Topic 11: Frankenstein
November 28th, 2022
Mary Shelley
Has a very interesting background – the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin!
● She is often known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Wollstonecraft was one of the
earliest articulators of what we now call feminism.
○ Mary Wollstonecraft dies during birth due to unsanitary surgical equipment.
● These are people who are very much involved in the revolutionary “rethinking” of the
world that came about in the French Revolution.
Percy Shelley
Mary Shelley eloped with Percy Shelley when they were both (absurdly) young.
● Shelley happened to be married (but that didn’t stop them). They couldn’t stay in
England so they left for Switzerland.
○ Became the neighbours of Lord Byron (one of the important 6 Romantic poets
with a bad reputation) in Switzerland… they were all together (Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley, Lord Byron…)
○ Fell into a ghost story contest – this is one of the great providence narratives in
literary history.
Frankenstein
Starts with the idea of the ghost story – in the afterlife of the novel, it is the horror and scary
aspect of the Creature that dominates over the philosophical and ethical aspects.
● Attuned more to the philosophical and ethical questions rather than to the horror genre.
● Horror is not necessarily what the novel relies on.
● We could place Frankenstein in the genres of science fiction or gothic.
○ Sense and Sensibility – having highly tuned emotions.
To some commentators, we are going through a Frankensteinian turn right now.
● A trend throughout the book (Vol. I and II) where knowledge and ambition are associated
with destiny
● Like Walton, Frankenstein is a quester (Walton wants to go to the North pole,
Frankenstein wants to create something revolutionary)
December 2nd, 2022
Outer Frame – Captain Walton
Humans had only gone so far too certain parts of the Earth at this point in history – no European
people had ever ventured out to the North Pole.
November 28th, 2022
Mary Shelley
Has a very interesting background – the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin!
● She is often known as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Wollstonecraft was one of the
earliest articulators of what we now call feminism.
○ Mary Wollstonecraft dies during birth due to unsanitary surgical equipment.
● These are people who are very much involved in the revolutionary “rethinking” of the
world that came about in the French Revolution.
Percy Shelley
Mary Shelley eloped with Percy Shelley when they were both (absurdly) young.
● Shelley happened to be married (but that didn’t stop them). They couldn’t stay in
England so they left for Switzerland.
○ Became the neighbours of Lord Byron (one of the important 6 Romantic poets
with a bad reputation) in Switzerland… they were all together (Percy Shelley,
Mary Shelley, Lord Byron…)
○ Fell into a ghost story contest – this is one of the great providence narratives in
literary history.
Frankenstein
Starts with the idea of the ghost story – in the afterlife of the novel, it is the horror and scary
aspect of the Creature that dominates over the philosophical and ethical aspects.
● Attuned more to the philosophical and ethical questions rather than to the horror genre.
● Horror is not necessarily what the novel relies on.
● We could place Frankenstein in the genres of science fiction or gothic.
○ Sense and Sensibility – having highly tuned emotions.
To some commentators, we are going through a Frankensteinian turn right now.
● A trend throughout the book (Vol. I and II) where knowledge and ambition are associated
with destiny
● Like Walton, Frankenstein is a quester (Walton wants to go to the North pole,
Frankenstein wants to create something revolutionary)
December 2nd, 2022
Outer Frame – Captain Walton
Humans had only gone so far too certain parts of the Earth at this point in history – no European
people had ever ventured out to the North Pole.
