. For William Wordsworth, fancy is, like the imagination, a force for
association and creation; in his Preface of 1815, he writes that fancy is
"capricious as the accidents of things... Fancy depends upon the rapidity
and profusion with which she scatters her thoughts and images" (xxxiv-xxxv). Fancy is more "given to quicken and to beguile the temporal
part of our nature," while "Imagination [works] to incite and to support the
eternal" (xxxv). For Coleridge, fancy is inferior to imagination, lighter,
and is more like wit in terms of its power to make connections between
ideas; Coleridge explores the distinctions between primary imagination,
secondary imagination, and fancy in Book 13 of Biographia
Literaria (1817). For a good general historical overview, see Fancy and Imagination (1969) by R. L. Brett.
- [TH]chivalric_romanceChivalric romance, according Oxford Reference, is a genre of literature that began in
Medieval Europe and flourished into the 17th century. Chivalric romances,
usually written in poetic verse, tell stories of the great deeds of
knight-errantry. Chivalry, in particular, refers to "an idealized code of
civilized behaviour that combines loyalty, honour, and courtly love." These
sorts of stories were often called "romans," from which the word "romance"
derives. Formally loose or episodic in structure, heroic romances written in
later periods "deliberately eschew[ed] contemporaneity"; their plots
featured courtly lovers engaged in "heroic stories of love and war in a
remote and idealized past" (1046), as Shellinger states in the Encyclopedia of the Novel. Some representative heroic
romances include Euphues by John Lyly, L'Astrée by Honore d'Urfé, Artamène by Madame de Scudéry, Orlando
Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, and Amadís de
Gaula by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. Romance of this sort declined
in popularity during the 18th century, but during the Romantic period--so
named by later scholars for its turn toward these very romantic ideals of
individualism, heroism, and the imagination--such stories were revived. For
a fuller discussion of the origins and meaning of the word "romantic" see
Michael
Ferber’s Romanticism: A Very Short Introduction
(3-7), and for a broader overview of the medieval genre, see the Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on Romance. - [TH]Orlando_Furioso
Orlando
Furioso is an epic poem published in 1532 by the Italian
poet Ludovico Arisoto, and an example of the "books of chivalry and romance"
that Clerval enjoys. Set in the 8th century, Orlando
Furioso tells the story of the protagonist Orlando, leader of the
Christian knights, fighting the so-called Saracens for
control of Europe during the reign of Charlemagne (Charles I). As the first
lines of the poem point out, its subject is "Dames, knights, and arms, and
love! The deeds that spring / From courteous minds, and venturous feats"
(1.1-2). The chivalric romance combines realism and fantasy throughout its
46 cantos. First published in English translation in 1591, Orlando Furioso is a source for Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. While the story is episodic, one
of the most important plots focuses on Orlando’s dangerous passion for the
pagan princess Angelica, which is the cause of his titular madness. The
image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows Ruggiero
Rescuing Angelica (1818-1819), painted by Jean Auguste Domininque
Ingres. Ariosto’s tale was also famously
illustrated by the late nineteenth-century artist Gustave Doré.
- [AF]Robin_Hood Robin Hood is a legendary outlaw who stole from the rich
to give to the poor. Numerous ballads have been written about the character,
who may have been based on a real
person. Robin Hood lived the true heroic code, protecting women,
supporting the lowly, and remained faithful to the monarch. Read more about
Robin Hood in Howard Pyle’s The Merry
Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the more popular
adaptations of the legend written in 1883. The photograph above, by RichardUK2014 via Wikimedia Commons, shows a relief plaque
outside Nottingham Castle ostensibly illustrating King Richard the Lionheart
marrying Robin Hood and Maid Marian. - [AF]Amadis_de_Gaula
Amadís de
Gaula is a prose romance composed in Spain or Portugal in the 13th
or 14th century (title page of the 1533 Spanish edition by Olaf Simons
pictured above). The story’s protagonist is Amadís, the bravest and most
just of knights, who falls in love with Oriana, the daughter of Lisuarte,
the king of England. Amadís is an orphan who was separated from his English
parents at birth, but through this hardship becomes a better man. Arthurian
in nature, the story is one of chivalry, though more chaste and romanticized
than the Celtic tales of knights it was most likely based on. According to
Romantic Circles, Mary Shelley was reading Robert Southey’s
translation of the poem while writing Frankenstein.
The full text of the 1520
edition printed by Juan Cromberger can be found online at the
National Library of Spain. - [AF]St._George St. George, a converted Roman soldier martyred for his
newfound Christian faith, is often depicted slaying a dragon, a symbolic
rendering of the triumph of Christianity over evil. Not only is St. George
the patron saint of England, but by the 14th century, he had been declared
both the patron saint and protector of the royal family. For
more information on St. George, see Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry collected by Thomas Percy and edited by D.L.
Ashliman. Pictured above is Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1432) by Rogier
van Der Weyden from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- [AF]Natural_PhilosophyNatural
Philosophy is the study of nature through a philosophical lens. The
two canonical discussions of natural philosophy occur in Aristotle’s On the
Heavens, Meteorology, and On
Generation and Corruption. In the eighteenth century,
natural philosophy was a form of science with an emphasis on scientific
inquiry, but in the Romantic period, it was seen as a method of unifying
physical nature with the spiritual. As Michael Manson and Robert Scott
Stewart point out in Heroes and Hideousness: "Frankenstein" and Failed Unity, natural
philosophy fueled the Romantic idea of the natural world as a giant
organism, in stark contrast to the Enlightenment, which saw the natural
world as more like a mechanical machine. For more information about natural
philosophy and its influence on Frankenstein, see
Patricia Fara’s "Hidden depths: Halley, Hell and Other People" or Rebecca Baumann’s
"Mad
Science." - [AF]Cornelius_Agrippa
Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) was a German alchemist and scholar.
He studied both medicine and law but did not receive a degree in either. His
most well-known work is the three-volume De Occulta Philosophiae, a defense
of "hidden philosophy" or magic, drawing from alchemy, astrology, and
Kabbalah. A later work, De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum (Of the Uncertainty and Vanity of the
Sciences), attacks contemporary renaissance scientific theory and
practice. To read more about his philosophy see his intellectual biography
in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The
engraved portrait of Agrippa above, via Wikimedia Commons, is housed at the
U.S. National Library of Medicine. - [NPD]Chimerical Chimeric or chimerical was defined by
Samuel Johnson in his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language as
"A vain and wild fancy, as remote from reality as the existence of the
poetical Chimera, a monster feigned to have the
head of a lion, the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon." The
image here is a 1590–1610 drawing of a chimera attributed to Jacopo Ligozzi
(1547–1627) hosted on Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Paracelsus
Paracelsus, the adopted name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus
Bombastus von Hohenheim (1490-1541), was Swiss physician, alchemist, and
astrologer of the German Renaissance. He studied medicine and homeopathic
cures for disease, as well as alchemy and metals. A free thinker, he
believed in learning from more than just academics, and stressed experience
as a model for learning. To learn more about Paracelsus’ scientific and
medical advancements in the medieval ages see Joseph Borzelleca’s "Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology". Pictured here is Paracelsus by Quentin Matsys from the Musée du Louvre,
via Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Albertus_Magnus
Albertus
Magnus (c. 1200-1280), teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, was a German
Catholic Dominican Friar. He was canonized a saint in 1931 (despite
contemporaries considering him neglectful of theology for sorcery), has been
referred to as the one of the greatest German philosophers and theologians
of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished as one of the 36 Doctors for the
Catholic Church. A student of many disciplines, influenced by Aristotle, and
a prolific writer, he composed 38
volumes encompassing many topics such as logic, theology, botany,
geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology,
phrenology, justice, and law. Albertus’ work represents the entire body of
theological and philosophical knowledge during his time. His influence on
natural science is most important as he brought Aristotelian knowledge of
nature to the forefront as well as increasing knowledge through his
experiments promoting the idea that Christian faith and experimental science
were not hostile to one another. For more information on the alchemical
sciences, see the Hay Library exhibit on the evolution of modern chemistry and
the archived Getty Library colloquium on the "Art of Alchemy." To explore more of Albertus Magnus’ works see
the Beinecke Library’s digital edition of his "Alchemical Miscellany." For more information on the role of
alchemy and science in Frankenstein, see Alan Rauch’s Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the
March of Intellect (2001), especially chapter 3, "The
Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Frankenstein" Pictured
above is Vincenzo Onofri’s bust of Sant’ Alberto Magno (c. 1493), via
Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Philosophers_StoneIn the study of alchemy, ""the
Philosopher’s Stone" is sometimes referred to as the 5th element
(the other four being earth, water, fire, and air). The Stone was understood
to turn base metals into gold, and it was thought to be able to create an
elixir of life. The Stone has been referenced throughout literature from the
Middle Ages to modern popular culture, from Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Yeoman’s
Tale" to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Prior to the
conception of the Creature, Victor's fascination with this stone and its
apparent abilities highlights his willingness to step out of the human realm
and into the realm of the divine by "penetrating the secrets of nature"
(Shelley 38). Outside of Frankenstein, much has been
written about alchemy and the Philosopher’s Stone, but Stanton Linden’s Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to
the Restoration gives an overview of the history of alchemy
in literature. To read a book of alchemy from 1754, see The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius, by
M. de Burigny. - [AF]Economy_of_VegetationThis is a direct reference to Erasmus
Darwin’s poem, the Economy of
Vegetation, which explores the new technological
innovations and scientific discoveries of the early nineteenth century. In
Darwin’s paean to "unconquer’d steam!" (289), he imagines it "[dragging] the
slow barge, or [driving] the rapid car;/ Or on wide-waving wings…[bearing]/
The flying-chariot through the fields of air" (290-292). His poems were
helpful to the Romantics’ exploration of science as he combined poetry, the
epitome of feeling, with scientific ideas. To see more of Darwin’s influence
on the Romantics, see D. King-Hele’s book, Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets. - [AF]Boyles_Law
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), the first modern chemist and originator
of Boyle’s Law--which describes the inversely proportional
relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas--performed
experiments in the seventeenth century involving air-pumps, better known
today as vacuum pumps. Boyle’s pumps were created to his specific dimensions
by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) (also known for the bringing the use of
microscopes into the community of scientists). In his (1662) book, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air,
and its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical
Engine), Boyle detailed all of his air-pump experiments,
most notably Experiment 41, in which he studied the reactions of animals to
a vacuum. In Experiment 41, Boyle placed birds, mice, and other small
creatures into the air pump and slowly removed the air to prove the
necessity of respiration. While watching a lark in one reiteration of the
experiment, he observed: "…the Bird for a while appear'd lively enough; but
upon a greater Exsuction of the Air, she began manifestly to droop and
appear sick, and very soon after was taken with as violent and irregular
Convulsions, as are wont to be observ'd in Poultry, when their heads are
wrung off: For the Bird threw her self over and over two or three times, and
dyed with her Breast upward, her Head downwards, and her Neck awry" (cite
page 98). These experiments intrigued the public. Joseph Wright’s
(1734-1797) oil paintings imagined these experiments as subjects of
middle-class, domestic education. To read more about Robert Boyle, see
Thomas Birch’s biography from 1772, The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle.
Shelagh Stephenson’s (1955-) play An Experiment With an Air Pump", a play
revolving around two overlapping plots 100 years apart which highlight the
lack of empathy scientific thought has over human emotions and affections.
- [AF]The_Swiss_AlpsThe Swiss Alps (including the Central
and the Bernese Alps) are a region in central Europe with expansive
mountains, considered both beautiful and dangerous, that span most the
southern and eastern area of Switzerland. The Jura are a range of mountains
in the northwest following the France-Switzerland border forming the
watersheds for both the Rhone and Rhine basins. These two ranges make up the
majority of the natural setting within the novel. Among the peaks named in
the novel are Mont Blanc (the highest), Mole, and Mont Saleve. Montanvert is
also part of the Alps, but is the eighteenth-century name for Mer de Glace,
a glacier on the Mont Blanc massif. Romantic artists--including Percy Shelley, Coleridge, J.M.W. Turner, and
others--frequently visited, wrote about, and painted this sublime
landscape. The image here shows landscape artist Francis Towne’s
(1739-1816) Arveyron River on the Mer de Glace
(1781), via Wikimedia Commons. See more works depicting the area described in Frankenstein in Richard Stephens’ Catalogue Raisonné of Francis
Towne. - [AF]Ben_Franklin_experiments This is a direct allusion to
experiments performed by Benjamin Franklin and other scientists during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ben Franklin was a contemporary of Mary
Shelley’s parents, and he influenced the world of politics, culture, and
science. Well-known inventing bifocals, Franklin is also associated in the
popular imagination with his electrical experiments involving keys, storms,
and kites. Contrary to popular belief, Franklin did not discover
electricity, but he connected electrical conduits through substances like
water and metal, and he understood that electricity can be held and
discharged. Read more about his electrical experiment at The
Franklin Institute. Franklin’s experiments with electricity were
the precursor to Galvani’s and Volta’s experiments with electricity and
galvanism. These two scientists sought to prove that electricity could
animate deceased matter, namely frogs, but went so far as to momentarily
animate the bodies of beheaded criminals. To learn more about these
experiments, read Alan Brown’s "The
Science That Made Frankenstein." This is not the first time
electrical experiments had been referenced in literature; Erasmus Darwin,
whose works are alluded to in Frankenstein often
referenced Franklin, in his Economy of Vegetation.
Darwin describes Franklin as taming lightning through his invention of the
lightning rod, for instance: "-Led by the
phosphor-light, with daring tread/ Immortal Franklin sought the fiery
bed;/ Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds/ His embryon
Thunders in circumfluent clouds" (Canto 2.2 355-358). To explore
more about Darwin, see Stephen Foster’s addition to the
Victorian Web; to learn more about the science of Frankenstein, see Sharon Ruskin’s article from the British Library. The image used is a comic from
Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham hosted on Scientific American. - [AF]University_of_Ingolstadt
Victor Frankenstein attends the University
of Ingolstadt, a university founded in 1472, known for its focus on
the natural sciences. The university had a massive chemistry laboratory and
one of the finest operating theatres at the time Frankenstein was written,
making it a perfect setting for his experiments. Ingolstadt is located in Germany, within the Free State of
Bavaria. In the eighteenth century, an intellectual
movement for the reconstruction of European society was centered in
the city. Mary Shelley would have been aware of this, and the significance
of the change of European society may have been the perfect historical
setting for a tale calling into question freedom, status, and autonomy. The
image here shows an Italian operating theatre built in the sixteenth century
to give an example of what the operating theatre may have looked like to
Victor Frankenstein. The image was taken by Kalibos and is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. - [AF]Old_Familiar_FacesThis is a direct allusion to Charles Lamb’s
(1775-1834) poem, "Old Familiar Faces", a poem about Lamb looking back on his life
through the lens of nostalgia. Victor uses the allusion at this point in the
text because he is retelling his story from a similar place once he leaves
his family and friends, will never find them or return to them the same way
again. - [AF]Sir_Humphrey_Davy
Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) was a
Cornish scientist as well as poet, and according to Richard Holmes’ "Humphrey Davy
and the Chemical Moment," is best known today for his work on
nitrous oxide (which he coined "laughing gas"), his use of the Voltaic battery to resolve new
elements, sodium and potassium; his innovations in agricultural chemistry
and animal tanning; his invention of the arc light; and above all for his
design of the miner's safety lamp. He was the first Englishman knighted for service to science since Sir Issac
Newton and the first professional chemist to be elected President of the
Royal Society of London. Mary Shelley was intimately aware of Sir Humphrey
Davy, as he knew Coleridge, Wordsworth, and her father William Godwin.
Explore more of her background with these iconic figures in the NIH’s
History of Medicine Exhibit, Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of
Nature. Percy Shelley, Mary’s husband, was also interested in
the work of Sir Humphrey Davy. In school he was a political and religious radical, having been expelled from Oxford
for supposedly writing a pamphlet denouncing the existence of God, he turned himself to Davy’s work.
