Percy Shelley was a poet who was thrown out of Oxford for practising and promoting atheism. He had an 18 year old wife and 2 children, and was known for his views on free love and his hatred of marriage. Mary had heard about Percy through various letters read to her by her father and when she was 16 decided to meet him. They met regularly at St Pancras cemetery where Mary’s mother was buried and their relationship developed into a secret affair. Godwin, who believed in absolute freedom, banned his daughter from seeing Shelley because his beliefs were too radical. This was reflected in the novel when Frankenstein abandons the creature and his responsibilities.
Part of the gothic revival was a fascination with the middle ages, superstition and death; and the gothic novel was very popular during this movement: ‘Frankenstein’ has become one of the most famous gothic novels largely because of this. This time was also the beginning of capitalism, which meant that products would be produced on a larger scale. This meant that Mary had access to a lot of material that may have altered her writing in some way. This also meant that more people could read her work increasing awareness and sales.
Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Coleridge are amongst the most famous Romantic poets, and Coleridge’s poem ‘The Ancient Mariner’ is quoted in chapter 5 of ‘Frankenstein’. The Shelleys were invited to stay with a few friends at the Villa Diodati in the Genevan suburb of Cologny in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. One night, Lord Byron, a friend of the Shelleys’, who was known to be dangerous and a bad influence, read ‘The Ancient Mariner’ to the group, who all agreed that the poem was not very scary. Byron challenged the Shelleys and Dr Polidori to write a gothic horror story that could rival Coleridge’s poem. Mary was influenced by many things whilst writing the novel. Her personal experiences were one of the main influences: she was exposed to science and the theories that accompanied it as a child, and was told stories of anatomists who used grave robbers to steal bodies for their experiments. She was also told of Konrad Dippler who stole bodies in order to bring them back to life. These stories are reflected through Frankenstein’s profession and behaviour. Another influence was Coleridge’s poem, which is about a sailor who – without thinking – kills an albatross. His thoughtless action brings ruin and destruction and he spends the rest of his life regretting what he has done. This is shown through Victor when he regrets his thoughtless act of creating the monster. A further influence was a dream that Mary had which gave her the main ideas for the novel. Another influence was the landscape. Mary wrote ‘Frankenstein’ whilst travelling in Switzerland, a country known for its beauty, mountains, waterfalls and its natural sights; so there is no doubt that the sights which surrounded her had an effect on the story. This is where she based the story: a place where Victor goes against nature and convention.
The novel has 3 main themes. The first is a warning. Mary wrote the novel to warn the scientific community not to interfere with nature, and to show them that their actions could have terrible consequences. It also tells us about the dangers of obsession. Victor’s obsession of creating life almost ended his own, and out those closest to him in grave danger. Another theme is isolation and loneliness. Mary’s rejection by her father obviously affected her writing and the loneliness she felt after her son died is shown through the creature when he has no-one to turn to. The monster is said to be Mary’s misery personified. The final theme is the relationship between The creator and a creation. Mary shows that men should not create life as the do not know how to look after a life, and can not cope with the consequences. She tells us that men should leave this particular job to women and God, and should not interfere with it. The novel shows this when Victor does not know what to do once he has created the monster. The creature extends its arms, a sign that most mothers would receive from their new born baby, but Victor misinterprets this action, and assumes that the creature wants to harm him. ‘One hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me.’
Shelley subtitled her novel ‘The Modern Prometheus’. According to the ancient Greeks Prometheus stole fire from the gods to make tools and warm hearts. Although his intentions were good, the gods decided that he ought to be reprimanded. His punishment was to be chained to a rock, where every day an eagle plucked at his liver. The Greeks realised that this punishment would not actually kill him, as they knew that the liver could repair itself once injured. They chose the punishment to make him an example, and as it meant him suffering, but not dying, prolonging his distress. Frankenstein reflects Prometheus’s characteristics with his passion for science and his desire to create and extend life. The monster makes Victor suffer without killing him, in the same way that the gods chose to punish Prometheus. Mary also uses him as an example, for the scientific community, of what could happen if they took human betterment too far. Mary’s friend Lord Byron also wrote a poem in 1816 entitled ‘Prometheus’. This may have prompted Mary to use ‘The Modern Prometheus’ as the subtitle for her novel.
Although Mary was not the first person to write about a human being acting as god and creating human life, it was still a very controversial subject and we must assume that Mary, a known radical, did not even agree with and was shocked by what she had written. Mary wrote: ‘Frightful it must be; for supremely frightful would be the effort of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.’ The book also shocked and intrigued its audience: this was one of the reasons why it was so popular when it was first published. Clearly she had succeeded in creating a great gothic novel that would scare generations.
The nineteenth century was the start of the ‘age of science’ and a thirst for knowledge of how humans were created played a key part during this time period. Religion was questioned for the first time since the renaissance during the 14th century, and the ideas of creating and altering life were spoken of. Humphrey Davy wrote in his book ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy’ that ‘Science has bestowed upon man powers which may be called almost creative; which have enabled him to change and modify the beings surrounding him.’ And later Luigi Galvani was said to have brought flesh to life using electricity, which is where the word galvanise comes from. There is evidence that Mary had read Davy’s work and it clearly influenced hers. The early nineteenth century was also the beginning of the industrial revolution and the start of capitalism. Humans were more self-reliant and had the confidence to question authority. Mary may be trying to show us that a desire and ability to create things is not always enough.
People living in the nineteenth century would be more familiar with death and would encounter it on a daily basis. Life expectancy was shorter and infant mortality rates were much higher, due to poor healthcare and hygiene. Childbirth was the most common cause of death among women and most infants never reached maturity. Mary had experienced more death than most during her life: her mother died during childbirth (the guilt of which haunted her for her entire life); her sister, Fanny, committed suicide (Mary blamed herself for this death also as she thought that she had neglected her); Percy’s first wife drowned; her niece died at the age of five; her friend Lord Byron died at 36; her husband was killed in a storm; and three of Mary’s children died before the age of three. Mary’s grief is shown through Frankenstein when his mother dies, which drives him to create life in the monster, who is said to be Mary’s misery personified. Victor attempts to create life which was seen as a woman’s position. Mary may be suggesting that men, who dominated science at this time, should not interfere with the creation of life as they cannot cope with the responsibility that accompanies such an action. This is shown through Victor’s blatant rejection of the creature in chapter 5.
Chapter 5 is a crucial moment in the novel, because it is the moment that Victor achieves his dream. Up to this point, we feel sorry for Victor and can identify with his passion and thirst for knowledge and understanding. Before chapter 5, the novel builds suspense and leads up to the creation of the monster. Robert Walton, the first narrator, who the story is told through, has not reached this point as he has not yet realised his dream. Frankenstein is telling him this story to warn him of the danger that accompanies taking action to achieve his dream, and the rest of the novel deals with the consequences of these actions. Walton realises that following his dream of finding the Northwest Passage across the Arctic is not worth the price that he will have to pay to achieve this ambition and at the end of the novel he decides to turn back.
Chapter 5 is the point that our opinion of Frankenstein changes. Before this, he is seen as the hero of the novel, but we realise that what he has done is wrong and unnatural. He created life for his own personal gain and because he could not accept death. He then also rejects the monster for the wrong reasons: he could not bear to look at the creature because it was not aesthetically pleasing. He did not even consider the immorality of the situation or the effects that his actions would have on others. Frankenstein tries to run away but is imprisoned in the courtyard. This symbolises the fact that he cannot escape from what he has done. He takes refuge in his friendship with Clerval and in his family. The creature has to teach himself how to speak and behave (Frankenstein was also an autodidact) because he was cruelly rejected by all he came into contact with, and so cannot rely on the help and support of friends and family, but finds himself ‘wretched, helpless and alone’. The monster later proves himself to be a better man than Frankenstein and explains to Robert Walton that he is filled with remorse for the deaths of Victor’s brother and bride and close friend Clerval, and informs him that he intends to destroy himself. ‘Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings, who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of bringing forth. I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now vice has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. . . . the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. . . . I am quite alone.’
At the beginning of chapter 5, the language that Mary uses helps her to build up the setting. It is set in the early hours of the morning ‘it was already one in the morning’, and is very dark, ‘the dim and yellow light of the moon forced its way through the window shutters’, ‘the candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the half-extinguished light’. Dark represents evil and that, with the time suggests that something bad is going to happen. The weather, ’the rain pattered dismally on the window pane’ and the time of year, ‘it was on a dreary night of November’ also add to the spooky atmosphere. November represents winter, scary times and death, which also builds suspense.
Language also creates sympathy. The story is always told in first person narrative which is very unusual. Each narrator tells his own story. This makes the reader sympathise with them as we feel that they are suffering. Before we hear the monster’s story we think of him as an enemy, because we have only heard that side of the account, but after we hear his final speech, we realise that he has suffered the most and has been through more than the others, creating more sympathy for him than for Victor and Walton.
Shelley uses an extended vocabulary, elaborated codes and Latinate language to tell the story of Victor Frankenstein. Her writing is also grammatically correct and she does not use split infinitives. This is because she was writing for a very literate and well educated readership. Another typical convention of 19th century prose is the use of a dual narrative; in this particular case, Robert Walton, an explorer who is in the middle of a journey to discover the passage to the North Pole, is the first narrator and is writing a series of letters to his sister in England. Walton is originally from England and as the majority of the readers would be English, the reader can relate to him and trust him. This helps the reader to believe Frankenstein’s otherwise far-fetched tale. We, the audience, suspend our disbelief and trust that Frankenstein is telling the truth because Walton believes him. Although the novel was written 200 years ago, people can still identify with the story and can apply the morals to their lives. This is why it is still so popular and is also what makes it a classic.
