Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley

Born to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, though Wollstonecraft died after giving birth to Mary a little over a week after her birth. Mary was provided with a rich, informal education - encouraging her to focus on liberal political theories. She married Percy Bysshe Shelley after his first wife's suicide. Mary was pregnant with Percy's child and it was born prematurely thus resulting in the loss of her firstborn daughter.

1816
- The famous trip to Lake Geneva with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont
- At one point they discussed galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse to life
- During this trip it was said that there was a night with less than fortunate weather
- The group decided to hold a writing contest
     - The goal was to see who could come up with the best "ghost" story
- The Results
     - The Vampyre - Polidori
     - Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley

Frankenstein
- Uses old alchemy and chemistry
- Alchemy is about the transformation of things
- Frame Story
     - akin to the Thousand and One Arabian Nights
     - Starts with Captain Walton (geographical isolation) where he searches in the Arctic Circle
          - Close relationship with sister
     - Victor and Walton are strikingly similar
- Parallel to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner
     - Walton/ Wedding Guest
     - Victor/ Mariner who must tell the tale to those who comes across him
     - A warning from Mariner to Guest

Goals of Frankenstein
- Create life - birth without a mother
- Overcome death
- Shelley grew up motherless
     - Victor tries to create a motherless birth, thereby gaining the power of God
     - Using dead bodies and animal parts "convicts"
- Once the monster is awoken, Victor runs from the physical manifestations of what he becomes internally
- Creature = adam
     - Companion to be akin to Eve
     - Victor = Creator/Father figure
          - Wants to go where no man has gone before
     - Deism - Starts the clock of time, then abandons the world created

Gender at Play
- Mother dies
- Justine, a victim
- Elizabeth, ideal helpmate
- Margaret, Walton's sister
- Sisters represent the sanity the men begin to lose, they are the men's redeemers

The Medicine of Frankenstein
- Galvanism
     - Electricity being life force
     - Corneilus Agrippa

The Creature
- Created by Victor in order to prove Death was not the end
- "Adam" figure
- Gets abandoned, treated poorly by all he comes across
- Becomes educated
     - Reads Paradise Lost and Victor's diary
     - What else does the creature read?
     - How does his education affect who he is?
- Stands for logic, truth, and reason
- Unnatural creation
- Victor gets blown away by the fact the Creature is so human-esque
     - The ice caves where they speak
- Humanity judges people based on appearances, and we have a certain lack of humanity due to judging people

Edmund Burke
- Essay on Sublime ideas
- Moved by Sublime much more than the solely beautiful
- Gothic works well due to the elements of the Sublime

Reality
- Questions if the Creature really exists at all
- Is Victor unreliable as a narrator?
- Victor and Creature similar
     - Is the Creature merely an exaggeration of Victor?
     - Both primarily self taught in education
     - Passionate, driven by revenge
     - Ready to blame everyone else, never willing to take responsibility for actions