The Shelleys were seduced by the study of galvanism, a branch of natural
philosophy discovered by Luigi
Galvani (1737-1798) who investigated the effect of electricity on
animal limbs. Sir Humphrey Davy corroborated the discovery and supported the
theory in a speech given to the Royal Society of London. Davy’s influence
can be found in all of the science of Frankenstein;
however, he is most obviously the inspiration for M. Waldman, Victor’s
mentor. Many of M. Waldman’s scientific ideas are very similar to Davy’s,
and Shelley frequently alludes to his 1802 Discourse
Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802; collected in
this accessible 1839 edition). Frankenstein is filled with allusions to Davy’s works. To read more
about Davy and his influence on the Shelleys, see Sharon Ruston’s literary
critique, Shelley and
Vitality, the Smithsonian Institute’s exhibition The Body Electric: Inspiring Frankenstein, and Theodore
Ziolkowski’s article "Science, Frankenstein, and Myth." To explore more of Davy’s work,
see his 1812 Elements
of Chemical Philosophy, via the Internet Archive. The image
above, from the British Museum, shows Scientific Researches!
New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! An Experimental Lecture on the Powers of
Air (1802) a satirical etching by James Gillray depicting Davy and
colleagues experimenting with nitrous oxide. - [AF]Lectures_in_ChemistryShelley references Humphry Davy and
his Discourse Introductory to a Course of Lectures in
Chemistry (1802). Here, both Victor and Davy are gesturing toward
the history of the development of the sciences by way of alchemy and
discussing the height to which science and discovery have come in the early
nineteenth century. Both suggest that while the views of the "ancient
teachers" of alchemy are now seen as unscientific, modern study began there:
"[The alchemists’] views of things have passed away, and a new science has
gradually arisen. The dim and uncertain twilight of discovery, which gave to
objects false or indefinite appearances, has been succeeded by the steady
light of truth, which has shown the external world in its distinct forms,
and in its true relations to human powers. The composition of the
atmosphere, and the properties of the gases, have been ascertained; the
phenomena of electricity have been developed; the lightnings have been taken
from the clouds; and, lastly, a new influence has been discovered, which has
enabled man to produce from combinations of dead matter effects which were
formerly occasioned only by animal organs" (Davy, "Discourse"
321). Note the reference at the end of this passage to
galvanism. - [TH]the_Microscope While the idea of lenses and
magnification dates far back in time, the earliest known examples of
compound microscopes appeared in Europe around 1620, as explained in
David Bardell’s article “The Invention of the
Microscope." The inventor of the microscope is unknown, yet many
have claimed it--including Galileo. However, it wasn’t until Robert
Hooke (1635-1703) published Micrographia (1665) that the use of the
microscope became accepted and adopted by the scientific community. Hooke
held titles such as scientist, astronomer, philosopher, architect and
inventor, and was a polymath. In his book, Hooke describes in minute
detail the visions of insects, leaves, and other objects, accompanying
many of his descriptions with richly detailed illustrations. is work has
contributed to cell theories and even helped create the discipline of
paleontology. The image used is one of many that can be viewed, hosted by
the British Libraries online collection. - [AF]PenetrativeIn his Discourse Introductory to
a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802), Humphry Davy describes
the "penetrative" agency of the masculine scientist-explorer in virtually
identical terms. Davy’s writes, "Not contented with what is found upon
the surface of the earth, he has penetrated into her bosom, and has even
searched the bottom of the ocean for the purpose of allaying the
restlessness of his desires, or of extending and increasing his power."
Davy, going on to state that "[h]e [the modern chemist] is to a certain
extent the ruler of all the elements around him," emphasizes the almost
unlimited power and omnipotent will of the scientist: "he is capable of
using not only common matter according to his will and inclinations, but
likewise of subjecting to his purposes the ethereal principles of heat
and light. By his inventions they are elicited from the atmosphere; and
under his control they become, according to circumstances, instruments of
comfort and enjoyment, or of terror and destruction" (Davy,
"Discourses" 318). - [TH]Circulation_of_the_Blood The circulation of the blood in
the body was first demonstrated by William Harvey (1578-1657) in the
early 17th century, though his seminal work on the subject, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in
Animalibus, was not published (in Latin) until 1628; the first
English translation appeared later. Harvey's theory derived from the
science of the Ancient Greek physician Galen, but he used direct
observation and experimentation--like vivisection--to illustrate and
explore his ideas. For more information, see William Harvey and the Circulation of the
Blood, an informational video produced by the Royal
College of Physicians (1971-72). For more information about anatomy
during the 16th and 17th centuries, see Anatomia Animata, a digital exhibit of works in
the Lilly Library of Indiana University. The image to the right,
via the Lilly Library exhibit, shows a page from Harvey's De Motu Cordis. - [TH]unlimited_powersThis language of “unlimited powers" refers an idea
perhaps best expressed in a letter from Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley in 1780. Franklin writes,
“It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried in a
thousand years, the power of man over matter. We may perhaps learn to
deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity, for
the sake of easy transport." This sentiment is reiterated in both
Godwin’s Political Justice and Humphry Davy’s
“Lectures on Chemistry." During this time science was thought to
be a source of unlimited powers. The idea that science was all powerful
forms an important context for Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley would have been very aware of
Franklin’s experiments with electricity. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft
was tutored Dr. Richard Price (a supporter of the American Revolution)
and uses the same publisher as Franklin, Joseph Johnson. Her father,
William Godwin, was a member of the Royal Society of London, of which
Franklin was also a member. For more information on the reach of Ben
Franklin’s experiments and his views of science, see Draw
the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in
the Age of Enlightenment by Michael Schiffer. - [AF]Ariosto
Victor references Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), an Italian poet from the 16th
century, when talking about Justine’s "frank-hearted and happy"
expression. In Orlando Furioso, the first 10 stanzas of Canto 10
describe the cause of female desirability as resistance and flight,
using in stanza 7 a classical hunting metaphor to do so: "So the keen
hunter follows up the hare / In heat and cold, on shore, or
mountain-height; / Nor, when 'tis taken, more esteems the prize; / And
only hurries after that which flies" (10.7.5-8). While it is not clear
that this is "the reason…[for] the beauty of Angelica," Ita Mac Carthy
points out in Women and the Making of Poetry in Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso (Chapter 3) that Angelica is the
"supreme object of [unattainable] desire" who repeatedly flees sexual
pursuit and generates the narrative of the poem. Her beauty is
described as angelic, and capable of making her suitors--like the
titular Orlando--lose their wits. In Ariosto’s epic romance, Angelica
is a pagan princess besought by many knights. The image here shows a
scene from Orlando Furioso of a man bending
over and holding the hand of a woman, presumably Angelica, who sits on
the ground beneath a tree, the trunk inscribed "ANCE MEDO," created by
Angelica Kauffman (1740-1807) and hosted by the British museum.
- [AF]cato
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95 BC-46 BC), also known as Cato
the Younger, was a Roman statesman known for his sense of justice and
fairness. Cato was immensely close to his brother, Caepio, and when his
brother passed, Cato spared no expense for his funeral. Clerval invokes
this sentiment when he tells Victor, "even Cato wept over the dead body
of his brother." Read more about Cato in Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives. The image of Cato, above, housed in the British Museum, is an
etching from Lucan's Pharsalia, Book IX (1718).
- [AF]ByronAn
allusion to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), a
somewhat autobiographical narrative poem in four cantos by Romantic poet George Gordon Lord Byron
(1788-1824), which "The poem tells of a disillusioned young man, a
melancholy, solitary, cynical ‘Byronic hero’, who tires of his sinful,
pleasure-seeking lifestyle and decides to travel" (British
Library). This line is from Canto III: But these recede. Above
me are the Alps,The Palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned Eternity in icy halls
Of cold Sublimity, where forms and falls
The Avalanche—the thunderbolt of snow!
All that expands the spirit, yet appals,
Gather around these summits, as to show
How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. Read more about Byron's poem at The Guardian. - [TH]Switzerland_Frankenstein_Trail
Switzerland
is not only the setting of most of the novel but also the place that
inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. As
Switzerland was the birthplace of the novel, many people follow the
"Frankenstein Trail" and have written about the experience. See Tony
Perrottet’s article in
The New York Times and Nigel Richardson’s in
The Telegraph for wonderful descriptions of
the landscape and countryside. In honor of the 200th anniversary of the
novel, an art collective KLAT created and erected a bronze cast statue of
the Creature in the city of
Plainpolis. The image here is a panorama taken by Attila Terbócs of the view
of Geneva from the top of St. Peter’s Cathedral and it is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. In the summer of 1814, Mary Shelley and her then-lover,
Percy Shelley, travelled in secret to the continent, visiting France,
Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. The couple published a collection
of letters about their travels, titled History of a Six-Week Tour. In Letter II, Switzerland is
depicted as a place "with more equality of classes...than in England" (103);
this interest in the freer and more natural lives of the "lower orders"
(103) was also central to the Romantic ideology. As the discussion of the Six Week History on the
British Library website makes clear, this idea is "echoed in
chapter 6 of Frankenstein, where Elizabeth writes
‘the lower orders, being neither so poor nor so despised, their manners are
more refined and moral’." - [AF]RomanticismIn order to truly explain the Romantic imagery
throughout the text, one must have a full understanding of what constitutes
Romanticism. Romanticism has little to do with feelings of romance and more
to do with a philosophical way of thinking that prioritizes imagination,
nature, and the self. Romanticism began in England and Germany (two
countries not home to the romance languages begotten from Vulgar Latin),
most notably with the poets William
Wordsworth, John
Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The early Romantic period is one of
revolutionary thought heavily influenced with the American and French
revolutions. These revolutions are important to note as they changed the
political and individual structure and thought of their countries,
overthrowing monarchies and creating democracies. The Romantics valued
imagination over reason as the imagination was the primary method of
creation. Nature, to the Romantics, was a work of art created by the divine
imagination, full of symbolism and meaning. Nature plays a central symbolic
role in Frankenstein. Victor’s mood is often
reflected in the nature he observes around him, and once he creates the
Creature, he describes storms and ominous natural elements meant to instill
foreboding in the reader. However, nature is also beautiful and could only
be created by a higher power, so while it mimics Victor’s interior state of
duress, it is also a reminder that something is a more powerful and a better
creator than Victor, whose creation is “grotesque" and “malformed." To learn
more about Romanticism, read Glen Levin Swiggett’s article "What is
Romanticism?" or explore the British Library’s resources on Romanticism. - [AF]Gospel_of_Mark Frankenstein references a passage from Chapter 9 of
the Gospel of Mark,
in which Christ describes the wicked undergoing eternal torment in Hell:
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." This sentiment
is also reflected in Lord Byron’s The Bride of Abydos ("The worm that will not
sleep-- and never dies… That winds around and tears the quivering heart!"
[2.644-649]) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost (Satan’s torment is "th’undying
Worm" VI.739). - [AF]Satans_SoliloquyShelley alludes to Satan's soliloquy upon Mount
Niphates in Book IV of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton’s narrator
reflects upon Satan’s "dire Attempt" to cause the fall of humankind,
characterizing his wrath as "a devillish Engine [that] back recoiles / Upon
himself" (IV.17-18). Satan’s "Hell" is an internal, self-perpetuating engine
of doubt, pride, and torment recoiling upon itself; " within him Hell / He
brings, and round about him, nor from Hell / One step no more then from
himself can fly / By change of place" (IV.20-23). For more information about
the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the
overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and
Victorians" exhibit at the British Library. - [AF]Sorrows_of_Young_Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary novel by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774. The story follows
the life of Werther, a young artist, who is writing to his friend Wilhelm.
Werther falls in love with Charlotte, a woman already promised to his
friend, Albert. Despite the agony caused by this love triangle, Werther
cultivates a friendship with the couple, until the pain and sorrow of his
love overpowers him and he leaves. When Werther returns, he finds the
couple now married. He lessens his visits to Charlotte, out of respect
for her husband, but ultimately realizes that in order to resolve the
love triangle, he must die. He commits suicide, and the novel ends with
Charlotte potentially dying of a broken heart. The novel was an amazing
hit, creating a wave not only in literary circles but also across fashion
and society. As Patrick Devitt summarizes, "It was widely believed that von
Goethe’s work led to a wave of young men deciding to end their lives all
over Europe, many of whom were dressed in the same clothing as von
Goethe’s description of Werther and using similar pistols. Some even had
the copies of the novel beside their bodies with the page opened to the
page of the suicide scene." This became known as the "Werther Effect."The novel was banned in several countries,
only escalating its popularity. To learn more about the Werther Effect,
see David Phillips’
article in The American Sociological
Review. The image to the right shows the title page of the
first edition of Sorrows, via Wikimedia Commons.
Due to its unbridled passion, valuing human emotion over human life and
rational thought Sorrows was popular among the
Romantics. obvious influence over Mary Shelley’s novel, from the
epistolary format of Frankenstein to the
reflections on the value of life, not only in creating life but ending
life (Victor contemplates suicide and the Creature praises suicide).
Finally, Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a book of
unrequited love: Frankenstein’s bride is killed on their wedding night,
the Creature’s love is ripped apart by Frankenstein, and the Creature
never receives or love from another. Ultimately, the Creature most
identifies with Sorrows as he is desperate to feel
complete through love. By invoking Sorrows in
conjunction with her Creature, Shelley is both highlighting and
criticizing Goethe’s novel for the theme of love triumphing over all.
First, Shelley is critiquing Enlightenment
thinking by pointing out that problems cannot always be solved
using logic, especially in regards to building a human being as humans
are more than a series of automations or mechanical processes—humans are
emotional and unpredictable. In the same vein, Shelley is critiquing the
idea that love can be engineered to solve problems. Instead, she argues
the romantic idea of organically developing love, like that between Safi
and Felix, is desirable, unlike the engineered or arranged romances of
Frankenstein and Elizabeth (or the Creature’s partner to-be). To read
more on the reception and meanings within Sorrows
see Bruce Duncan’s Goethe’s ‘Werther’ and the Critics. For
the influence Sorrows on Frankenstein, see Joyce Carol Oates’’Frankenstein’s Fallen
Angel, Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The
Birth, Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster
(especially
"Case 8: The Monster’s Books"), and Clayton Koelb’s The Revivifying Word: Literature, Philosophy, and the
Theory of Life in Europe's Romantic Age (especially "Chapter
8: "I sickened as I read": Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein"). - [AF][title page]
FRANKENSTEIN;
OR,
THE MODERN PROMETHEUS.prometheus
prometheus
Prometheus (1750 illustration of Prometheus Attacked by an Eagle by
René-Michel Slodtz pictured from the Melbourne Museum) is a Greek trickster
Titan known as "Forethought". In one myth, Prometheus created man, but in the
more common myth, Prometheus protected man by tricking Zeus out of a prize
sacrifice of meat and giving it to humans. Zeus then prevented humans from
accessing fire, which Prometheus gave to humans by hiding it inside a
fennel-stalk. This slight against Zeus caused Zeus the Olympian to punish
Prometheus dearly; in one instance he is tied to a rock and his liver is
continually eaten and replenished every day.
While Frankenstein was being published, Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote a closet drama about the myth entitled Prometheus Unbound which can be read at
Poetry Foundation. In Shelley’s poem Zeus falls from power, allowing
Prometheus to escape his fetters. This poem is a response to Aeschylus’ drama Prometheus Bound, one of the
first classical tragedies that pits Zeus’ power against Prometheus’ ego. A full-text
version of the Aeschelus play is available at the Internet Classics
Archive. Victor Frankenstein--the "modern Prometheus"--is more akin to
the Prometheus of Aeschylus’ drama, a creator who finds his creation
"wretched." Frankenstein is very different from the Hesiodic understanding of
Prometheus, which,
as Norman Austin notes in Meaning and Being in
Myth, saw him as a benefactor and caretaker, not a creator who
abandoned his creation (77).
- [AF]
IN THREE VOLUMES
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me? epigraph epigraph This epigraph quotes Paradise Lost (X.743-745), where Adam laments his expulsion from Eden. Milton’s epic poem is one of many texts that had a profound effect on Mary Shelley. Its influence can be seen throughout the novel, particularly in relation to the creature’s self-education, and it is one of the books that he finds and reads while he is living near the De Lacey’s cottage (Volume II, Chapter 7). When the creature confronts Victor Frankenstein, his "Maker," he compares himself to Adam (Volume II, Chapter 2). For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library .
- [AF] PARADISE LOST.paradise_lost paradise_lost John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank verse about the fall of man. Milton’s poem is an important intertext--even, as BBC Britain’s Benjamin Ramm notes, the inspiration, for Shelley. The Romantics placed importance in feeling and nature, and Milton epitomized that throughout his poem, showing the the evolution of human consciousness and the building up of the human spirit. The independence and individuality he gives to Satan creates sympathy for a hated stock character, redeeming him in the reader’s eyes. This in turn projects the idea of redemption of the spirit through internal means, removing the need for deliverance through an omnipotent being. See more in The Oxford Handbook of Milton by Nicholas McDowell. At the beginning of Paradise Lost, Milton states that the purpose of the poem is to "justifie the wayes of God to men" (I.26). This idea speaks to Shelley’s themes of free will and theodicy. The story of Paradise Lost is felt acutely by Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, and many allusions to it appear throughout the text. An interesting juxtaposition of religious thought to her scientific filled novel, Mary Shelley combines the contemporary understanding of science with an obvious allusion to the religious folly and fall of man. For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see Burton Pollin’s Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein, John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth", and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library. - [AF]
VOL. I.
London:
PRINTED FOR
LACKINGTON, HUGHES, HARDING, MAVOR, & JONESpublisher publisher
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, was published
by the Lackington firm, founded by James Lackington in 1774. Advertised as "The
Cheapest Bookseller in the World," Lackington's business--which both sold and
lent books as well as published them--capitalized on a new, middle-class
reading public. In 1791, the bookseller moved from Chiswell Street to a large
purpose-built store in Finsbury Square, dubbed "The Temple of the Muses"--above
the entrance, an inscription advertised "The Cheapest Books in the World."
Lackington's 1799-1800 catalog, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, boasted nearly 300,000 volumes
available for sale. In 1789, the founder's cousin, George Lackington, took over
operations, and it was here that Shelley's book was sold. William St. Clair,
in The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period,
describes the publication of Frankenstein.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's husband and noted Romantic poet, arranged the
initial printing with Lackington & Co., which was known to specialize in
books about magic and the supernatural. Turned down by other publishers, likely
for reasons of self-censorship, Frankenstein found a
home at Lackington's. The first run--at 500 copies--was relatively small for
such a well-known shop, but the book was popular and sold well; St. Clair notes
that the first edition of Frankenstein "made more money
than all [Percy] Shelley's works were to fetch in his lifetime" (360). The book
was published anonymously, though because the publishing contract was
negotiated by Percy Shelley, early
reviewers assumed he had authored it, as Germaine Greer suggests. The
image above, from the British Library, shows an 1809 engraving by Rudolph
Ackermann depicting the interior of "Messrs. Lackington Allen & Co: Temple
of the Muses, Finsbury Square."
- [TH],
FINSBURY SQUARE.
1818.date date The first edition of Frankenstein was written while Mary Shelley was in the prime of her life, but it was published in January of 1818, shortly after she buried her first child. The second edition, published in 1831, came after the loss of her husband, most of her children, and her family. There are many differences between the two texts, which can be viewed in Dana Wheeles’ public Juxta collation. One of the main structural differences between the texts is the loss of the three volumes found in the 1818 edition. In the 1831 edition, after the first four letters, the chapters are numbered 1-24, which not only removes the multiple volumes but also obscures the separated narratives of Victor, the Creature, and Walton. Another noticeable difference comes from the removal of the epigraph from Milton’s Paradise Lost, which, in the beginning of the 1818 edition, announces the key theme of the novel. Its removal from the 1831 edition obscures the importance of the allusions to Milton’s work throughout the novel. In the newly-added forward to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley wrote, somewhat disingenuously, "I have changed no portion of the story, nor introduced any new ideas or circumstances." Shelley in fact makes many changes that drastically change the interpretation and meaning of the text. First, many of the scientific ideas written about in the 1818 edition are removed, detaching the novel from an intellectual context and further pressing it into the fantastical. Shelley also removes many of Elizabeth’s more independent thoughts about women’s rights as well as her indictment of the justice system in regards to Justine. Finally, one of the largest differences between the editions is Victor Frankenstein’s character. Whereas in the 1818 edition, Victor’s own hubris is to blame for the outcome of the Creature, in the 1831 edition, Victor is at the mercy of fate or chance. To explore more about the differences between the editions, see Jill Lepore’s article in The New Yorker, "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein", Jacqueline Foertsch’s The Right, the Wrong, and the Ugly: Teaching Shelley's Several "Frankensteins", or James O’Rourke’s "The 1831 Introduction and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates Her Legacy. To explore visual differences between the texts, see the Shelley-Godwin Archive, which compares facsimiles of the original manuscripts, and Brigit Katz’ article for The Smithsonian Magazine, "‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s Monster." - [AF]
OR,
THE MODERN PROMETHEUS.prometheus
prometheus
Prometheus (1750 illustration of Prometheus Attacked by an Eagle by
René-Michel Slodtz pictured from the Melbourne Museum) is a Greek trickster
Titan known as "Forethought". In one myth, Prometheus created man, but in the
more common myth, Prometheus protected man by tricking Zeus out of a prize
sacrifice of meat and giving it to humans. Zeus then prevented humans from
accessing fire, which Prometheus gave to humans by hiding it inside a
fennel-stalk. This slight against Zeus caused Zeus the Olympian to punish
Prometheus dearly; in one instance he is tied to a rock and his liver is
continually eaten and replenished every day.
While Frankenstein was being published, Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote a closet drama about the myth entitled Prometheus Unbound which can be read at
Poetry Foundation. In Shelley’s poem Zeus falls from power, allowing
Prometheus to escape his fetters. This poem is a response to Aeschylus’ drama Prometheus Bound, one of the
first classical tragedies that pits Zeus’ power against Prometheus’ ego. A full-text
version of the Aeschelus play is available at the Internet Classics
Archive. Victor Frankenstein--the "modern Prometheus"--is more akin to
the Prometheus of Aeschylus’ drama, a creator who finds his creation
"wretched." Frankenstein is very different from the Hesiodic understanding of
Prometheus, which,
as Norman Austin notes in Meaning and Being in
Myth, saw him as a benefactor and caretaker, not a creator who
abandoned his creation (77).
- [AF]
IN THREE VOLUMESDid I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me? epigraph epigraph This epigraph quotes Paradise Lost (X.743-745), where Adam laments his expulsion from Eden. Milton’s epic poem is one of many texts that had a profound effect on Mary Shelley. Its influence can be seen throughout the novel, particularly in relation to the creature’s self-education, and it is one of the books that he finds and reads while he is living near the De Lacey’s cottage (Volume II, Chapter 7). When the creature confronts Victor Frankenstein, his "Maker," he compares himself to Adam (Volume II, Chapter 2). For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library .
- [AF] PARADISE LOST.paradise_lost paradise_lost John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank verse about the fall of man. Milton’s poem is an important intertext--even, as BBC Britain’s Benjamin Ramm notes, the inspiration, for Shelley. The Romantics placed importance in feeling and nature, and Milton epitomized that throughout his poem, showing the the evolution of human consciousness and the building up of the human spirit. The independence and individuality he gives to Satan creates sympathy for a hated stock character, redeeming him in the reader’s eyes. This in turn projects the idea of redemption of the spirit through internal means, removing the need for deliverance through an omnipotent being. See more in The Oxford Handbook of Milton by Nicholas McDowell. At the beginning of Paradise Lost, Milton states that the purpose of the poem is to "justifie the wayes of God to men" (I.26). This idea speaks to Shelley’s themes of free will and theodicy. The story of Paradise Lost is felt acutely by Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, and many allusions to it appear throughout the text. An interesting juxtaposition of religious thought to her scientific filled novel, Mary Shelley combines the contemporary understanding of science with an obvious allusion to the religious folly and fall of man. For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see Burton Pollin’s Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein, John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth", and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library. - [AF]
VOL. I.
London:
PRINTED FOR
LACKINGTON, HUGHES, HARDING, MAVOR, & JONESpublisher publisher
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, was published
by the Lackington firm, founded by James Lackington in 1774. Advertised as "The
Cheapest Bookseller in the World," Lackington's business--which both sold and
lent books as well as published them--capitalized on a new, middle-class
reading public. In 1791, the bookseller moved from Chiswell Street to a large
purpose-built store in Finsbury Square, dubbed "The Temple of the Muses"--above
the entrance, an inscription advertised "The Cheapest Books in the World."
Lackington's 1799-1800 catalog, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, boasted nearly 300,000 volumes
available for sale. In 1789, the founder's cousin, George Lackington, took over
operations, and it was here that Shelley's book was sold. William St. Clair,
in The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period,
describes the publication of Frankenstein.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's husband and noted Romantic poet, arranged the
initial printing with Lackington & Co., which was known to specialize in
books about magic and the supernatural. Turned down by other publishers, likely
for reasons of self-censorship, Frankenstein found a
home at Lackington's. The first run--at 500 copies--was relatively small for
such a well-known shop, but the book was popular and sold well; St. Clair notes
that the first edition of Frankenstein "made more money
than all [Percy] Shelley's works were to fetch in his lifetime" (360). The book
was published anonymously, though because the publishing contract was
negotiated by Percy Shelley, early
reviewers assumed he had authored it, as Germaine Greer suggests. The
image above, from the British Library, shows an 1809 engraving by Rudolph
Ackermann depicting the interior of "Messrs. Lackington Allen & Co: Temple
of the Muses, Finsbury Square."
- [TH], FINSBURY SQUARE.
1818.date date The first edition of Frankenstein was written while Mary Shelley was in the prime of her life, but it was published in January of 1818, shortly after she buried her first child. The second edition, published in 1831, came after the loss of her husband, most of her children, and her family. There are many differences between the two texts, which can be viewed in Dana Wheeles’ public Juxta collation. One of the main structural differences between the texts is the loss of the three volumes found in the 1818 edition. In the 1831 edition, after the first four letters, the chapters are numbered 1-24, which not only removes the multiple volumes but also obscures the separated narratives of Victor, the Creature, and Walton. Another noticeable difference comes from the removal of the epigraph from Milton’s Paradise Lost, which, in the beginning of the 1818 edition, announces the key theme of the novel. Its removal from the 1831 edition obscures the importance of the allusions to Milton’s work throughout the novel. In the newly-added forward to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley wrote, somewhat disingenuously, "I have changed no portion of the story, nor introduced any new ideas or circumstances." Shelley in fact makes many changes that drastically change the interpretation and meaning of the text. First, many of the scientific ideas written about in the 1818 edition are removed, detaching the novel from an intellectual context and further pressing it into the fantastical. Shelley also removes many of Elizabeth’s more independent thoughts about women’s rights as well as her indictment of the justice system in regards to Justine. Finally, one of the largest differences between the editions is Victor Frankenstein’s character. Whereas in the 1818 edition, Victor’s own hubris is to blame for the outcome of the Creature, in the 1831 edition, Victor is at the mercy of fate or chance. To explore more about the differences between the editions, see Jill Lepore’s article in The New Yorker, "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein", Jacqueline Foertsch’s The Right, the Wrong, and the Ugly: Teaching Shelley's Several "Frankensteins", or James O’Rourke’s "The 1831 Introduction and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates Her Legacy. To explore visual differences between the texts, see the Shelley-Godwin Archive, which compares facsimiles of the original manuscripts, and Brigit Katz’ article for The Smithsonian Magazine, "‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s Monster." - [AF]
![Page [title page]](https://anthologyassetsdev.lib.virginia.edu/shelley-frankenstein-1818/pageImages/vol1/0.0001.jpg)
Page [title page]Footnotes
prometheus_
Prometheus (1750 illustration of Prometheus Attacked by an Eagle by
René-Michel Slodtz pictured from the Melbourne Museum) is a Greek trickster
Titan known as "Forethought". In one myth, Prometheus created man, but in the
more common myth, Prometheus protected man by tricking Zeus out of a prize
sacrifice of meat and giving it to humans. Zeus then prevented humans from
accessing fire, which Prometheus gave to humans by hiding it inside a
fennel-stalk. This slight against Zeus caused Zeus the Olympian to punish
Prometheus dearly; in one instance he is tied to a rock and his liver is
continually eaten and replenished every day.
While Frankenstein was being published, Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote a closet drama about the myth entitled Prometheus Unbound which can be read at
Poetry Foundation. In Shelley’s poem Zeus falls from power, allowing
Prometheus to escape his fetters. This poem is a response to Aeschylus’ drama Prometheus Bound, one of the
first classical tragedies that pits Zeus’ power against Prometheus’ ego. A full-text
version of the Aeschelus play is available at the Internet Classics
Archive. Victor Frankenstein--the "modern Prometheus"--is more akin to
the Prometheus of Aeschylus’ drama, a creator who finds his creation
"wretched." Frankenstein is very different from the Hesiodic understanding of
Prometheus, which,
as Norman Austin notes in Meaning and Being in
Myth, saw him as a benefactor and caretaker, not a creator who
abandoned his creation (77).
Prometheus (1750 illustration of Prometheus Attacked by an Eagle by
René-Michel Slodtz pictured from the Melbourne Museum) is a Greek trickster
Titan known as "Forethought". In one myth, Prometheus created man, but in the
more common myth, Prometheus protected man by tricking Zeus out of a prize
sacrifice of meat and giving it to humans. Zeus then prevented humans from
accessing fire, which Prometheus gave to humans by hiding it inside a
fennel-stalk. This slight against Zeus caused Zeus the Olympian to punish
Prometheus dearly; in one instance he is tied to a rock and his liver is
continually eaten and replenished every day.
While Frankenstein was being published, Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley’s husband, wrote a closet drama about the myth entitled Prometheus Unbound which can be read at
Poetry Foundation. In Shelley’s poem Zeus falls from power, allowing
Prometheus to escape his fetters. This poem is a response to Aeschylus’ drama Prometheus Bound, one of the
first classical tragedies that pits Zeus’ power against Prometheus’ ego. A full-text
version of the Aeschelus play is available at the Internet Classics
Archive. Victor Frankenstein--the "modern Prometheus"--is more akin to
the Prometheus of Aeschylus’ drama, a creator who finds his creation
"wretched." Frankenstein is very different from the Hesiodic understanding of
Prometheus, which,
as Norman Austin notes in Meaning and Being in
Myth, saw him as a benefactor and caretaker, not a creator who
abandoned his creation (77).
epigraph_
This epigraph quotes
Paradise Lost (X.743-745), where Adam
laments his expulsion from Eden. Milton’s epic poem is one of many texts
that had a profound effect on Mary Shelley. Its influence can be seen
throughout the novel, particularly in relation to the creature’s
self-education, and it is one of the books that he finds and reads while he
is living near the De Lacey’s cottage (Volume II, Chapter 7). When the
creature confronts Victor Frankenstein, his "Maker," he compares himself to
Adam (Volume II, Chapter 2). For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein,
see John Lamb’s "Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the
overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and
Victorians" exhibit at the British Library .
paradise_lost_
John
Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known for
Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem
in blank verse about the fall of man. Milton’s poem is an important
intertext--even, as BBC Britain’s Benjamin Ramm notes, the inspiration, for
Shelley. The Romantics placed importance in feeling and nature, and
Milton epitomized that throughout his poem, showing the the evolution of
human consciousness and the building up of the human spirit. The
independence and individuality he gives to Satan creates sympathy for a
hated stock character, redeeming him in the reader’s eyes. This in turn
projects the idea of redemption of the spirit through internal means,
removing the need for deliverance through an omnipotent being. See more
in The
Oxford Handbook of Milton by Nicholas McDowell.
At the beginning of Paradise Lost, Milton states
that the purpose of the poem is to "justifie the wayes of God to men"
(I.26). This idea speaks to Shelley’s themes of free will and theodicy.
The story of Paradise Lost is felt acutely by
Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, and many allusions to it appear
throughout the text. An interesting juxtaposition of religious thought to
her scientific filled novel, Mary Shelley combines the contemporary
understanding of science with an obvious allusion to the religious folly
and fall of man. For more information about the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see Burton Pollin’s Philosophical and Literary
Sources of Frankenstein, John Lamb’s "Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth", and the overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics
and Victorians" exhibit at the British Library.
publisher_
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, was published
by the Lackington firm, founded by James Lackington in 1774. Advertised as "The
Cheapest Bookseller in the World," Lackington's business--which both sold and
lent books as well as published them--capitalized on a new, middle-class
reading public. In 1791, the bookseller moved from Chiswell Street to a large
purpose-built store in Finsbury Square, dubbed "The Temple of the Muses"--above
the entrance, an inscription advertised "The Cheapest Books in the World."
Lackington's 1799-1800 catalog, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, boasted nearly 300,000 volumes
available for sale. In 1789, the founder's cousin, George Lackington, took over
operations, and it was here that Shelley's book was sold. William St. Clair,
in The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period,
describes the publication of Frankenstein.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's husband and noted Romantic poet, arranged the
initial printing with Lackington & Co., which was known to specialize in
books about magic and the supernatural. Turned down by other publishers, likely
for reasons of self-censorship, Frankenstein found a
home at Lackington's. The first run--at 500 copies--was relatively small for
such a well-known shop, but the book was popular and sold well; St. Clair notes
that the first edition of Frankenstein "made more money
than all [Percy] Shelley's works were to fetch in his lifetime" (360). The book
was published anonymously, though because the publishing contract was
negotiated by Percy Shelley, early
reviewers assumed he had authored it, as Germaine Greer suggests. The
image above, from the British Library, shows an 1809 engraving by Rudolph
Ackermann depicting the interior of "Messrs. Lackington Allen & Co: Temple
of the Muses, Finsbury Square."
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, was published
by the Lackington firm, founded by James Lackington in 1774. Advertised as "The
Cheapest Bookseller in the World," Lackington's business--which both sold and
lent books as well as published them--capitalized on a new, middle-class
reading public. In 1791, the bookseller moved from Chiswell Street to a large
purpose-built store in Finsbury Square, dubbed "The Temple of the Muses"--above
the entrance, an inscription advertised "The Cheapest Books in the World."
Lackington's 1799-1800 catalog, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, boasted nearly 300,000 volumes
available for sale. In 1789, the founder's cousin, George Lackington, took over
operations, and it was here that Shelley's book was sold. William St. Clair,
in The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period,
describes the publication of Frankenstein.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's husband and noted Romantic poet, arranged the
initial printing with Lackington & Co., which was known to specialize in
books about magic and the supernatural. Turned down by other publishers, likely
for reasons of self-censorship, Frankenstein found a
home at Lackington's. The first run--at 500 copies--was relatively small for
such a well-known shop, but the book was popular and sold well; St. Clair notes
that the first edition of Frankenstein "made more money
than all [Percy] Shelley's works were to fetch in his lifetime" (360). The book
was published anonymously, though because the publishing contract was
negotiated by Percy Shelley, early
reviewers assumed he had authored it, as Germaine Greer suggests. The
image above, from the British Library, shows an 1809 engraving by Rudolph
Ackermann depicting the interior of "Messrs. Lackington Allen & Co: Temple
of the Muses, Finsbury Square."
date_
The first edition of Frankenstein was written while
Mary Shelley was in the prime of her life, but it was published in January of
1818, shortly after she buried her first child. The second edition, published
in 1831, came after the loss of her husband, most of her children, and her
family. There are many differences between the two texts, which can be viewed in Dana
Wheeles’ public Juxta collation. One of the main structural differences between
the texts is the loss of the three volumes found in the 1818 edition. In the
1831 edition, after the first four letters, the chapters are numbered 1-24,
which not only removes the multiple volumes but also obscures the separated
narratives of Victor, the Creature, and Walton. Another noticeable difference
comes from the removal of the epigraph from Milton’s Paradise
Lost, which, in the beginning of the 1818 edition, announces the key
theme of the novel. Its removal from the 1831 edition obscures the importance
of the allusions to Milton’s work throughout the novel. In the newly-added forward to the 1831 edition, Mary Shelley wrote, somewhat
disingenuously, "I have changed no portion of the story, nor introduced any new
ideas or circumstances." Shelley in fact makes many changes that drastically
change the interpretation and meaning of the text.
First, many of the scientific ideas written about in the 1818 edition are
removed, detaching the novel from an intellectual context and further pressing
it into the fantastical. Shelley also removes many of Elizabeth’s more
independent thoughts about women’s rights as well as her indictment of the
justice system in regards to Justine. Finally, one of the largest differences
between the editions is Victor Frankenstein’s character. Whereas in the 1818
edition, Victor’s own hubris is to blame for the outcome of the Creature, in
the 1831 edition, Victor is at the mercy of fate or chance.
To explore more about the differences between the editions, see Jill Lepore’s
article in The New Yorker, "The Strange and Twisted Life of Frankenstein", Jacqueline Foertsch’s The Right, the Wrong, and the
Ugly: Teaching Shelley's Several "Frankensteins", or James O’Rourke’s
"The 1831 Introduction
and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates
Her Legacy. To explore visual differences between the texts, see the
Shelley-Godwin Archive, which compares facsimiles of the original
manuscripts, and Brigit Katz’ article for The Smithsonian
Magazine, "‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s
Monster."
william_godwin_
Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to her father, William
Godwin, the well known author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Caleb Williams.
William Godwin was an anarchist and supporter of the French Revolution, and many
of his theories of absolute sovereignty are alluded to within the text of
Frankenstein. Shelley learned much from her father’s library growing up, and thus
was highly influenced by her father’s beliefs. To learn more about Godwin, read
Chapter 4 of Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The Birth,
Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster, "Mary’s Father, William
Godwin". To learn more about Godwin’s influence on Frankenstein, listen to the University of Oxford’s podcast on the
matter. The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, is a painting by Henry William
Pickersgill, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to her father, William
Godwin, the well known author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Caleb Williams.
William Godwin was an anarchist and supporter of the French Revolution, and many
of his theories of absolute sovereignty are alluded to within the text of
Frankenstein. Shelley learned much from her father’s library growing up, and thus
was highly influenced by her father’s beliefs. To learn more about Godwin, read
Chapter 4 of Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The Birth,
Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster, "Mary’s Father, William
Godwin". To learn more about Godwin’s influence on Frankenstein, listen to the University of Oxford’s podcast on the
matter. The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, is a painting by Henry William
Pickersgill, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. political_justice_ Published in 1793, William Godwin’s
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on
Morals and Happiness is a philosophical text concerning
politics. Written after the French Revolution, a ten-year period of political
upheaval in France culminating in the overthrow of the monarchy and the
creation of a republic, Godwin’s Enquiry also responds
to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in
France and Thomas Paine’s Rights of
Man--specifically, on questions of authority. Godwin wrote the Enquiry to advocate for the Enlightenment project of
social improvement. His radical writing resonated deeply with Romantic authors,
especially Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley. For a more
in-depth look at how this work affected the authors of the Romantic Period see
Andrew McCann’s "William Godwin:
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and
Manners", and for more information about Godwin’s influence on Mary
Shelley, see an online exhibit Shelley’s Ghost, developed by the
Bodleian Libraries.
caleb_williams_Published in May 1794, Things As They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb
Williams tells the story of an impoverished young man named
Caleb Williams, who learns that his wealthy employer, Ferdinando Falkland, is
guilty of murder. When Falkland realizes that Caleb suspects him, he falsely
accuses Caleb of attempted robbery, forcing him to flee the estate. Throughout
the novel, Caleb is accused of various crimes, pursued, robbed, beaten,
arrested, and convicted, but manages ultimately to escape captivity. The novel
is a pointed critique of the English judicial system, particularly its abuse of
power, and continues to develop themes that Godwin presented in his 1793
philosophical treatise, An Enquiry concerning Political
Justice. For a detailed examination of Godwin’s writings and an
overview of Godwinian scholarship, see Pamela Clemit’s "Revisiting William Godwin" from Oxford Handbooks Online.
mary_shelley_
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in
London, England, to William
Godwin and famed feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft—the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Mary had a
difficult upbringing, as her mother died shortly after her birth and her father
remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont, who had a tenuous relationship with Mary. Mary
was never formally educated but read many of her father’s books and was introduced
to many influential writers like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Mary, while on a trip to Scotland visiting family friends, met and fell in love
with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married and also a student of her
father. The two eloped in 1814 and travelled around Europe. It was in Switzerland,
with a cohort made up of the Shelleys, Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John
Polidori, where Mary first began Frankenstein one rainy afternoon during a ghost
story writing exercise. Frankenstein was published in 1818
anonymously with a foreword by Percy Shelley, whom many people assumed wrote the
novel. The novel was a huge success, and is now often considered the first science
fiction novel. After the success of her first novel, Shelley continued to write
but her personal life declined rapidly. She lost three children in her lifetime,
her half-sister committed suicide, and her marriage, riddled with affairs, ended
in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia. Mary died at 53 of brain
cancer on February 1, 1851 in London, England. She was buried at St. Peter's Church in
Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of her late husband's heart.
The portrait of Shelley included above, painted by Richard Rothwell (1840), is
housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in
London, England, to William
Godwin and famed feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft—the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Mary had a
difficult upbringing, as her mother died shortly after her birth and her father
remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont, who had a tenuous relationship with Mary. Mary
was never formally educated but read many of her father’s books and was introduced
to many influential writers like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Mary, while on a trip to Scotland visiting family friends, met and fell in love
with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married and also a student of her
father. The two eloped in 1814 and travelled around Europe. It was in Switzerland,
with a cohort made up of the Shelleys, Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron, and John
Polidori, where Mary first began Frankenstein one rainy afternoon during a ghost
story writing exercise. Frankenstein was published in 1818
anonymously with a foreword by Percy Shelley, whom many people assumed wrote the
novel. The novel was a huge success, and is now often considered the first science
fiction novel. After the success of her first novel, Shelley continued to write
but her personal life declined rapidly. She lost three children in her lifetime,
her half-sister committed suicide, and her marriage, riddled with affairs, ended
in 1822 when Percy Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia. Mary died at 53 of brain
cancer on February 1, 1851 in London, England. She was buried at St. Peter's Church in
Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of her late husband's heart.
The portrait of Shelley included above, painted by Richard Rothwell (1840), is
housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. event_
Frankenstein was created on a rainy afternoon in 1816 when
Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley), Percy Bysshe
Shelley, Lord Byron, and others were vacationing in Geneva. Lord Byron suggested
a gothic ghost story contest to alleviate their cabin fever--as 1816 was known as
the "year without a summer" due to a volcanic explosion in the Dutch East Indies, causing a long winter in
most of the world. After working their way through established German ghost
stories, the group decided to try their hand at writing their own. For more
information on the circumstances of the creation of Frankenstein and how it affected the development of the text, see
Marshall Brown’s "Frankenstein":
A Child’s Tale", and for images of
Shelley’s manuscript for Frankenstein see the Shelley-Godwin Archive.
erasmus_darwin_
Erasmus
Darwin (1731-1802), grandfather of Charles Darwin, was a physician and
poet (pictured above is a reprint in the National Portrait Gallery, London by
Joseph Wright based on a work from the 1770’s). An industrialist, free thinker,
and inventor, he is well known for his for his classification novel, Zoonomia, Or, The Laws Of Organic Life which
created classes and categories for animals, and discussed pathology, anatomy, and
psychology. His works influenced many Romantic authors, such as William
Wordsworth, who referenced Darwin in "The Tale of Goody Blake and Harry Gill." For more information, see
Gavin Budge’s article "Erasmus Darwin and the Poetics of William Wordsworth: ‘Excitement without the
Application of Gross and Violent Stimulants’". A radical thinker for the
time, Erasmus Darwin posited the development of life from "one living filament"
(Section XXXIX, Line 8); Darwin’s arguments would later be seen precursors to the
theory of evolution. Darwin also wrote poetry about nature and science, most
notably, The
Loves of the Plants, Economy of
Vegetation, and The Temple
of Nature. His views on living organisms and the creation of life
gives authority to] Victor’s ability to create life and offers a litmus for the
Romantic era skepticism about "playing God." For more information on Erasmus
Darwin in general see Michon Scott’s website Strange Science; to
see Darwin’s influence on both Romantic and Victorian writers, see Thomas Hart’s
article on The
Victorian Web.
Erasmus
Darwin (1731-1802), grandfather of Charles Darwin, was a physician and
poet (pictured above is a reprint in the National Portrait Gallery, London by
Joseph Wright based on a work from the 1770’s). An industrialist, free thinker,
and inventor, he is well known for his for his classification novel, Zoonomia, Or, The Laws Of Organic Life which
created classes and categories for animals, and discussed pathology, anatomy, and
psychology. His works influenced many Romantic authors, such as William
Wordsworth, who referenced Darwin in "The Tale of Goody Blake and Harry Gill." For more information, see
Gavin Budge’s article "Erasmus Darwin and the Poetics of William Wordsworth: ‘Excitement without the
Application of Gross and Violent Stimulants’". A radical thinker for the
time, Erasmus Darwin posited the development of life from "one living filament"
(Section XXXIX, Line 8); Darwin’s arguments would later be seen precursors to the
theory of evolution. Darwin also wrote poetry about nature and science, most
notably, The
Loves of the Plants, Economy of
Vegetation, and The Temple
of Nature. His views on living organisms and the creation of life
gives authority to] Victor’s ability to create life and offers a litmus for the
Romantic era skepticism about "playing God." For more information on Erasmus
Darwin in general see Michon Scott’s website Strange Science; to
see Darwin’s influence on both Romantic and Victorian writers, see Thomas Hart’s
article on The
Victorian Web. iliad_The Iliad, composed in approximately
the 9th century BCE, is an epic poem in elevated and formal verse, narrating the
events that occurred in the ninth year of the attack on Troy. The story begins
with Agamemnon, the wanax of Mycenae and commander of the
various independent Achaean kingdoms, insulting Achilles. Turmoil ensues among the
Achaeans, who have been laying siege to the City of Troy for nearly ten years. The
story includes the death of Achilles’ closest friend Patroclus, which causes
Achilles to defeat and defile his murderer, Hector, Prince of Troy. The story
concludes with Achilles surrendering Hector’s body to King Priam, father of
Hector, and his recognition of a kinship between them through grief. See MIT’s
full text version
of The Iliad translated by Samuel Butler.
tragedy_Tragedy is an elevated literary form that originated in ancient Greece. According
to Aristotle’s Poetics, "Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action
that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language
enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different
parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and
through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions."
(1449b), Romantic authors were greatly influenced by the ancient tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides,
however they often turned the genre on its head. While tragedy in the original
sense featured a hero of noble birth, the Romantics, like Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, preferred to consider the common man. Often, Romantics
turned the argument inward, invoking Shakespeare’s tragedies in lieu of Ancient
ones (Macbeth,Hamlet, Othello).
william_shakespeare_ William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of the greatest writers
in the English language, known for composing 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long
narrative poems (pictured above is a digital print of Earl of Warwick’s 1623 first
folio of William Shakespeare’s works via the Folger Shakespeare Library).
Shakespeare’s works, known for his innovative, vivid use of language and his
exploration of individual subjectivity, were of special interest to the Romantics.
As Jonathan Bate argues in Shakespeare and the English
Romantic Imagination (1989), the idea of natural genius and the
veneration of the creative imagination was essential to the Romantic ideology, and
Shakespeare became a key sign of natural creative genius. The "bardolatry" that
began in the mid-eighteenth century, particularly through the actor David Garrick’s (1717-1779) energies,
came to a head in the Romantic era, and has in many ways persisted to this day.
For more information on the role of Shakespeare in the Romantic era, see Bate’s
important monograph as well as Joseph M. Ortiz’s
edited collection, Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism
. Mary Shelley would have been familiar with his works both through
her education at the hands of her father, William Godwin, and through her close
relationship with Byron, Shelley, Polidori, and other Romantics. Godwin, with his second wife Mary Jane Clairmont, created and published works
in a juvenlie library series for the improvement of young readers’ imaginations
that included, among histories of Greece and bible stories, Tales From Shakespeare.. All of these authors influenced her
writing, and Shakespeare colored her entire life; Shelley had lines from The Tempest carved into her husband’s tombstone. To read
more about Shakespeare’s influence on Mary Shelley’s life and writing see Robert
Sawyer’s article "Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations" or David Lee Clark’s
article, "Shelley and
Shakespeare". For a full list of Shakespeare’s works, as well as
summaries and criticisms, see the Folger Shakespeare
Library.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is one of the greatest writers
in the English language, known for composing 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long
narrative poems (pictured above is a digital print of Earl of Warwick’s 1623 first
folio of William Shakespeare’s works via the Folger Shakespeare Library).
