Frankenstein - Context
- Created by: Sabrina Wellham
- Created on: 13-05-17 16:01
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- Context in Frankenstein
- Rousseau + the Romantics
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau - influential 18th cent philosopher
- Shelley had read his work = influenced Frankenstein
- Believed society corrupts humans - creates inequality/jealousy
- Argued someone abandoned at birth would be distorted by society's prejudices until they become "the most disfigured of all"
- MONSTER - 'natural' being at birth, 'benevolent and good' but grows into being a 'fiend' after discrimination
- 'Romantic' movement - major impact on art and literature late 1700s/early 1800s
- Mary Shelley's husband Percy Shelley = famous Romantic poet
- They captured emotions/experiences (nature related)
- Nature = powerful force
- Romantic settings e.g. after William/Justine's deaths, Frankenstein visits alps - 'tingling long-lost sense of pleasure' and receives 'the greatest consolation'
- CLERVAL - nature has powerful effect - travels down river Rhine = 'a happiness seldom tasted by man'
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau - influential 18th cent philosopher
- Shelly + Contemporary Science
- Time of scientific debate - origins of life?
- Studying electricity = revealed what gave life to humans?
- 1780 - Luigi Galvani decided on 'animal electricity'
- GALVANISM
- 1803 - Galvani's nephew conducts similar experiment on dead criminal
- Led to 'body snatching' = blasphemous
- Shelley was aware of experiments - refers to Percy Shelley and Lord Byron's conversation
- Shelley implies Frankenstein uses electricity to animate the Monster - he infuses a "spark of being" into a "lifeless being"
- Shelley uses SYMBOLISM for sparks and lightning as knowledge + danger - a tree is "utterly destroyed" by lightning
- 1818 - Arctic exploration evolving to find faster route to India/China
- ROBERT WALTON - wants to find 'passage' through Arctic to bring "inestimable benefit"
- Time of scientific debate - origins of life?
- Paradise Lost + Prometheus
- 'Paradise Lost' = Poem by John Milton based on Genesis in the Bible
- Like Adam and Eve, Frankenstein meddles with forbidden knowledge
- Title page of Frankenstein = extract from Paradise Lost = novel should read with it in mind
- Monster questions his creator for making him (miserable) - Adam questions God
- Monster reads PL = compares himself to Satan (both outcasts)
- Satan has companions - Monster is 'solitary'
- contrasts to Adam - 'guarded by the especial care of his Creator'
- Monster thinks his relationship with Frankenstein should mirror Adam + God's - 'I am thy creature, I ought to by thy Adam'
- Satan is thrown out of Heaven + takes revenge on A+E. Milton's poem shows both Adam and Satan to question God's actions
- Prometheus = alternative novel title
- Prometheus = character in Greek/Roman mythology
- Greek myth = mankind is forbidden by gods to have fire but Prometheus steals and teaches mankind how to use it
- Romans added to myth = Prometheus created man using clay and water
- Eternally punished by god Zeus for stealing fire
- Frankenstein's actions also cause him pain/misery
- Frankenstein = modern version - creates man and wants to benefit mankind with forbidden knowledge
- Rebellious hero? Challenges the gods and laws of creation
- Frankenstein is presented in a similar way
- Greek myth = mankind is forbidden by gods to have fire but Prometheus steals and teaches mankind how to use it
- Prometheus = character in Greek/Roman mythology
- 'Paradise Lost' = Poem by John Milton based on Genesis in the Bible
- Rousseau + the Romantics
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