The Frankenstein Page

This page is for anyone who wishes to learn more about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein and includes a discussion of how I have used the novel in the classroom as well as an outline of its architectonic design (courtesy of Dr. Jean Aldrich), a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and links to interesting and informative Frankenstein sites.  

A Brief Introduction to the Novel

A lightning bolt tears the night sky in two, illuminating the path of the Creature as he makes his weary way through the rain-drenched forest.  His pitiful cries mingle with the thunder that echoes through the thick trees, silent witnesses to his misery and his pain.  Any hapless soul unfortunate enough to cross his path would surely flee in terror from his monstrous visage and horrid rage, born of loneliness and fear, stoked by the fires of human intolerance and ignorance.  From his birth in 1818, the Creature has wandered through our world in various incarnations in our literature, theatre, films, television programs, Halloween costumes, toys, and even our breakfast cereal.  His name and likeness are easily recognized by people all over the world, but where exactly did he come from?  Who is responsible for this monster that has captivated the world since the 19th century, and how did she create such a being?

The answer lies with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and wife of Percy Shelley. As she explained in the preface to the novel, she and Percy were vacationing in Switzerland, staying next door to their good friend Lord Byron.  The weather did not comply with their vacation plans, however, and the constant rain kept them indoors for days at a time.  At first they passed the time reading ghost stories to each other, but then Lord Byron had a better idea: they would have a contest to see who could  write the best ghost story.  The other three contestants--Lord Byron, Dr. John Polidori, and Percy--soon had their stories underway, but for days Mary could not come up with anything to rival their stories . . . until one memorable evening.  According to Mary,

"When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think.  My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie.  I saw--with shut eyes, but acute mental vision,--I 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, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.  Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.  His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handywork, horror-stricken.  He would hope that, left to itself, the slight spark of life which he had communicated would fade; that this thing, which had received such imperfect animation, would subside into dead matter; and he might sleep in the belief that the silence of the grave would quench for ever the transient existence of the hideous corpse which he had looked upon as the cradle of life.  He sleeps; but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains, and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes."*

Because this so terrified her, Mary knew it would also terrify others, and from the simple origins of a writing contest and a waking vision came one of the most influential novels and characters of all time: Frankenstein's Monster.  The Creature, coupled with the many genres and social issues in the novel, make it an important and influential piece of literature--and all from the mind of a girl who just wanted to write a "good ghost story."

*Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft.  Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus.  NY: St. Martin's, 1992.

A Chronology of Mary W. Shelley's Life

*The numbers in brackets refer to Mary W. Shelley's age at the time.

1792:  Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.

1793:  William Godwin's An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice is published.

1794:  Fanny Imlay, illegitimate child of Mary Wollstonecraft and the American industrialist Gilbert   Imlay, is born 25 August.

1797:  William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft marry on 29 March.  Mary W. Godwin is born on 30 August; her  mother dies ten days later on 10 September from puerperal infection resulting from improper post-delivery medical treatment.  Godwin adopts Fanny Imlay.

1798:  Godwin publishes Memoirs of the Author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," which reveals Mary Wollstonecraft's extramarital affairs (including their own) and her suicide attempts.  Godwin is roundly criticized, and Wollstonecraft's influence drastically diminishes for years to come.

1801:  {4} William Godwin and Mrs. Mary Jane Clairmont (whose previous marital history is cloudy) marry on 21 December.  Mrs. Clairmont brings with her a son Charles (age 7) and daughter Jane (4), later called Claire, to join young Mary and Fanny Imlay (daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft by Gilbert Imlay).

1805:  The Godwins open a children's book publishing firm, The Juvenile Library.

1807:  {10} The Godwin family move to Skinner Street, Holborn.

1810:  The Juvenile Library publishes Mary's first literary work, the poem "Mounseer Nongtonpaw."

1812:  {14-15} on 3 January, Percy Bysshe Shelley, recently married to Harriet Westbrook, starts a correspondence with Godwin, whose ideas he reveres.  He becomes a regular visitor to his house in the autumn, during Mary's absence.  She has gone for a long stay with the Baxter family in Dundee, but meets Percy and Harriet on a brief visit home on 11 November.

1813:  Shelley's Queen Mab, in many respects a poetic revisiting of Political Justice but expressing even greater disdain for marriage, is printed and distributed.  Paradoxically, Shelley dedicates the poem to his wife.

1814:  {16-17} Mary returns home in May and begins a relationship with Percy Shelley.  On 28 July they elope to the Continent, taking with them Claire Clairmont.  on 30 November Harriet Shelley gives birth to Charles, her second child.  Mary, Percy, and Claire return to England in September.  Godwin refuses to see Mary.  Mary and Percy see each other almost every day; they often visit Mary Wollstonecraft's grave, where they read from her works and biography.

1815:  {17} in February, Mary gives premature birth to a daughter who dies, unnamed, a few days later.  By August Mary and Percy have settled at Bishops Gate, Windsor.  Percy invites Harriet to join his household as platonic sister to Mary and himself; Harriet refuses.

