Frankenstein context

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  • Frankenstein Contexts
    • Mary Shelley
      • Published first edition in 1818 but WE STUDY 1831 VERSION!!
        • Clearly influenced by Horace Walpole
      • Plagued by her inability to have children
        • 3 Miscarriages, 1 child survives full pregancy
      • Mary Wollstonecraft=Mother
        • Died 11 days after giving birth to Shelley
        • Vindication of the Rights of Women
      • Romantic Period
    • Scientific Ideas
      • Galvanism
        • Andrew Ure 1818
          • 1818- conducted a Galvanistic experiment on the dead body of Matthew Clydesdale (a convicted murderer)
          • Pulsed electricity through the body to test if life can be restored into a dead body
          • Wanted to re-animate the corpse of Clydesdale
          • Isaac Newton speculated this in early 1700's. Stephen Gray demonstrated the principle of electrical conductivity in 1730
            • Giovanni Aldini 1803
              • 17th January 1803- George Forster hanged for murder and body taken to the Royal College of Surgeons
              • More shocking than simple dissection as Forster was to be electrified
              • Experimented with the idea that there was a relationship with electricity and the process of life
        • Giovanni Aldini 1803
          • 17th January 1803- George Forster hanged for murder and body taken to the Royal College of Surgeons
          • More shocking than simple dissection as Forster was to be electrified
          • Experimented with the idea that there was a relationship with electricity and the process of life
      • 1751 Murder Act
        • Allowed for the bodies of executed murderers to be used for experiments
    • Marriage
      • When married, traditional Christian customs of being handed from father to husband were in place
      • Consummation of marriage- first sexual intercourse with new spouse
    • Women
      • Feminism
        • 1st Wave
        • Seen as the submissive sex- trying to change this
      • Rise in female authorship BUT under male pseudonyms
        • Patriarchal constraints in society
      • Marriage
        • When married, traditional Christian customs of being handed from father to husband were in place
        • Consummation of marriage- first sexual intercourse with new spouse
      • Only people who can get pregnant- natural role
      • Romanticised in literature
      • Treated as an 'outsider' or an 'other'
    • Character types
      • Femme Fatale
        • - Parody of Morticia Addams          - Sexual threat              - Dangerous and rapacious creatures        - Punished for their transgression
      • Persecuted Maiden
        • - Victim- blonde, passive, frail, silent, innocent, helpless          -Hyperbolic  reactions
      • Mother figure
        • Untitled

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