The Context of Mary Shelley - Frankenstein - Schooling Online

in Frankenstein we can see how Shelley's exploration of gender roles man's ambition and hubris Humanity versus monstrosity revenge and nature and the sublime reflects aspects of her context did you know that the greatest science fiction Horror Story of all time also has a cool backstory but be warned Mary Shelley's tale of Woe Rivals Victor Frankenstein's born in London in 1797 Mary Shelley was the daughter of two radical philosophers her father was William Godwin a political Anarchist and writer who had his own cult following and her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft a founding mother of feminism and

the trailblazing author of a Vindication of the rights of woman these intellectual heavyweights passed their gifts onto their daughter who eventually out Shawn and outscandalized them both sadly Mary Shelley's mother died two weeks after giving birth to her which cast a sorrowful Shadow over her life in July 1814 sixteen-year-old Mary eloped to Europe with 21 year old Percy bischelli who was already a married man he was one of her father's followers and a famous poet in the making William Godwin was Furious and refused to help his daughter when she returned to England a few months

later penniless and Pregnant in February 1815 Mary delivered a premature baby girl who died less than a fortnight later this plunged her into deep depression and for a while she was haunted by visions of her dead child happily she conceived again and in January 1816 gave birth to a son named William in May 1816 the shelleys who were still unmarried returned to Europe with baby William they wanted to escape this stuffy conservatism of England and visit a notorious friend of theirs Lord Byron the poet they spent the summer at Lake Geneva as Byron's neighbors and

frequently his guests thus a legendary literary click formed at Villa diadati Byron's palatial rented pad however the summer that year turned into a wet and stormy one which drove them all indoors this may seem like a drag but it fostered just the right atmosphere for creativity in the Cozy candlelit Gloom of Byron's drawing room many late night talks were had most of the time nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley sat in quiet absorption enjoying the scintillating banter between Percy bishelli Lord Byron and his personal physician Dr John polidori oh to have been a fly on the wall for

those sessions to keep things spicy Lord Byron issued a challenge they would each write a scary story so Mary Shelley committed herself to concocting something to make the reader dread to look round to curdle the blood and Quicken the beatings of the heart for days she wrapped her brains until one night when the conversation turned to galvanism this was the theory that organic matter like Frog's legs and even human corpses could be reanimated using electricity and chemistry galvanism is the foundation of modern electrophysiology but in the early 1800s it was a wild idea Mary Shelley

and the Gang at Villa diodati chewed on this until around 3 A.M one night when they all finally went to bed Mary Shelley couldn't sleep in her introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein she remembers how she saw the pale student of unhallowed Arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together I saw the Hideous Phantasm of a man stretched out and then on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life this haunting Vision kept her wide awake and afraid but young Mary Shelley had found her story and when she shared it with

the group they loved it it began as a short story but with lots of encouragement from Percy Mary Shelley developed it into a novel the pair also finally married in December 1816. just a few weeks after Percy's first wife killed herself poor Harriet in June 1817 Mary Shelley finished her manuscript despite being pregnant and often ill in September she gave birth to Clara a healthy baby girl then on the 1st of January 1818 something else was born the first edition of Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus phew what a hectic couple of years but like many

female authors at the time Mary Shelley chose to remain anonymous at least until the next Edition was published in 1823 but by that time both Clara and William had died of separate illnesses Mary Shelley had had a life-threatening miscarriage and Percy biscelli had drowned in a boating accident don't say we didn't warn you only one of her children Percy Florence born in 1819 survived into adulthood prior to his untimely death people assumed that Percy bischelli had written Frankenstein that's because in Regency England it was Preposterous to think that a young girl could write such a

shocking tale not to mention that being an author or anything else that could attract notoriety was deemed improper for women prior to Frankenstein's publication in 1818 Mary Shelley was genuinely worried that if she identified herself as the author the moral outrage would cause her children to be taken from her that was a legitimate concern in those days women of the Regency Era and basically all the other English eras were expected to be submissive virtuous and happily bound to the domestic sphere they were not expected to be masters of their own destiny but rather rely on

their male relatives or husbands to steer the course of their lives in Frankenstein Margaret Caroline Elizabeth Justine agassa and Safi each represent aspects of the Regency feminine ideal in fact their Angelic qualities are quite exaggerated they play one-dimensional supportive roles for the male characters whose actions Drive the plot ultimately most of the women end up as distressed damsels or dead in the male-dominated Mayhem bearing in mind her mother's revolutionary work on women's rights Mary Shelley portrays what happens when women have no agency but is the story itself that shocking absolutely remember Mary Shelley had to

impress Lord Byron and prove herself worthy of her parents Fame Victor Frankenstein's hubristic ambition leads him down a very dark path hubris is excessive Pride or dangerous overconfidence and Victor Takes the Cake while studying natural philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt young Victor develops a bit of a God complex he decides to make a giant man out of dead body parts and bring him to life using Arcane science he rejoices in the idea that a new species would bless me as its creator how blasphemous Victor's egotism expresses Shelley's criticism of the Age of Enlightenment also

known as The Age of Reason and let's not forget Captain Walton and his dangerous obsession with discovering the wondrous power that attracts the needle through him and Victor Shelley represents the enlightened man's resistless and almost frantic impulse to make discoveries for personal Glory at the time Europe was abuzz with scientific discourse and advancement while this period gave birth to modernity it also had a barbaric side Joseph Wright's famous painting an experiment on a bird in the air pump gives us a small taste of that poor birdie similarly Victor Frankenstein experiments on live animals in the

course of creating his hideous creature which he then abandons in the hope that it will wither and die it's a callous Act of betrayal and begs the question of who's the real monster in the story the creature begins life as an innocent and performs acts of kindness and heroism towards others like the delacy family he also learns how to speak read and write and adopts vegetarianism out of kindness for animals that's a shout out to William Godwin and Percy bischelli both of whom were proud veggies the creature's intelligence and altruism makes him seem very human

which challenges the idea of human exceptionalism this is the belief that humans by virtue of their Consciousness and language are superior to other animals famous philosophers like Aristotle Renee Descartes and Emmanuel Kant held this View but Mary Shelley brings it into question in fact her travels through Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars fueled her outrage at the monstrosity of man the creature only becomes monstrous through his encounters with people Everyone Rejects and abuses him due to his physical appearance which isn't his fault ultimately he comes for Victor and his loved ones turning Victor's

life into a Gothic nightmare the creature's Revenge complete with violent deaths and extreme emotions are Hallmarks of Gothic literature which is part of dark Romanticism like the castle of Otranto and the mysteries of udolfo before it Frankenstein immerses readers in psychological Terror confinement Madness cruelty and brooding villainy such fun well for us anyway the punishment Victor endures makes him the modern Prometheus this is an illusion or reference to the Greek legend in which Prometheus steals fire from the gods he then gives it to Mankind in the form of science technology and the knowledge to build

civilization for this transgression Zeus sentences Prometheus to Eternal punishment speaking of civilization the Industrial Revolution was ramping up during Shelley's time and huge changes were happening across Europe in Britain large tracts of Countryside were claimed in the name of mechanized industry factories and Mills popped up where farmland and forests used to be populations exploded towns became Cities human labor was exploited for mass production and the air and waterways became polluted for this reason Frankenstein is often interpreted as an allegory for the Hideous monster we made out of Industry remember an allegory is a narrative whose

plot characters or setting are used to symbolize real world issues or events the Industrial Revolution clashed with Mary Shelley's romantic sensibilities especially in regard to Nature remember Romanticism was an important artistic movement in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries it was partly a reaction to the enlightenment in that it emphasized passion over reason and Beauty over order Romanticism was a creative mindset adopted by the likes of Lord Byron Percy biscelli and Mary Shelley that embraced imagination individual genius and a deep appreciation for the sublime in nature before she wrote Frankenstein Mary Shelley co-authored a

non-fiction travel narrative with Percy bischelli it details their early Rambles through Europe and describes Grand scenes of white Wilderness and a vast expanse of snow dotted by gigantic Pines this made a lasting impression on Mary Shelley and is echoed in Frankenstein from the desolate ice Scapes of the Arctic to the rugged Grandeur of the Alps the site of the awful and Majestic in nature is never lost on her characters well done team you've made it to the top of the mountain in this lesson we've covered how aspects of Mary Shelley's context shaped her exploration of

gender roles man's ambition and hubris Humanity versus monstrosity revenge and nature and the sublime in Frankenstein now you're ready to write awesome responses and make Mary Shelley proud we hope you enjoyed this schooling online production for more easy lessons check out our other videos [Music]