1816:  {18-19} In January, Mary gives birth to a son, William.  The family, along with Claire, leave England for Geneva in early May.  They meet Byron (with whom Claire has already formed a liasion) and take up residence next to him at Montalègre, near Cologny.  Mary begins to write Frankenstein in June.  In July, Mary and Percy visit and explore the Mer de Glace at Chamonix, a major inspiration for Mary's novel.  In September they return to England.  On 9 October, Fanny Imlay, Mary's half-sister, commits suicide (she could not reconcile herself to her illegitimacy and lack of financial security).  Two months later Harriet Shelley is found drowned (she was advanced in pregnancy by an unknown man; her body was found on 10 December).  Mary and Percy  marry in London on 30 December.

1817:  {19-20} In March the Shelleys, with Claire and her daughter Allegra (by Byron), move to Marlow.  On 14 May Frankenstein is completed.  Mary gives birth to a daughter, Clara, in September.  History of a Six Weeks' Tour is published in November.  After being rejected by two publishers, Frankenstein is accepted by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mayor, and Jones in August.

1818:  {20-21} Frankenstein is published at the beginning of  January.  Mary, Percy, Claire, and the children all leave for Italy on 11 March.  In June they settle for two months at Bagni di Lucca, moving to Este in September.  Baby Clara dies in Venice.  Whilst there they visit Byron.  In December they travel south to Rome and settle in Naples for the winter.  Mary and Percy go sightseeing together.

1819:  {21-22} In March they return to Rome.  There is more tragedy as their son William dies in June: so far all of Mary's children have perished.  At this time Mary writes the semi-autobiographical Mathilda, a novella on the theme of father-daughter incestuous love which is not, however, destined to be published in her own lifetime.  They depart for Leghorn.  Having moved to Florence for her approaching confinement, Mary gives birth to a son, Percy Florence, in November.  He will be the only Shelley child to survive.

1821:  {23-24} In April they return to Bagni di San Giuliano for the summer.  In October they move to Pisa, with Edward and Jane Williams and Lord Byron as near neighbors.  Mary sends her novel Castruccio (later entitled Valperga) to London for publication.

1822:  {24-25} In May, the Shelleys settle with the Williamses at Casa Magni, near Lerici.  One month later, Mary almost dies from a miscarriage, but is saved by the quick-thinking efforts of her husband.  In early July Percy and Edward sail on the Don Juan to Leghorn to meet Leigh Hunt, but are lost at sea in a storm on the return journey.  In September Mary joins the Hunts and Byron at Geneva.

1823:  {25} Valperga is published in February.  The second edition of Frankenstein is published.  In August Mary returns to London.  Sir Timothy Shelley, Percy's father, offers to assume guardianship of Percy Florence; Mary refuses.

1824:  {26} In the spring Mary begins work on The Last Man, a novel set in the twenty-first century and purporting to be the narrative of the lone survivor in a world decimated by plague.  Byron dies in Greece.  Mary's edition of Percy Shelley's Posthumous Poems is published but suppressed at the insistence of Sir Timothy Shelley, his father.

1824-39:  {26-41} During these years, Mary Shelley writes numerous articles and stories for various magazines and journals, including the London Magazine, the Westminister Review, and the Keepsake.

1826:  {28-29} The Last Man is published in February.  Percy Florence becomes heir to the Shelley title and estate in September when Charles Bysshe, Shelley's son by Harriet, dies.

1828:  Mary contracts smallpox in April.

1830:  {32} Perkin Warbeck, Mary's fourth novel, is published.

1831:  A revised edition of Frankenstein is published by Bentley and Colburn in their Standard Novels series.  It remains the most commonly read and accessible version to date.

1832:  {35} Percy Florence is entered at Harrow.

1835:  {37} Volume I of the Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia is published.  Mary contributes the lives of Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Machiavelli.  In March Lodore is published.  In October Volume II of the Lives is published, Mary writing essays on Alfieri, Foscolo, Goldoni, Monti, and Metastasio.  (The British Reform Bill, introduced into Parliament the previous year, is enacted, extending the vote to male middle-class businessmen.  Women's suffrage is still more than three-quarters of a century away.)

1836:  {38} William Godwin dies on 7 April.  He is buried with Mary Wollstonecraft in St. Pancras Churchyard.

1837:  {39} Falkner, Mary's last novel, is published.  In July, Percy Florence is entered at Trinity College, Cambridge.  Volume III of the Lives, including essays by Mary on Calderon, Cervantes, and Lope de Vega.

1838-9:  {40-41} Mary continues to exercise her exceptional biographical talents by writing and publishing numerous essays for the Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of France (2 volumes) for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia.  They include essays on Montaigne, Rabelais, Corneille, Molière, Pascal, Racine, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Condorcet, as well as Eminent Literary and Scientific Women, Mme. Roland and Mme. de Stael.

1839:  {41} Mary prepares and publishes an edition of Percy Shelley's Poetical Works.  Although Sir Timothy still forbids her to write a biography of the poet, she is able to include biographical material in her notes to the poems.  Percy Shelley's Essays, Letters, and Translations are also published.

1844:  {46} Rambles in Germany and Italy, a book based on Mary's Continental tours with Percy Florence and his friends between 1840 and 1843, is published.  Sir Timothy dies on 23 April, and Percy Florence succeeds to the Shelley title and inheritance.

1848:  Percy Florence marries Jane St. John, an admirer of Mary's who will attempt to "purify" the recorded histories of the Godwins and the Shelleys by insisting that all references to illegitimacy and impropriety in their lives be eliminated.

1851:  {53} Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley dies on 1 February at Chester Square, London.  She is buried between the remains of her mother and father in St. Peter's Churchyard, Bournemouth.  Cause of death: brain tumor.

Frankenstein's Architectonic Design

*This architectonic design is courtesy of Dr. Jean Aldrich, a friend and fellow "Frankenphile."  

An architectonic outline is based on the design of the piece of literature.  The term "architectonic" is borrowed from architecture, and it refers to the way in which the piece is planned and constructed.  Some literary theorists say that the term is used to describe a work that successfully conveys meaning through its parts and as a whole.

Sample Journal Assignments

Preliminary Journal Assignment: 

The Frankenstein myth is so integrated into our culture that one will have some knowledge of it without having read the novel or seeing a film version.  In a short essay (1 - 3 pages), discuss your concept of the Frankenstein myth and anything else regarding Frankenstein that you can recall, including connections to films, graphic novels, comic books, TV shows, commercials, etc.  Consider the following questions as you write, as well as anything else that you find interesting about the Frankenstein myth.

	What does this "myth" involve?
	Why is it referred to as a "myth"?
	Who is Frankenstein, anyway?
	What does he look like?
	What mannerisms does he possess?
	What is this myth's contribution to our society in regards to the genres of science fiction and horror?
	What other genres have been influenced by the novel?
	What do you expect the novel to be like?  Why?
	Are you looking forward to the novel?  Why or why not?
	How has the myth permeated our culture?  (Consider TV's The Munsters, Frankenberry cereal, etc.)
	What effect has society had on the Frankenstein myth?

Journal on Reader's Perspectives:

Many of you are reading Frankenstein for the first time, and as an audience you have the benefit of having grown up in a culture that utilizes and interprets the Frankenstein myth in various ways.  However, readers in the 19th century had no previous experience with the novel or the flat-headed, green-skinned, bolts-in-the-neck guy that we all know and love.  For this assignment, try to put yourself in the place of a first-time reader in the 19th century.  Also, consider the following questions:

	What might it have been like to read this when it was first published?
	Why did the novel become so popular?
	What type of audience did it appeal to?
	What other novels were popular at the time?
	What if a 19th century reader were transported to modern times?  What might he/she think of the Frankenstein myth?
	What might Mary Shelley think of the modern Frankenstein myth?
	How did society turn Mary Shelley's eloquent, sensitive Creature into the green-skinned, inarticulate monster that we all recognize?
	What is the significance of what society has done to Mary Shelley's Creature?

Sample Discussion Questions

	Is the Creature human or not?  What characteristics does he have that make him human?  What          characteristics does he have that are non-human?  Which set of characteristics are more prevalent?
	How does the theme of role reversal function in the novel between Victor and the Creature?  What roles are being reversed?  What is the significance of this?
	What is the function of the Creature's "mate" in the novel?  What might have happened if the "mate" had come to life?
	Who is the true "monster" in the novel?  Is it Victor?  Society?  Explain how both could be considered to be "monsters."
	How are Victor and Walton kindred spirits?  What does Walton learn from Victor?  Is Walton ultimately a better person than Victor?
	Should Walton have killed the Creature when he had the chance?  If you thought he should have, did your opinion change after you read the Creature's narrative?  Explain.
	Can Frankenstein be used as a cautionary tale for modern society?  How?  In what specific capacities?
	Who is to blame for the murders that the Creature commits?  Why?
	What is the function of Walton's letters?
	Does a vampiric theme run through the novel?  Explain.
	Is this the first sci-fi novel?  Why or why not?
	What films, aside from the obvious, do you feel were influenced by the novel?  Why?

Frankenstein Links

Inteliquest Presents Mary Shelley's Frankenstein:  this site contains a free audio preview, a knowledge map, quotations and passages, a full text version, and other links.

http://www.4iq.com/frnkold.html

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Chronology and Resource Site: this site, by Romantic Circles, a website devoted to the study of Romantic-period literature and culture, offers a chronology, reviews, a bibliography, and other web resources.

http://www.english.udel.edu/swilson/mws/mws.html

Frankenstein: The Art and Legends: this site offers an history of the name "Frankenstein" as well as a CD-ROM version of Frankenstein: The Art and Legends.

http://www.mountwashingtonvalley.com/frankenstein/




                         

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