Frankenstein

1. Frankenstein The Romantic Movement, Gothic Literature, and the Author Mary Shelley

2. The Romantic Movement • Dates: 1785-1830 • Originated in Germany with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • Earliest Romantic writer was William Blake • England— William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s book of poetry, Lyrical Ballads (1798), established European Romanticism

3. Characteristics of Romantic Literature • Romantic writers are concerned with: • Nature • Human feelings • Compassion for mankind • Freedom of the individual and Romantic hero • Rebellion against society

4. Characteristics of Romantic Literature • Writers also experiment with the discontent that they feel against all that seems commercial, inhuman, and standardized • Rural and rustic life vs. the modern life • Far away places and travel to those places • Medieval folklore and legends • Common people

5. Romantic Hero • Archetype/Stock Character • A character that: • 1. Rejects established norms and conventions • 2. Has been rejected by society • 3. Has the self as the center of his/her own existence * The monster is a Romantic hero because of the rejection he must bear from normal society.

6. The Gothic Novel • Dates: 1754, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole—1847, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte • Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance • A style of novel, especially popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, characterized by mysterious settings, an atmosphere of gloom and terror, supernatural happenings, and often violence and horror

7. Characteristics of the Gothic Novel • Focuses on the mysterious and supernatural • Take place in gloomy places like old buildings (particularly castles or rooms with secret passageways), dungeons, or towers that serve as a backdrop for the mysterious circumstances • Frankenstein is set in continental Europe (Switzerland and Germany), as well as the Arctic region.

8. Characteristics of the Gothic Novel • Elements of mystery and gloom • i.e. Raising the dead • The characters seem to bridge the mortal world and the supernatural world.

9. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley • (1797-1851) • Parents: Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin • Married Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816 • January 1, 1818—Frankenstein in published

10. How Frankenstein was Created Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley were on retreat in Europe when a rainy month prompted them to entertain themselves by writing ghost stories. Mary Shelley wrote the first draft of Frankenstein

11. Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus • Prometheus was the God that created mankind and then introduced them to fire (and he had to pay a stiff price for his "crimes"...lying on a boulder where crows would rip at entrails for all eternity).  Hence the name of the novel as Frankenstein had created a man.  • The doctor's name was Frankenstein, not the monster.  • The monster was never given a name but he did refer to himself as Adam when correlating Frankenstein as his "God".

12. What Frankenstein is NOT:

13. Themes in Frankenstein • The use of knowledge for good or evil purposes • “How can we harness the knowledge that we have so that it is not self destructive and for the benefit of all mankind?” • The invasion of technology into modern life • “What responsibility must we exercise once we bring people back from the dead?” • The treatment of the poor or uneducated • The restorative powers of nature in the face of unnatural events

14. Character Map • Frankenstein Character Map

15. Frankenstein: 1818 vs. 1831 Edition • Annotated Frankenstein