Shakespeare’s works, known for his innovative, vivid use of language and his
exploration of individual subjectivity, were of special interest to the Romantics.
As Jonathan Bate argues in Shakespeare and the English
Romantic Imagination (1989), the idea of natural genius and the
veneration of the creative imagination was essential to the Romantic ideology, and
Shakespeare became a key sign of natural creative genius. The "bardolatry" that
began in the mid-eighteenth century, particularly through the actor David Garrick’s (1717-1779) energies,
came to a head in the Romantic era, and has in many ways persisted to this day.
For more information on the role of Shakespeare in the Romantic era, see Bate’s
important monograph as well as Joseph M. Ortiz’s
edited collection, Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism
. Mary Shelley would have been familiar with his works both through
her education at the hands of her father, William Godwin, and through her close
relationship with Byron, Shelley, Polidori, and other Romantics. Godwin, with his second wife Mary Jane Clairmont, created and published works
in a juvenlie library series for the improvement of young readers’ imaginations
that included, among histories of Greece and bible stories, Tales From Shakespeare.. All of these authors influenced her
writing, and Shakespeare colored her entire life; Shelley had lines from The Tempest carved into her husband’s tombstone. To read
more about Shakespeare’s influence on Mary Shelley’s life and writing see Robert
Sawyer’s article "Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations" or David Lee Clark’s
article, "Shelley and
Shakespeare". For a full list of Shakespeare’s works, as well as
summaries and criticisms, see the Folger Shakespeare
Library.tempest_The Tempest
is a comedy written in 1610 by William
Shakespeare telling the story of the banished Duke of Milan, Prospero,
who has recreated his home on an island using magic--and usurped the native
inhabitants of the island to do so, imprisoning Sycorax and enslaving her son,
Caliban. Prospero causes the shipwreck of the King of Naples, Alonso, and his
brother, Antonio, who, twelve years earlier had conspired for Prospero’s position
thus banishing him from the kingdom. During the tale, Miranda, Prospero’s
daughter, and Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, fall in love, but must survive the tests
placed upon them by Prospero. Other castaways from the shipwreck land on the
island and conspire to destroy Prospero but in the end common ground and love
triumph. Explore more of the text on the Folger Shakespeare
Library.
midsummer_
Midsummer Night’s
Dream
(1595) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. A play within a play, the story
is set in a fairyland Athenian forest during the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of
Athens, to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. The play’s complex subplots
involve a variety of complementary stories. The play opens with a love triangle
between Hermia, who is in love with Lysander but is being forced to marry
Demetrius by her father Egeus. Helena, Hermia’s best friend is in love with
Demetrius. On another side of the story are the "Rude Mechanicals," a group of six
skilled laborers who are planning a performance of Pyramus and
Thisbe. The last subplot involves the king and queen of the fairies,
Oberon and Titania, who are in an argument over a small child Titania is
protecting from Oberon. Oberon, in his frustration over Titania’s disobedience,
sends his sprite, Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, to create a love potion to shame
Titania into obedience. Puck wreaks havoc on all the characters, causing the men
to fall in love with Helena and rebuff Hermia, turning Bottom part donkey, and
prompting Titania to fall in love with Bottom. During this confusion, Oberon
steals the child from Titania, upon which success he orders Puck to set everything
straight. The play concludes with the Mechanicals’ inexpert play-within-a-play,
staged for the marriage festivities of Theseus and Hippolyta. Explore more about
the text at the Folger
Shakespeare Library or see David Wiles Shakespeare and Carnival: After Bakhtin,
especially chapter 4, "The Carnivalesque in A Midsummer Night's Dream." The image
here is Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing by
William Blake (1786) hosted by Tate Britain.
Midsummer Night’s
Dream
(1595) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. A play within a play, the story
is set in a fairyland Athenian forest during the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of
Athens, to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. The play’s complex subplots
involve a variety of complementary stories. The play opens with a love triangle
between Hermia, who is in love with Lysander but is being forced to marry
Demetrius by her father Egeus. Helena, Hermia’s best friend is in love with
Demetrius. On another side of the story are the "Rude Mechanicals," a group of six
skilled laborers who are planning a performance of Pyramus and
Thisbe. The last subplot involves the king and queen of the fairies,
Oberon and Titania, who are in an argument over a small child Titania is
protecting from Oberon. Oberon, in his frustration over Titania’s disobedience,
sends his sprite, Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, to create a love potion to shame
Titania into obedience. Puck wreaks havoc on all the characters, causing the men
to fall in love with Helena and rebuff Hermia, turning Bottom part donkey, and
prompting Titania to fall in love with Bottom. During this confusion, Oberon
steals the child from Titania, upon which success he orders Puck to set everything
straight. The play concludes with the Mechanicals’ inexpert play-within-a-play,
staged for the marriage festivities of Theseus and Hippolyta. Explore more about
the text at the Folger
Shakespeare Library or see David Wiles Shakespeare and Carnival: After Bakhtin,
especially chapter 4, "The Carnivalesque in A Midsummer Night's Dream." The image
here is Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing by
William Blake (1786) hosted by Tate Britain. john_milton_John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known
for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank
Encyclopedia
Britannica. The image included here is a portrait of Milton (1690) by
Godfrey Kneller, via Wikimedia Commons.
John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet most notably known
for Paradise Lost, a twelve-volume epic poem in blank
Encyclopedia
Britannica. The image included here is a portrait of Milton (1690) by
Godfrey Kneller, via Wikimedia Commons.novel_Throughout the eighteenth century, the
novel as a modern form of entertainment accessible to a wide, middling-class, and
generally-educated audience grew. For more information on the "humble" novel, see John Mullan's "The Rise of the Novel" at the British Library.
time_
According to a footnote in the 3rd Broadview
edition of Frankenstein, or; The Modern
Prometheus, the novel takes place in 1796. If this is true,
the entire tale takes place around the date of the author's birth and her
mother Mary Wollstonecraft's death.
artic_
According to Kathryn Shultz in "Literature's Arctic
Obsession," Shelley--like many during the early nineteenth
century--was intrigued by the prospect of arctic exploration, as her frequent
allusions to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and her letters make
clear. While Shelley may have added the arctic setting as "an afterthought"
after reading about attempts to discover the long-elusive Northwest passage, by
the time Frankenstein was published, two major
expeditions were underway; the Passage would be discovered in 1850 after many
deaths on the ice. As Shultz notes, "the book reminded readers that their world
was already full of Dr. Frankensteins." For further reading, see
"'A Paradise of My Own Creation': Frankenstein and the Improbable Romance of
Polar Expedition," by Jessica Richard. The image above, via WikiMedia
Commons, shows a portrait (c.1833) of the explorer John Ross (1777-1856).
According to Kathryn Shultz in "Literature's Arctic
Obsession," Shelley--like many during the early nineteenth
century--was intrigued by the prospect of arctic exploration, as her frequent
allusions to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and her letters make
clear. While Shelley may have added the arctic setting as "an afterthought"
after reading about attempts to discover the long-elusive Northwest passage, by
the time Frankenstein was published, two major
expeditions were underway; the Passage would be discovered in 1850 after many
deaths on the ice. As Shultz notes, "the book reminded readers that their world
was already full of Dr. Frankensteins." For further reading, see
"'A Paradise of My Own Creation': Frankenstein and the Improbable Romance of
Polar Expedition," by Jessica Richard. The image above, via WikiMedia
Commons, shows a portrait (c.1833) of the explorer John Ross (1777-1856).
electromagnetism_
url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Br%C3%BAjula_azimutal_espa%C3%B1ola_s.XVIII_%28M.A.N._Madrid%29_01.jpg/506px-Br%C3%BAjula_azimutal_espa%C3%B1ola_s.XVIII_%28M.A.N._Madrid%29_01.jpg"
/> From the 13th through the 19th centuries, scholars and scientists were
investigating the nature of electromagnetism, though, as noted in the
American Physical Society newsletter of July 2008, most people thought
they were separate forces. The Economy of Vegetation, a 1791 poem by Erasmus
Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather, speculates on the nature of
electromagnetism (see canto 2 lines 193ff). In 1820, two years after the
publication of Frankenstein, Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted discovered
that electric current could produce a magnetic effect on a compass, which
normally points due north--toward the Earth’s magnetic core. For more
information on Darwin’s influence in the late eighteenth century, see Jenny Uglow’s review of his work in The
Guardian The image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows an
eighteenth-century compass of Spanish origin.
enthusiasm_Enthusiasm is an important concept in the development of
Romanticism. Deriving from the Greek word "enthous," meannig possessed or
inspired by a god, the concept of enthusiasm was linked to religious fanaticism (particularly Methodism) during the early
eighteenth century and described by philosophers like Locke and Hume as an
error in thinking that reason and reflection could correct. Enthusiasm was
also, however, understood as the ability to "see the truth transparently and
spontaneously without mediation" (Mee 8). Jon Mee, in Romanticism, Enthusiasm, and
Regulation, goes on to note: "Although it was often associated
with the sort of implosion of the self that came from the prophet retiring into
the wilderness, a species of melancholia and gloomy introspection, it was also
routinely construed in terms of the delirium of the senses that manifested
itself in the mania of the crowd" (10-11). Closely related to concepts of
imagination and fancy, enthusiasm is a complex term that suggests many of the
negative aspects of the Romantic sensibility. For Wordsworth and Coleridge,
enthusiasm is a kind of corruption of or detour in the imagination (Mee 12).
Homer_Homer is the figure credited
with the composition of two epic poems, The Iliad and
The Odyssey, considered to be the first extant works
of Greek literature. Though modern scholarship questions the existence of a
single person called "Homer," the idea of such authorship has had an enduring
interpretive effect from ancient times to the present. Known as the "Father of
Western Literature," Homer is credited with a number of hymns and lesser works
in addition to The Iliad and The
Odyssey. If such an individual existed, scholars have suggested his
floruit as anywhere between the 9th to 7th centuries BCE. To learn more about
Homer, see Suzanne Saïd’s entry in the Oxford Classical
Dictionary.
the_Mariner_
In this excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (451- 456),
the Mariner has killed the albatross and the other sailors turn on him, viewing
his act of violence as a sin against God and nature. The luck of the ship
dissipates, and they are becalmed on the ocean. The Mariner watches as each of
the sailors die of thirst, while he alone is saved. This direct allusion
highlights the similarities between the Mariner and Frankenstein, who are both
reeling after accomplishing their respective goals--killing the albatross and
creating a sentient being--and both in the process of telling their stories.
The use of the quote is two-fold; it highlights Frankenstein’s isolation and
his decision to abandon his creature, but it also juxtaposes the Mariner’s
violence with Frankenstein’s act of creation. Explore more about Coleridge’s
poem in William Christie’s “The Search for
Meaning in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,". See Michelle Levy’s
article, “Discovery and the
Domestic Affections in Coleridge and Shelley," for a discussion of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s influence on Mary Shelley.
In this excerpt from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (451- 456),
the Mariner has killed the albatross and the other sailors turn on him, viewing
his act of violence as a sin against God and nature. The luck of the ship
dissipates, and they are becalmed on the ocean. The Mariner watches as each of
the sailors die of thirst, while he alone is saved. This direct allusion
highlights the similarities between the Mariner and Frankenstein, who are both
reeling after accomplishing their respective goals--killing the albatross and
creating a sentient being--and both in the process of telling their stories.
The use of the quote is two-fold; it highlights Frankenstein’s isolation and
his decision to abandon his creature, but it also juxtaposes the Mariner’s
violence with Frankenstein’s act of creation. Explore more about Coleridge’s
poem in William Christie’s “The Search for
Meaning in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,". See Michelle Levy’s
article, “Discovery and the
Domestic Affections in Coleridge and Shelley," for a discussion of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s influence on Mary Shelley. Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner_
This is a reference to Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem,
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge’s
most famous poem is a tale narrated by an ancient sailor returned from a
long, ambitious journey during which, having shot and killed an
albatross, all other members of the crew die and the mariner is cursed.
The poem foregrounds the act of storytelling; the mariner with his "strange power of speech" (587) is compelled to tell his story,
and others, due to its fantastical nature, are compelled to pay
attention. The 1876 illustration above, via the University of Adelaide, depicts the Ancient Mariner telling
his tale to the Wedding Guest, who "cannot chuse but to hear" (18). To
learn more about Coleridge’s poem, published as the opening poem in Lyrical Ballads
, read Seamus Perry’s introduction at the British Library.
This is a reference to Samuel
Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem,
Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge’s
most famous poem is a tale narrated by an ancient sailor returned from a
long, ambitious journey during which, having shot and killed an
albatross, all other members of the crew die and the mariner is cursed.
The poem foregrounds the act of storytelling; the mariner with his "strange power of speech" (587) is compelled to tell his story,
and others, due to its fantastical nature, are compelled to pay
attention. The 1876 illustration above, via the University of Adelaide, depicts the Ancient Mariner telling
his tale to the Wedding Guest, who "cannot chuse but to hear" (18). To
learn more about Coleridge’s poem, published as the opening poem in Lyrical Ballads
, read Seamus Perry’s introduction at the British Library. Plain_work_"Plain work" here refers to sewing and needlework that
is "plain," as opposed to "fancy." Caroline Beaufort, however, is also
making money by taking orders for piece work, which refers to any work paid
for "by the piece" or according to what is produced, like modern factory
work.
cousin_marriage_Marriage between cousins was a common practice in
history, often deployed to maintain family property and wealth. Read more
about marriage between cousins in Adam Kuper’s Incest and
Influence especially the Coda, or his
article in Past and Present "Incest, Cousin Marriage, and
the Origin of the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century England." In
the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza,
is Victor’s first cousin on his father’s side; however, in the 2nd edition
of 1831, Mary Shelley revises this plot point to make Elizabeth an unknown
orphan and no longer related to the Frankensteins. She is instead rescued by
Victor Frankenstein’s mother. To learn more of Mary Shelley’s revisions
between the first and second editions see the annotation linked to the
publication date in the Preface of the novel, or head to Dana Wheeles’ Juxta
Commons comparison
of the 1818 and 1831 editions of Frankenstein.
fancy_Fancy and imaginagion are important concepts in that shifted in meaning
througout the eighteenth century, being associated with mental creativity
and wit. For William Wordsworth, fancy is, like the imagination, a force for
association and creation; in his Preface of 1815, he writes that fancy is
"capricious as the accidents of things... Fancy depends upon the rapidity
and profusion with which she scatters her thoughts and images" (xxxiv-xxxv). Fancy is more "given to quicken and to beguile the temporal
part of our nature," while "Imagination [works] to incite and to support the
eternal" (xxxv). For Coleridge, fancy is inferior to imagination, lighter,
and is more like wit in terms of its power to make connections between
ideas; Coleridge explores the distinctions between primary imagination,
secondary imagination, and fancy in Book 13 of Biographia
Literaria (1817). For a good general historical overview, see Fancy and Imagination (1969) by R. L. Brett.
chivalric_romance_Chivalric romance, according Oxford Reference, is a genre of literature that began in
Medieval Europe and flourished into the 17th century. Chivalric romances,
usually written in poetic verse, tell stories of the great deeds of
knight-errantry. Chivalry, in particular, refers to "an idealized code of
civilized behaviour that combines loyalty, honour, and courtly love." These
sorts of stories were often called "romans," from which the word "romance"
derives. Formally loose or episodic in structure, heroic romances written in
later periods "deliberately eschew[ed] contemporaneity"; their plots
featured courtly lovers engaged in "heroic stories of love and war in a
remote and idealized past" (1046), as Shellinger states in the Encyclopedia of the Novel. Some representative heroic
romances include Euphues by John Lyly, L'Astrée by Honore d'Urfé, Artamène by Madame de Scudéry, Orlando
Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, and Amadís de
Gaula by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. Romance of this sort declined
in popularity during the 18th century, but during the Romantic period--so
named by later scholars for its turn toward these very romantic ideals of
individualism, heroism, and the imagination--such stories were revived. For
a fuller discussion of the origins and meaning of the word "romantic" see
Michael
Ferber’s Romanticism: A Very Short Introduction
(3-7), and for a broader overview of the medieval genre, see the Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on Romance.
Orlando_Furioso_
Orlando
Furioso is an epic poem published in 1532 by the Italian
poet Ludovico Arisoto, and an example of the "books of chivalry and romance"
that Clerval enjoys. Set in the 8th century, Orlando
Furioso tells the story of the protagonist Orlando, leader of the
Christian knights, fighting the so-called Saracens for
control of Europe during the reign of Charlemagne (Charles I). As the first
lines of the poem point out, its subject is "Dames, knights, and arms, and
love! The deeds that spring / From courteous minds, and venturous feats"
(1.1-2). The chivalric romance combines realism and fantasy throughout its
46 cantos. First published in English translation in 1591, Orlando Furioso is a source for Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. While the story is episodic, one
of the most important plots focuses on Orlando’s dangerous passion for the
pagan princess Angelica, which is the cause of his titular madness. The
image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows Ruggiero
Rescuing Angelica (1818-1819), painted by Jean Auguste Domininque
Ingres. Ariosto’s tale was also famously
illustrated by the late nineteenth-century artist Gustave Doré.
Orlando
Furioso is an epic poem published in 1532 by the Italian
poet Ludovico Arisoto, and an example of the "books of chivalry and romance"
that Clerval enjoys. Set in the 8th century, Orlando
Furioso tells the story of the protagonist Orlando, leader of the
Christian knights, fighting the so-called Saracens for
control of Europe during the reign of Charlemagne (Charles I). As the first
lines of the poem point out, its subject is "Dames, knights, and arms, and
love! The deeds that spring / From courteous minds, and venturous feats"
(1.1-2). The chivalric romance combines realism and fantasy throughout its
46 cantos. First published in English translation in 1591, Orlando Furioso is a source for Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. While the story is episodic, one
of the most important plots focuses on Orlando’s dangerous passion for the
pagan princess Angelica, which is the cause of his titular madness. The
image above, via Wikimedia Commons, shows Ruggiero
Rescuing Angelica (1818-1819), painted by Jean Auguste Domininque
Ingres. Ariosto’s tale was also famously
illustrated by the late nineteenth-century artist Gustave Doré.
Robin_Hood_ Robin Hood is a legendary outlaw who stole from the rich
to give to the poor. Numerous ballads have been written about the character,
who may have been based on a real
person. Robin Hood lived the true heroic code, protecting women,
supporting the lowly, and remained faithful to the monarch. Read more about
Robin Hood in Howard Pyle’s The Merry
Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the more popular
adaptations of the legend written in 1883. The photograph above, by RichardUK2014 via Wikimedia Commons, shows a relief plaque
outside Nottingham Castle ostensibly illustrating King Richard the Lionheart
marrying Robin Hood and Maid Marian.
Robin Hood is a legendary outlaw who stole from the rich
to give to the poor. Numerous ballads have been written about the character,
who may have been based on a real
person. Robin Hood lived the true heroic code, protecting women,
supporting the lowly, and remained faithful to the monarch. Read more about
Robin Hood in Howard Pyle’s The Merry
Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the more popular
adaptations of the legend written in 1883. The photograph above, by RichardUK2014 via Wikimedia Commons, shows a relief plaque
outside Nottingham Castle ostensibly illustrating King Richard the Lionheart
marrying Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Amadis_de_Gaula_
Amadís de
Gaula is a prose romance composed in Spain or Portugal in the 13th
or 14th century (title page of the 1533 Spanish edition by Olaf Simons
pictured above). The story’s protagonist is Amadís, the bravest and most
just of knights, who falls in love with Oriana, the daughter of Lisuarte,
the king of England. Amadís is an orphan who was separated from his English
parents at birth, but through this hardship becomes a better man. Arthurian
in nature, the story is one of chivalry, though more chaste and romanticized
than the Celtic tales of knights it was most likely based on. According to
Romantic Circles, Mary Shelley was reading Robert Southey’s
translation of the poem while writing Frankenstein.
The full text of the 1520
edition printed by Juan Cromberger can be found online at the
National Library of Spain.
Amadís de
Gaula is a prose romance composed in Spain or Portugal in the 13th
or 14th century (title page of the 1533 Spanish edition by Olaf Simons
pictured above). The story’s protagonist is Amadís, the bravest and most
just of knights, who falls in love with Oriana, the daughter of Lisuarte,
the king of England. Amadís is an orphan who was separated from his English
parents at birth, but through this hardship becomes a better man. Arthurian
in nature, the story is one of chivalry, though more chaste and romanticized
than the Celtic tales of knights it was most likely based on. According to
Romantic Circles, Mary Shelley was reading Robert Southey’s
translation of the poem while writing Frankenstein.
The full text of the 1520
edition printed by Juan Cromberger can be found online at the
National Library of Spain. St._George_ St. George, a converted Roman soldier martyred for his
newfound Christian faith, is often depicted slaying a dragon, a symbolic
rendering of the triumph of Christianity over evil. Not only is St. George
the patron saint of England, but by the 14th century, he had been declared
both the patron saint and protector of the royal family. For
more information on St. George, see Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry collected by Thomas Percy and edited by D.L.
Ashliman. Pictured above is Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1432) by Rogier
van Der Weyden from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
St. George, a converted Roman soldier martyred for his
newfound Christian faith, is often depicted slaying a dragon, a symbolic
rendering of the triumph of Christianity over evil. Not only is St. George
the patron saint of England, but by the 14th century, he had been declared
both the patron saint and protector of the royal family. For
more information on St. George, see Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry collected by Thomas Percy and edited by D.L.
Ashliman. Pictured above is Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1432) by Rogier
van Der Weyden from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Natural_Philosophy_Natural
Philosophy is the study of nature through a philosophical lens. The
two canonical discussions of natural philosophy occur in Aristotle’s On the
Heavens, Meteorology, and On
Generation and Corruption. In the eighteenth century,
natural philosophy was a form of science with an emphasis on scientific
inquiry, but in the Romantic period, it was seen as a method of unifying
physical nature with the spiritual. As Michael Manson and Robert Scott
Stewart point out in Heroes and Hideousness: "Frankenstein" and Failed Unity, natural
philosophy fueled the Romantic idea of the natural world as a giant
organism, in stark contrast to the Enlightenment, which saw the natural
world as more like a mechanical machine. For more information about natural
philosophy and its influence on Frankenstein, see
Patricia Fara’s "Hidden depths: Halley, Hell and Other People" or Rebecca Baumann’s
"Mad
Science."
Cornelius_Agrippa_
Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) was a German alchemist and scholar.
He studied both medicine and law but did not receive a degree in either. His
most well-known work is the three-volume De Occulta Philosophiae, a defense
of "hidden philosophy" or magic, drawing from alchemy, astrology, and
Kabbalah. A later work, De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum (Of the Uncertainty and Vanity of the
Sciences), attacks contemporary renaissance scientific theory and
practice. To read more about his philosophy see his intellectual biography
in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The
engraved portrait of Agrippa above, via Wikimedia Commons, is housed at the
U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) was a German alchemist and scholar.
He studied both medicine and law but did not receive a degree in either. His
most well-known work is the three-volume De Occulta Philosophiae, a defense
of "hidden philosophy" or magic, drawing from alchemy, astrology, and
Kabbalah. A later work, De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum (Of the Uncertainty and Vanity of the
Sciences), attacks contemporary renaissance scientific theory and
practice. To read more about his philosophy see his intellectual biography
in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The
engraved portrait of Agrippa above, via Wikimedia Commons, is housed at the
U.S. National Library of Medicine. Chimerical_ Chimeric or chimerical was defined by
Samuel Johnson in his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language as
"A vain and wild fancy, as remote from reality as the existence of the
poetical Chimera, a monster feigned to have the
head of a lion, the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon." The
image here is a 1590–1610 drawing of a chimera attributed to Jacopo Ligozzi
(1547–1627) hosted on Wikimedia Commons.
Chimeric or chimerical was defined by
Samuel Johnson in his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language as
"A vain and wild fancy, as remote from reality as the existence of the
poetical Chimera, a monster feigned to have the
head of a lion, the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon." The
image here is a 1590–1610 drawing of a chimera attributed to Jacopo Ligozzi
(1547–1627) hosted on Wikimedia Commons. Paracelsus_
Paracelsus, the adopted name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus
Bombastus von Hohenheim (1490-1541), was Swiss physician, alchemist, and
astrologer of the German Renaissance. He studied medicine and homeopathic
cures for disease, as well as alchemy and metals. A free thinker, he
believed in learning from more than just academics, and stressed experience
as a model for learning. To learn more about Paracelsus’ scientific and
medical advancements in the medieval ages see Joseph Borzelleca’s "Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology". Pictured here is Paracelsus by Quentin Matsys from the Musée du Louvre,
via Wikimedia Commons.
Paracelsus, the adopted name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus
Bombastus von Hohenheim (1490-1541), was Swiss physician, alchemist, and
astrologer of the German Renaissance. He studied medicine and homeopathic
cures for disease, as well as alchemy and metals. A free thinker, he
believed in learning from more than just academics, and stressed experience
as a model for learning. To learn more about Paracelsus’ scientific and
medical advancements in the medieval ages see Joseph Borzelleca’s "Paracelsus: Herald of Modern Toxicology". Pictured here is Paracelsus by Quentin Matsys from the Musée du Louvre,
via Wikimedia Commons. Albertus_Magnus_
Albertus
Magnus (c. 1200-1280), teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, was a German
Catholic Dominican Friar. He was canonized a saint in 1931 (despite
contemporaries considering him neglectful of theology for sorcery), has been
referred to as the one of the greatest German philosophers and theologians
of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished as one of the 36 Doctors for the
Catholic Church. A student of many disciplines, influenced by Aristotle, and
a prolific writer, he composed 38
volumes encompassing many topics such as logic, theology, botany,
geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology,
phrenology, justice, and law. Albertus’ work represents the entire body of
theological and philosophical knowledge during his time. His influence on
natural science is most important as he brought Aristotelian knowledge of
nature to the forefront as well as increasing knowledge through his
experiments promoting the idea that Christian faith and experimental science
were not hostile to one another. For more information on the alchemical
sciences, see the Hay Library exhibit on the evolution of modern chemistry and
the archived Getty Library colloquium on the "Art of Alchemy." To explore more of Albertus Magnus’ works see
the Beinecke Library’s digital edition of his "Alchemical Miscellany." For more information on the role of
alchemy and science in Frankenstein, see Alan Rauch’s Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the
March of Intellect (2001), especially chapter 3, "The
Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Frankenstein" Pictured
above is Vincenzo Onofri’s bust of Sant’ Alberto Magno (c. 1493), via
Wikimedia Commons.
Albertus
Magnus (c. 1200-1280), teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, was a German
Catholic Dominican Friar. He was canonized a saint in 1931 (despite
contemporaries considering him neglectful of theology for sorcery), has been
referred to as the one of the greatest German philosophers and theologians
of the Middle Ages, and is distinguished as one of the 36 Doctors for the
Catholic Church. A student of many disciplines, influenced by Aristotle, and
a prolific writer, he composed 38
volumes encompassing many topics such as logic, theology, botany,
geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology,
phrenology, justice, and law. Albertus’ work represents the entire body of
theological and philosophical knowledge during his time. His influence on
natural science is most important as he brought Aristotelian knowledge of
nature to the forefront as well as increasing knowledge through his
experiments promoting the idea that Christian faith and experimental science
were not hostile to one another. For more information on the alchemical
sciences, see the Hay Library exhibit on the evolution of modern chemistry and
the archived Getty Library colloquium on the "Art of Alchemy." To explore more of Albertus Magnus’ works see
the Beinecke Library’s digital edition of his "Alchemical Miscellany." For more information on the role of
alchemy and science in Frankenstein, see Alan Rauch’s Useful Knowledge: The Victorians, Morality, and the
March of Intellect (2001), especially chapter 3, "The
Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Frankenstein" Pictured
above is Vincenzo Onofri’s bust of Sant’ Alberto Magno (c. 1493), via
Wikimedia Commons. Philosophers_Stone_In the study of alchemy, ""the
Philosopher’s Stone" is sometimes referred to as the 5th element
(the other four being earth, water, fire, and air). The Stone was understood
to turn base metals into gold, and it was thought to be able to create an
elixir of life. The Stone has been referenced throughout literature from the
Middle Ages to modern popular culture, from Geoffrey Chaucer’s "Yeoman’s
Tale" to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Prior to the
conception of the Creature, Victor's fascination with this stone and its
apparent abilities highlights his willingness to step out of the human realm
and into the realm of the divine by "penetrating the secrets of nature"
(Shelley 38). Outside of Frankenstein, much has been
written about alchemy and the Philosopher’s Stone, but Stanton Linden’s Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to
the Restoration gives an overview of the history of alchemy
in literature. To read a book of alchemy from 1754, see The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius, by
M. de Burigny.
Economy_of_Vegetation_This is a direct reference to Erasmus
Darwin’s poem, the Economy of
Vegetation, which explores the new technological
innovations and scientific discoveries of the early nineteenth century. In
Darwin’s paean to "unconquer’d steam!" (289), he imagines it "[dragging] the
slow barge, or [driving] the rapid car;/ Or on wide-waving wings…[bearing]/
The flying-chariot through the fields of air" (290-292). His poems were
helpful to the Romantics’ exploration of science as he combined poetry, the
epitome of feeling, with scientific ideas. To see more of Darwin’s influence
on the Romantics, see D. King-Hele’s book, Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets.
Boyles_Law_
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), the first modern chemist and originator
of Boyle’s Law--which describes the inversely proportional
relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas--performed
experiments in the seventeenth century involving air-pumps, better known
today as vacuum pumps. Boyle’s pumps were created to his specific dimensions
by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) (also known for the bringing the use of
microscopes into the community of scientists). In his (1662) book, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air,
and its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical
Engine), Boyle detailed all of his air-pump experiments,
most notably Experiment 41, in which he studied the reactions of animals to
a vacuum. In Experiment 41, Boyle placed birds, mice, and other small
creatures into the air pump and slowly removed the air to prove the
necessity of respiration. While watching a lark in one reiteration of the
experiment, he observed: "…the Bird for a while appear'd lively enough; but
upon a greater Exsuction of the Air, she began manifestly to droop and
appear sick, and very soon after was taken with as violent and irregular
Convulsions, as are wont to be observ'd in Poultry, when their heads are
wrung off: For the Bird threw her self over and over two or three times, and
dyed with her Breast upward, her Head downwards, and her Neck awry" (cite
page 98). These experiments intrigued the public. Joseph Wright’s
(1734-1797) oil paintings imagined these experiments as subjects of
middle-class, domestic education. To read more about Robert Boyle, see
Thomas Birch’s biography from 1772, The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle.
Shelagh Stephenson’s (1955-) play An Experiment With an Air Pump", a play
revolving around two overlapping plots 100 years apart which highlight the
lack of empathy scientific thought has over human emotions and affections.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), the first modern chemist and originator
of Boyle’s Law--which describes the inversely proportional
relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas--performed
experiments in the seventeenth century involving air-pumps, better known
today as vacuum pumps. Boyle’s pumps were created to his specific dimensions
by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) (also known for the bringing the use of
microscopes into the community of scientists). In his (1662) book, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air,
and its Effects, (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical
Engine), Boyle detailed all of his air-pump experiments,
most notably Experiment 41, in which he studied the reactions of animals to
a vacuum. In Experiment 41, Boyle placed birds, mice, and other small
creatures into the air pump and slowly removed the air to prove the
necessity of respiration. While watching a lark in one reiteration of the
experiment, he observed: "…the Bird for a while appear'd lively enough; but
upon a greater Exsuction of the Air, she began manifestly to droop and
appear sick, and very soon after was taken with as violent and irregular
Convulsions, as are wont to be observ'd in Poultry, when their heads are
wrung off: For the Bird threw her self over and over two or three times, and
dyed with her Breast upward, her Head downwards, and her Neck awry" (cite
page 98). These experiments intrigued the public. Joseph Wright’s
(1734-1797) oil paintings imagined these experiments as subjects of
middle-class, domestic education. To read more about Robert Boyle, see
Thomas Birch’s biography from 1772, The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle.
Shelagh Stephenson’s (1955-) play An Experiment With an Air Pump", a play
revolving around two overlapping plots 100 years apart which highlight the
lack of empathy scientific thought has over human emotions and affections.
The_Swiss_Alps_The Swiss Alps (including the Central
and the Bernese Alps) are a region in central Europe with expansive
mountains, considered both beautiful and dangerous, that span most the
southern and eastern area of Switzerland. The Jura are a range of mountains
in the northwest following the France-Switzerland border forming the
watersheds for both the Rhone and Rhine basins. These two ranges make up the
majority of the natural setting within the novel. Among the peaks named in
the novel are Mont Blanc (the highest), Mole, and Mont Saleve. Montanvert is
also part of the Alps, but is the eighteenth-century name for Mer de Glace,
a glacier on the Mont Blanc massif. Romantic artists--including Percy Shelley, Coleridge, J.M.W. Turner, and
others--frequently visited, wrote about, and painted this sublime
landscape. The image here shows landscape artist Francis Towne’s
(1739-1816) Arveyron River on the Mer de Glace
(1781), via Wikimedia Commons. See more works depicting the area described in Frankenstein in Richard Stephens’ Catalogue Raisonné of Francis
Towne.
The Swiss Alps (including the Central
and the Bernese Alps) are a region in central Europe with expansive
mountains, considered both beautiful and dangerous, that span most the
southern and eastern area of Switzerland. The Jura are a range of mountains
in the northwest following the France-Switzerland border forming the
watersheds for both the Rhone and Rhine basins. These two ranges make up the
majority of the natural setting within the novel. Among the peaks named in
the novel are Mont Blanc (the highest), Mole, and Mont Saleve. Montanvert is
also part of the Alps, but is the eighteenth-century name for Mer de Glace,
a glacier on the Mont Blanc massif. Romantic artists--including Percy Shelley, Coleridge, J.M.W. Turner, and
others--frequently visited, wrote about, and painted this sublime
landscape. The image here shows landscape artist Francis Towne’s
(1739-1816) Arveyron River on the Mer de Glace
(1781), via Wikimedia Commons. See more works depicting the area described in Frankenstein in Richard Stephens’ Catalogue Raisonné of Francis
Towne.Ben_Franklin_experiments_ This is a direct allusion to
experiments performed by Benjamin Franklin and other scientists during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ben Franklin was a contemporary of Mary
Shelley’s parents, and he influenced the world of politics, culture, and
science. Well-known inventing bifocals, Franklin is also associated in the
popular imagination with his electrical experiments involving keys, storms,
and kites. Contrary to popular belief, Franklin did not discover
electricity, but he connected electrical conduits through substances like
water and metal, and he understood that electricity can be held and
discharged. Read more about his electrical experiment at The
Franklin Institute. Franklin’s experiments with electricity were
the precursor to Galvani’s and Volta’s experiments with electricity and
galvanism. These two scientists sought to prove that electricity could
animate deceased matter, namely frogs, but went so far as to momentarily
animate the bodies of beheaded criminals. To learn more about these
experiments, read Alan Brown’s "The
Science That Made Frankenstein." This is not the first time
electrical experiments had been referenced in literature; Erasmus Darwin,
whose works are alluded to in Frankenstein often
referenced Franklin, in his Economy of Vegetation.
Darwin describes Franklin as taming lightning through his invention of the
lightning rod, for instance: "-Led by the
phosphor-light, with daring tread/ Immortal Franklin sought the fiery
bed;/ Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds/ His embryon
Thunders in circumfluent clouds" (Canto 2.2 355-358). To explore
more about Darwin, see Stephen Foster’s addition to the
Victorian Web; to learn more about the science of Frankenstein, see Sharon Ruskin’s article from the British Library. The image used is a comic from
Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham hosted on Scientific American.
This is a direct allusion to
experiments performed by Benjamin Franklin and other scientists during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ben Franklin was a contemporary of Mary
Shelley’s parents, and he influenced the world of politics, culture, and
science. Well-known inventing bifocals, Franklin is also associated in the
popular imagination with his electrical experiments involving keys, storms,
and kites. Contrary to popular belief, Franklin did not discover
electricity, but he connected electrical conduits through substances like
water and metal, and he understood that electricity can be held and
discharged. Read more about his electrical experiment at The
Franklin Institute. Franklin’s experiments with electricity were
the precursor to Galvani’s and Volta’s experiments with electricity and
galvanism. These two scientists sought to prove that electricity could
animate deceased matter, namely frogs, but went so far as to momentarily
animate the bodies of beheaded criminals. To learn more about these
experiments, read Alan Brown’s "The
Science That Made Frankenstein." This is not the first time
electrical experiments had been referenced in literature; Erasmus Darwin,
whose works are alluded to in Frankenstein often
referenced Franklin, in his Economy of Vegetation.
Darwin describes Franklin as taming lightning through his invention of the
lightning rod, for instance: "-Led by the
phosphor-light, with daring tread/ Immortal Franklin sought the fiery
bed;/ Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds/ His embryon
Thunders in circumfluent clouds" (Canto 2.2 355-358). To explore
more about Darwin, see Stephen Foster’s addition to the
Victorian Web; to learn more about the science of Frankenstein, see Sharon Ruskin’s article from the British Library. The image used is a comic from
Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham hosted on Scientific American. University_of_Ingolstadt_
Victor Frankenstein attends the University
of Ingolstadt, a university founded in 1472, known for its focus on
the natural sciences. The university had a massive chemistry laboratory and
one of the finest operating theatres at the time Frankenstein was written,
making it a perfect setting for his experiments. Ingolstadt is located in Germany, within the Free State of
Bavaria. In the eighteenth century, an intellectual
movement for the reconstruction of European society was centered in
the city. Mary Shelley would have been aware of this, and the significance
of the change of European society may have been the perfect historical
setting for a tale calling into question freedom, status, and autonomy. The
image here shows an Italian operating theatre built in the sixteenth century
to give an example of what the operating theatre may have looked like to
Victor Frankenstein. The image was taken by Kalibos and is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons.
Victor Frankenstein attends the University
of Ingolstadt, a university founded in 1472, known for its focus on
the natural sciences. The university had a massive chemistry laboratory and
one of the finest operating theatres at the time Frankenstein was written,
making it a perfect setting for his experiments. Ingolstadt is located in Germany, within the Free State of
Bavaria. In the eighteenth century, an intellectual
movement for the reconstruction of European society was centered in
the city. Mary Shelley would have been aware of this, and the significance
of the change of European society may have been the perfect historical
setting for a tale calling into question freedom, status, and autonomy. The
image here shows an Italian operating theatre built in the sixteenth century
to give an example of what the operating theatre may have looked like to
Victor Frankenstein. The image was taken by Kalibos and is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. Old_Familiar_Faces_This is a direct allusion to Charles Lamb’s
(1775-1834) poem, "Old Familiar Faces", a poem about Lamb looking back on his life
through the lens of nostalgia. Victor uses the allusion at this point in the
text because he is retelling his story from a similar place once he leaves
his family and friends, will never find them or return to them the same way
again.
Sir_Humphrey_Davy_
Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) was a
Cornish scientist as well as poet, and according to Richard Holmes’ "Humphrey Davy
and the Chemical Moment," is best known today for his work on
nitrous oxide (which he coined "laughing gas"), his use of the Voltaic battery to resolve new
elements, sodium and potassium; his innovations in agricultural chemistry
and animal tanning; his invention of the arc light; and above all for his
design of the miner's safety lamp. He was the first Englishman knighted for service to science since Sir Issac
Newton and the first professional chemist to be elected President of the
Royal Society of London. Mary Shelley was intimately aware of Sir Humphrey
Davy, as he knew Coleridge, Wordsworth, and her father William Godwin.
Explore more of her background with these iconic figures in the NIH’s
History of Medicine Exhibit, Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of
Nature. Percy Shelley, Mary’s husband, was also interested in
the work of Sir Humphrey Davy. In school he was a political and religious radical, having been expelled from Oxford
for supposedly writing a pamphlet denouncing the existence of God, he turned himself to Davy’s work.
The Shelleys were seduced by the study of galvanism, a branch of natural
philosophy discovered by Luigi
Galvani (1737-1798) who investigated the effect of electricity on
animal limbs. Sir Humphrey Davy corroborated the discovery and supported the
theory in a speech given to the Royal Society of London. Davy’s influence
can be found in all of the science of Frankenstein;
however, he is most obviously the inspiration for M. Waldman, Victor’s
mentor. Many of M. Waldman’s scientific ideas are very similar to Davy’s,
and Shelley frequently alludes to his 1802 Discourse
Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802; collected in
this accessible 1839 edition). Frankenstein is filled with allusions to Davy’s works. To read more
about Davy and his influence on the Shelleys, see Sharon Ruston’s literary
critique, Shelley and
Vitality, the Smithsonian Institute’s exhibition The Body Electric: Inspiring Frankenstein, and Theodore
Ziolkowski’s article "Science, Frankenstein, and Myth." To explore more of Davy’s work,
see his 1812 Elements
of Chemical Philosophy, via the Internet Archive. The image
above, from the British Museum, shows Scientific Researches!
New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! An Experimental Lecture on the Powers of
Air (1802) a satirical etching by James Gillray depicting Davy and
colleagues experimenting with nitrous oxide.
Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829) was a
Cornish scientist as well as poet, and according to Richard Holmes’ "Humphrey Davy
and the Chemical Moment," is best known today for his work on
nitrous oxide (which he coined "laughing gas"), his use of the Voltaic battery to resolve new
elements, sodium and potassium; his innovations in agricultural chemistry
and animal tanning; his invention of the arc light; and above all for his
design of the miner's safety lamp. He was the first Englishman knighted for service to science since Sir Issac
Newton and the first professional chemist to be elected President of the
Royal Society of London. Mary Shelley was intimately aware of Sir Humphrey
Davy, as he knew Coleridge, Wordsworth, and her father William Godwin.
Explore more of her background with these iconic figures in the NIH’s
History of Medicine Exhibit, Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of
Nature. Percy Shelley, Mary’s husband, was also interested in
the work of Sir Humphrey Davy. In school he was a political and religious radical, having been expelled from Oxford
for supposedly writing a pamphlet denouncing the existence of God, he turned himself to Davy’s work.
The Shelleys were seduced by the study of galvanism, a branch of natural
philosophy discovered by Luigi
Galvani (1737-1798) who investigated the effect of electricity on
animal limbs. Sir Humphrey Davy corroborated the discovery and supported the
theory in a speech given to the Royal Society of London. Davy’s influence
can be found in all of the science of Frankenstein;
however, he is most obviously the inspiration for M. Waldman, Victor’s
mentor. Many of M. Waldman’s scientific ideas are very similar to Davy’s,
and Shelley frequently alludes to his 1802 Discourse
Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802; collected in
this accessible 1839 edition). Frankenstein is filled with allusions to Davy’s works. To read more
about Davy and his influence on the Shelleys, see Sharon Ruston’s literary
critique, Shelley and
Vitality, the Smithsonian Institute’s exhibition The Body Electric: Inspiring Frankenstein, and Theodore
Ziolkowski’s article "Science, Frankenstein, and Myth." To explore more of Davy’s work,
see his 1812 Elements
of Chemical Philosophy, via the Internet Archive. The image
above, from the British Museum, shows Scientific Researches!
New Discoveries in Pneumaticks! An Experimental Lecture on the Powers of
Air (1802) a satirical etching by James Gillray depicting Davy and
colleagues experimenting with nitrous oxide. Lectures_in_Chemistry_Shelley references Humphry Davy and
his Discourse Introductory to a Course of Lectures in
Chemistry (1802). Here, both Victor and Davy are gesturing toward
the history of the development of the sciences by way of alchemy and
discussing the height to which science and discovery have come in the early
nineteenth century. Both suggest that while the views of the "ancient
teachers" of alchemy are now seen as unscientific, modern study began there:
"[The alchemists’] views of things have passed away, and a new science has
gradually arisen. The dim and uncertain twilight of discovery, which gave to
objects false or indefinite appearances, has been succeeded by the steady
light of truth, which has shown the external world in its distinct forms,
and in its true relations to human powers. The composition of the
atmosphere, and the properties of the gases, have been ascertained; the
phenomena of electricity have been developed; the lightnings have been taken
from the clouds; and, lastly, a new influence has been discovered, which has
enabled man to produce from combinations of dead matter effects which were
formerly occasioned only by animal organs" (Davy, "Discourse"
321). Note the reference at the end of this passage to
galvanism.
the_Microscope_ While the idea of lenses and
magnification dates far back in time, the earliest known examples of
compound microscopes appeared in Europe around 1620, as explained in
David Bardell’s article “The Invention of the
Microscope." The inventor of the microscope is unknown, yet many
have claimed it--including Galileo. However, it wasn’t until Robert
Hooke (1635-1703) published Micrographia (1665) that the use of the
microscope became accepted and adopted by the scientific community. Hooke
held titles such as scientist, astronomer, philosopher, architect and
inventor, and was a polymath. In his book, Hooke describes in minute
detail the visions of insects, leaves, and other objects, accompanying
many of his descriptions with richly detailed illustrations. is work has
contributed to cell theories and even helped create the discipline of
paleontology. The image used is one of many that can be viewed, hosted by
the British Libraries online collection.
While the idea of lenses and
magnification dates far back in time, the earliest known examples of
compound microscopes appeared in Europe around 1620, as explained in
David Bardell’s article “The Invention of the
Microscope." The inventor of the microscope is unknown, yet many
have claimed it--including Galileo. However, it wasn’t until Robert
Hooke (1635-1703) published Micrographia (1665) that the use of the
microscope became accepted and adopted by the scientific community. Hooke
held titles such as scientist, astronomer, philosopher, architect and
inventor, and was a polymath. In his book, Hooke describes in minute
detail the visions of insects, leaves, and other objects, accompanying
many of his descriptions with richly detailed illustrations. is work has
contributed to cell theories and even helped create the discipline of
paleontology. The image used is one of many that can be viewed, hosted by
the British Libraries online collection.Penetrative_In his Discourse Introductory to
a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1802), Humphry Davy describes
the "penetrative" agency of the masculine scientist-explorer in virtually
identical terms. Davy’s writes, "Not contented with what is found upon
the surface of the earth, he has penetrated into her bosom, and has even
searched the bottom of the ocean for the purpose of allaying the
restlessness of his desires, or of extending and increasing his power."
Davy, going on to state that "[h]e [the modern chemist] is to a certain
extent the ruler of all the elements around him," emphasizes the almost
unlimited power and omnipotent will of the scientist: "he is capable of
using not only common matter according to his will and inclinations, but
likewise of subjecting to his purposes the ethereal principles of heat
and light. By his inventions they are elicited from the atmosphere; and
under his control they become, according to circumstances, instruments of
comfort and enjoyment, or of terror and destruction" (Davy,
"Discourses" 318).
Circulation_of_the_Blood_ The circulation of the blood in
the body was first demonstrated by William Harvey (1578-1657) in the
early 17th century, though his seminal work on the subject, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in
Animalibus, was not published (in Latin) until 1628; the first
English translation appeared later. Harvey's theory derived from the
science of the Ancient Greek physician Galen, but he used direct
observation and experimentation--like vivisection--to illustrate and
explore his ideas. For more information, see William Harvey and the Circulation of the
Blood, an informational video produced by the Royal
College of Physicians (1971-72). For more information about anatomy
during the 16th and 17th centuries, see Anatomia Animata, a digital exhibit of works in
the Lilly Library of Indiana University. The image to the right,
via the Lilly Library exhibit, shows a page from Harvey's De Motu Cordis.
The circulation of the blood in
the body was first demonstrated by William Harvey (1578-1657) in the
early 17th century, though his seminal work on the subject, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in
Animalibus, was not published (in Latin) until 1628; the first
English translation appeared later. Harvey's theory derived from the
science of the Ancient Greek physician Galen, but he used direct
observation and experimentation--like vivisection--to illustrate and
explore his ideas. For more information, see William Harvey and the Circulation of the
Blood, an informational video produced by the Royal
College of Physicians (1971-72). For more information about anatomy
during the 16th and 17th centuries, see Anatomia Animata, a digital exhibit of works in
the Lilly Library of Indiana University. The image to the right,
via the Lilly Library exhibit, shows a page from Harvey's De Motu Cordis. unlimited_powers_This language of “unlimited powers" refers an idea
perhaps best expressed in a letter from Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley in 1780. Franklin writes,
“It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried in a
thousand years, the power of man over matter. We may perhaps learn to
deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity, for
the sake of easy transport." This sentiment is reiterated in both
Godwin’s Political Justice and Humphry Davy’s
“Lectures on Chemistry." During this time science was thought to
be a source of unlimited powers. The idea that science was all powerful
forms an important context for Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mary Shelley would have been very aware of
Franklin’s experiments with electricity. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft
was tutored Dr. Richard Price (a supporter of the American Revolution)
and uses the same publisher as Franklin, Joseph Johnson. Her father,
William Godwin, was a member of the Royal Society of London, of which
Franklin was also a member. For more information on the reach of Ben
Franklin’s experiments and his views of science, see Draw
the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in
the Age of Enlightenment by Michael Schiffer.
Ariosto_
Victor references Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), an Italian poet from the 16th
century, when talking about Justine’s "frank-hearted and happy"
expression. In Orlando Furioso, the first 10 stanzas of Canto 10
describe the cause of female desirability as resistance and flight,
using in stanza 7 a classical hunting metaphor to do so: "So the keen
hunter follows up the hare / In heat and cold, on shore, or
mountain-height; / Nor, when 'tis taken, more esteems the prize; / And
only hurries after that which flies" (10.7.5-8). While it is not clear
that this is "the reason…[for] the beauty of Angelica," Ita Mac Carthy
points out in Women and the Making of Poetry in Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso (Chapter 3) that Angelica is the
"supreme object of [unattainable] desire" who repeatedly flees sexual
pursuit and generates the narrative of the poem. Her beauty is
described as angelic, and capable of making her suitors--like the
titular Orlando--lose their wits. In Ariosto’s epic romance, Angelica
is a pagan princess besought by many knights. The image here shows a
scene from Orlando Furioso of a man bending
over and holding the hand of a woman, presumably Angelica, who sits on
the ground beneath a tree, the trunk inscribed "ANCE MEDO," created by
Angelica Kauffman (1740-1807) and hosted by the British museum.
Victor references Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), an Italian poet from the 16th
century, when talking about Justine’s "frank-hearted and happy"
expression. In Orlando Furioso, the first 10 stanzas of Canto 10
describe the cause of female desirability as resistance and flight,
using in stanza 7 a classical hunting metaphor to do so: "So the keen
hunter follows up the hare / In heat and cold, on shore, or
mountain-height; / Nor, when 'tis taken, more esteems the prize; / And
only hurries after that which flies" (10.7.5-8). While it is not clear
that this is "the reason…[for] the beauty of Angelica," Ita Mac Carthy
points out in Women and the Making of Poetry in Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso (Chapter 3) that Angelica is the
"supreme object of [unattainable] desire" who repeatedly flees sexual
pursuit and generates the narrative of the poem. Her beauty is
described as angelic, and capable of making her suitors--like the
titular Orlando--lose their wits. In Ariosto’s epic romance, Angelica
is a pagan princess besought by many knights. The image here shows a
scene from Orlando Furioso of a man bending
over and holding the hand of a woman, presumably Angelica, who sits on
the ground beneath a tree, the trunk inscribed "ANCE MEDO," created by
Angelica Kauffman (1740-1807) and hosted by the British museum.
_cato
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95 BC-46 BC), also known as Cato
the Younger, was a Roman statesman known for his sense of justice and
fairness. Cato was immensely close to his brother, Caepio, and when his
brother passed, Cato spared no expense for his funeral. Clerval invokes
this sentiment when he tells Victor, "even Cato wept over the dead body
of his brother." Read more about Cato in Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives. The image of Cato, above, housed in the British Museum, is an
etching from Lucan's Pharsalia, Book IX (1718).
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (95 BC-46 BC), also known as Cato
the Younger, was a Roman statesman known for his sense of justice and
fairness. Cato was immensely close to his brother, Caepio, and when his
brother passed, Cato spared no expense for his funeral. Clerval invokes
this sentiment when he tells Victor, "even Cato wept over the dead body
of his brother." Read more about Cato in Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives. The image of Cato, above, housed in the British Museum, is an
etching from Lucan's Pharsalia, Book IX (1718).
_ByronAn
allusion to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), a
somewhat autobiographical narrative poem in four cantos by Romantic poet George Gordon Lord Byron
(1788-1824), which "The poem tells of a disillusioned young man, a
melancholy, solitary, cynical ‘Byronic hero’, who tires of his sinful,
pleasure-seeking lifestyle and decides to travel" (British
Library). This line is from Canto III: But these recede. Above
me are the Alps,
The Palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned Eternity in icy halls
Of cold Sublimity, where forms and falls
The Avalanche—the thunderbolt of snow!
All that expands the spirit, yet appals,
Gather around these summits, as to show
How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. Read more about Byron's poem at The Guardian.
The Palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned Eternity in icy halls
Of cold Sublimity, where forms and falls
The Avalanche—the thunderbolt of snow!
All that expands the spirit, yet appals,
Gather around these summits, as to show
How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. Read more about Byron's poem at The Guardian.
Switzerland_Frankenstein_Trail_
Switzerland
is not only the setting of most of the novel but also the place that
inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. As
Switzerland was the birthplace of the novel, many people follow the
"Frankenstein Trail" and have written about the experience. See Tony
Perrottet’s article in
The New York Times and Nigel Richardson’s in
The Telegraph for wonderful descriptions of
the landscape and countryside. In honor of the 200th anniversary of the
novel, an art collective KLAT created and erected a bronze cast statue of
the Creature in the city of
Plainpolis. The image here is a panorama taken by Attila Terbócs of the view
of Geneva from the top of St. Peter’s Cathedral and it is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. In the summer of 1814, Mary Shelley and her then-lover,
Percy Shelley, travelled in secret to the continent, visiting France,
Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. The couple published a collection
of letters about their travels, titled History of a Six-Week Tour. In Letter II, Switzerland is
depicted as a place "with more equality of classes...than in England" (103);
this interest in the freer and more natural lives of the "lower orders"
(103) was also central to the Romantic ideology. As the discussion of the Six Week History on the
British Library website makes clear, this idea is "echoed in
chapter 6 of Frankenstein, where Elizabeth writes
‘the lower orders, being neither so poor nor so despised, their manners are
more refined and moral’."
Switzerland
is not only the setting of most of the novel but also the place that
inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. As
Switzerland was the birthplace of the novel, many people follow the
"Frankenstein Trail" and have written about the experience. See Tony
Perrottet’s article in
The New York Times and Nigel Richardson’s in
The Telegraph for wonderful descriptions of
the landscape and countryside. In honor of the 200th anniversary of the
novel, an art collective KLAT created and erected a bronze cast statue of
the Creature in the city of
Plainpolis. The image here is a panorama taken by Attila Terbócs of the view
of Geneva from the top of St. Peter’s Cathedral and it is hosted on
Wikimedia Commons. In the summer of 1814, Mary Shelley and her then-lover,
Percy Shelley, travelled in secret to the continent, visiting France,
Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. The couple published a collection
of letters about their travels, titled History of a Six-Week Tour. In Letter II, Switzerland is
depicted as a place "with more equality of classes...than in England" (103);
this interest in the freer and more natural lives of the "lower orders"
(103) was also central to the Romantic ideology. As the discussion of the Six Week History on the
British Library website makes clear, this idea is "echoed in
chapter 6 of Frankenstein, where Elizabeth writes
‘the lower orders, being neither so poor nor so despised, their manners are
more refined and moral’."Romanticism_In order to truly explain the Romantic imagery
throughout the text, one must have a full understanding of what constitutes
Romanticism. Romanticism has little to do with feelings of romance and more
to do with a philosophical way of thinking that prioritizes imagination,
nature, and the self. Romanticism began in England and Germany (two
countries not home to the romance languages begotten from Vulgar Latin),
most notably with the poets William
Wordsworth, John
Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The early Romantic period is one of
revolutionary thought heavily influenced with the American and French
revolutions. These revolutions are important to note as they changed the
political and individual structure and thought of their countries,
overthrowing monarchies and creating democracies. The Romantics valued
imagination over reason as the imagination was the primary method of
creation. Nature, to the Romantics, was a work of art created by the divine
imagination, full of symbolism and meaning. Nature plays a central symbolic
role in Frankenstein. Victor’s mood is often
reflected in the nature he observes around him, and once he creates the
Creature, he describes storms and ominous natural elements meant to instill
foreboding in the reader. However, nature is also beautiful and could only
be created by a higher power, so while it mimics Victor’s interior state of
duress, it is also a reminder that something is a more powerful and a better
creator than Victor, whose creation is “grotesque" and “malformed." To learn
more about Romanticism, read Glen Levin Swiggett’s article "What is
Romanticism?" or explore the British Library’s resources on Romanticism.
Gospel_of_Mark_ Frankenstein references a passage from Chapter 9 of
the Gospel of Mark,
in which Christ describes the wicked undergoing eternal torment in Hell:
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." This sentiment
is also reflected in Lord Byron’s The Bride of Abydos ("The worm that will not
sleep-- and never dies… That winds around and tears the quivering heart!"
[2.644-649]) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost (Satan’s torment is "th’undying
Worm" VI.739).
Satans_Soliloquy_Shelley alludes to Satan's soliloquy upon Mount
Niphates in Book IV of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton’s narrator
reflects upon Satan’s "dire Attempt" to cause the fall of humankind,
characterizing his wrath as "a devillish Engine [that] back recoiles / Upon
himself" (IV.17-18). Satan’s "Hell" is an internal, self-perpetuating engine
of doubt, pride, and torment recoiling upon itself; " within him Hell / He
brings, and round about him, nor from Hell / One step no more then from
himself can fly / By change of place" (IV.20-23). For more information about
the influence of Paradise Lost in Frankenstein, see John Lamb’s "Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein and Milton's Monstrous Myth" and the
overview of Paradise Lostin the "Romantics and
Victorians" exhibit at the British Library.
Sorrows_of_Young_Werther_
The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary novel by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774. The story follows
the life of Werther, a young artist, who is writing to his friend Wilhelm.
Werther falls in love with Charlotte, a woman already promised to his
friend, Albert. Despite the agony caused by this love triangle, Werther
cultivates a friendship with the couple, until the pain and sorrow of his
love overpowers him and he leaves. When Werther returns, he finds the
couple now married. He lessens his visits to Charlotte, out of respect
for her husband, but ultimately realizes that in order to resolve the
love triangle, he must die. He commits suicide, and the novel ends with
Charlotte potentially dying of a broken heart. The novel was an amazing
hit, creating a wave not only in literary circles but also across fashion
and society. As Patrick Devitt summarizes, "It was widely believed that von
Goethe’s work led to a wave of young men deciding to end their lives all
over Europe, many of whom were dressed in the same clothing as von
Goethe’s description of Werther and using similar pistols. Some even had
the copies of the novel beside their bodies with the page opened to the
page of the suicide scene." This became known as the "Werther Effect."The novel was banned in several countries,
only escalating its popularity. To learn more about the Werther Effect,
see David Phillips’
article in The American Sociological
Review. The image to the right shows the title page of the
first edition of Sorrows, via Wikimedia Commons.
Due to its unbridled passion, valuing human emotion over human life and
rational thought Sorrows was popular among the
Romantics. obvious influence over Mary Shelley’s novel, from the
epistolary format of Frankenstein to the
reflections on the value of life, not only in creating life but ending
life (Victor contemplates suicide and the Creature praises suicide).
Finally, Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a book of
unrequited love: Frankenstein’s bride is killed on their wedding night,
the Creature’s love is ripped apart by Frankenstein, and the Creature
never receives or love from another. Ultimately, the Creature most
identifies with Sorrows as he is desperate to feel
complete through love. By invoking Sorrows in
conjunction with her Creature, Shelley is both highlighting and
criticizing Goethe’s novel for the theme of love triumphing over all.
First, Shelley is critiquing Enlightenment
thinking by pointing out that problems cannot always be solved
using logic, especially in regards to building a human being as humans
are more than a series of automations or mechanical processes—humans are
emotional and unpredictable. In the same vein, Shelley is critiquing the
idea that love can be engineered to solve problems. Instead, she argues
the romantic idea of organically developing love, like that between Safi
and Felix, is desirable, unlike the engineered or arranged romances of
Frankenstein and Elizabeth (or the Creature’s partner to-be). To read
more on the reception and meanings within Sorrows
see Bruce Duncan’s Goethe’s ‘Werther’ and the Critics. For
the influence Sorrows on Frankenstein, see Joyce Carol Oates’’Frankenstein’s Fallen
Angel, Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The
Birth, Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster
(especially
"Case 8: The Monster’s Books"), and Clayton Koelb’s The Revivifying Word: Literature, Philosophy, and the
Theory of Life in Europe's Romantic Age (especially "Chapter
8: "I sickened as I read": Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein").
The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary novel by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774. The story follows
the life of Werther, a young artist, who is writing to his friend Wilhelm.
Werther falls in love with Charlotte, a woman already promised to his
friend, Albert. Despite the agony caused by this love triangle, Werther
cultivates a friendship with the couple, until the pain and sorrow of his
love overpowers him and he leaves. When Werther returns, he finds the
couple now married. He lessens his visits to Charlotte, out of respect
for her husband, but ultimately realizes that in order to resolve the
love triangle, he must die. He commits suicide, and the novel ends with
Charlotte potentially dying of a broken heart. The novel was an amazing
hit, creating a wave not only in literary circles but also across fashion
and society. As Patrick Devitt summarizes, "It was widely believed that von
Goethe’s work led to a wave of young men deciding to end their lives all
over Europe, many of whom were dressed in the same clothing as von
Goethe’s description of Werther and using similar pistols. Some even had
the copies of the novel beside their bodies with the page opened to the
page of the suicide scene." This became known as the "Werther Effect."The novel was banned in several countries,
only escalating its popularity. To learn more about the Werther Effect,
see David Phillips’
article in The American Sociological
Review. The image to the right shows the title page of the
first edition of Sorrows, via Wikimedia Commons.
Due to its unbridled passion, valuing human emotion over human life and
rational thought Sorrows was popular among the
Romantics. obvious influence over Mary Shelley’s novel, from the
epistolary format of Frankenstein to the
reflections on the value of life, not only in creating life but ending
life (Victor contemplates suicide and the Creature praises suicide).
Finally, Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a book of
unrequited love: Frankenstein’s bride is killed on their wedding night,
the Creature’s love is ripped apart by Frankenstein, and the Creature
never receives or love from another. Ultimately, the Creature most
identifies with Sorrows as he is desperate to feel
complete through love. By invoking Sorrows in
conjunction with her Creature, Shelley is both highlighting and
criticizing Goethe’s novel for the theme of love triumphing over all.
First, Shelley is critiquing Enlightenment
thinking by pointing out that problems cannot always be solved
using logic, especially in regards to building a human being as humans
are more than a series of automations or mechanical processes—humans are
emotional and unpredictable. In the same vein, Shelley is critiquing the
idea that love can be engineered to solve problems. Instead, she argues
the romantic idea of organically developing love, like that between Safi
and Felix, is desirable, unlike the engineered or arranged romances of
Frankenstein and Elizabeth (or the Creature’s partner to-be). To read
more on the reception and meanings within Sorrows
see Bruce Duncan’s Goethe’s ‘Werther’ and the Critics. For
the influence Sorrows on Frankenstein, see Joyce Carol Oates’’Frankenstein’s Fallen
Angel, Rebecca Baumann’s Frankenstein 200: The
Birth, Life, and Resurrection of Mary Shelley's Monster
(especially
"Case 8: The Monster’s Books"), and Clayton Koelb’s The Revivifying Word: Literature, Philosophy, and the
Theory of Life in Europe's Romantic Age (especially "Chapter
8: "I sickened as I read": Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein").