Frankenstein - Context

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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'
    • 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"
    • 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

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