Frankenstein, Scientific Context, Oral

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ENGLISH LITERATURE ORAL

Scientific context of Frankenstein

Mary Shelley based the novel Frankenstein on an extensive understanding of scientific developments of the time. An awareness of the scientific context of Frankenstein is critical to the development of key allusions and ideas raised throughout the novel. Shelley criticises the use of science to manipulate the elemental or “god’ like forces of nature, otherwise known as the promethean nature of man. Influential scientists such as Benjamin Franklin, Humphry Davy, Luigi Galvani and Giovanni Aldini and their discoveries and opinions all shaped the novel Frankenstein.

One of the central preoccupations was the potential of electricity. Luigi Galvani carried out a series of experiments on animals, one of such being on a frog, where he noticed the leg of the frog twitching when a current was passed through it, thus electricity was thought to engender life. Giovanni Aldini, Galvani’s nephew took ‘animal electricity’ and applied it to “the body of an freshly executed criminal”, Aldini observed and published in An Account of the Late Improvements of Galvanism, “The jaw of the deceased began to quiver, the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye opened....the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs set in motion”. Aldini’s observations almost parallel that of Victor’s when the creature comes to life, “I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and convulsive motion agitated its limbs.” It is clear that Shelley has read Galvani’s and Aldini’s and this has greatly influenced her cautionary tale. Victor’s creation of the Creature and his subsequent demise, is a moral tale and a warning, to the scientific society.

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These discoveries, Shelley discussed with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, and in her 1831 introduction recalls how they had “many and long conversations between Lord Byron and Shelley, to which I was a devout but nearly silent listener”. During these discussions, various topics were discussed including the nature of the principle of life, and whether it will ever be discovered. This then led to the idea that a corpse may be reanimated and that components of a creature might be manufactured. These discussions were of major influence to Shelley, enough so to be mentioned in her introduction. Percy Shelley was ...

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