Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

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Mary Shelley
1797-1851

Life
Mary had a life full of trouble and suffering. Her mother died a few days she has born and after two years her father married. William Godwin was a philosopher and his house was visited by some of the most writers of that period like Coleridge and Shell. The last one falled in love of Mary thanks to her beauty and her intelligence. An year after that te coupled has fle to France, Mary had a baby that died very early. Then Shelly decided to go to live in a country hose on the banks of Lake Geneva where Mary began to write Frankenstein, her masterpice. She finished it in England and it was published anonymously in 1818.
Mary had a son but her husband was foun drowned after a storm.
She return to England and she continued to publish untill her death in 1851.

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The origin of the model
Probably “Frankenstein” is born from a Mary’s anxieties abouth her role of mother, from the death that surrounded her life, but also from other ghost stories.

Influences
Shelly influenced mary because they both read a lot of scientific book and they were very interested in chemistry. When Mary wrote Frankenstein she knew the latest scientific theories.
So It results the firstembodiment of the theme of science.
Mary is influenced by Rousseau infact the monster is the typical man of the state of nature, not influenced by civilization. Although there is the taste of gothic, this novel didn’t respest the traditions: there isn’t a castle and there aren’t supernatural ecìvents.
May is also influenced by Romantic poems like Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. That is a story of a phisical and psycological travel but it is also the tale of a crimeagainst nature.

Narrative structure
We can find three different point of view in the narration:
• Walton to his sister
• Frankenstei to Walton
• Monster to Frankenstein
Frankenstein is written in a epistolary form and probably Mary disguised her voice behind male narrators.

Characters
Most important characters are few. Walton, a double of Frankenstein, had some Romantic elements. He tries to go beyond human limits and at the end is punished.
Frankenstein and the monster are complementary because they live in alienation and isolation.
The protagonist in the third part is the monster.First he tries to comunicate with people but after to be rejected he becomes an outcast, a killer, against humans.

Themes
• Forbidden knowledge
• The double: Frankenstein and the moster seem to be two parts of the same being, in anticipation of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson
• Social injustice

“The creation of the monster”

It was on adreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the hlf-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in propotion, and I had selected his festures as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but this luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.
The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desidered it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished , the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep. At length lassitude succeeded to the tumult I had before andured, and I threw myself on the bed in my clothes, endeavouring to seek a few moments of forgetfulness. But it was in vain; I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought hat I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel. I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch – the miserable monster whom I had crested. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs.