Frankenstein
Main character is Frankenstein - the monster is called The Monster and this is the main problem with the book as far as pop culture sees it
Everybody thinks the monster is Frankenstein.
The key event that this whole story revolves around is the creation of that monster by the doctor
The bulk of the book is the ramifications of the doctor’s terrible decision to challenge God!
The book was written in the early 1800s by a woman in her teens
Mary Shelley
She was WAY more interesting than the average teenage girl in 1818…
Age of Reason - pamphlet that came out at the end of the Age of Enlightenment and capped off a very interesting period in human history - Thomas Paine (writer) - challenged the Bible, the power of the Church and the religious rule of the day
It comes out right around the time Mary Shelley is born -
It reveals a big change in the culture and she was part of a new way of thinking, even as a kid
We need to think about history as a long line of people reacting to change (technological, philosophical, moral, etc)
The key “age” that influenced the novel Frankenstein all influenced the pamphlet above and that age of Enlightenment is seen to go from 1700 to 1800 (or so)
This time period was a boom of science, logic, creativity, justice and reasonable thinking (supposedly).
Scientists like Sir Isaac Newton were challenging the basic ideas of life.
Before those great scientists, people just assumed that “God did it” and that was the only answer they needed.
Bit by bit so much basic reality was being figured out that scientists got cocky and said “EVERYTHING can be figured out!” “SCIENCE!”
This time period is a very clear distillation of the same kinds of problems that we have now.
Mary Wollstonecraft - early feminist - there is no such thing as feminism -freedom for people to make choices and be treated fairly by their leaders and the culture in general
Mary died giving birth to her daughter, Mary, leaving her daughter alone with William, who was a thinker, a writer and an intellectual rebel - this has an impact on Mary (the daughter)
William Godwin - was also a believer in justice and fair treatment and choice for all people
Percy Bysse Shelley - famous poet and writer - he hooked up with Mary Shelley when she was just a teenage girl - he was into art, himself, free love, literature, opium, crazy times
Mary lost a couple of babies in her younger years - very traumatic, but it was the way it was
Mary is educated, well-off, liberal, trained to be critical and respectful of others’ ideas, political and, better yet, she lost her mother and has a miserable step-mother (better for her art)
She travels to Switzerland with Percy and his pals and she has “an experience”
She writes Frankenstein as part of a challenge, using her nightmare as a starting point, but she pulls in so many things from her own life and the time period in which she grew up (and was educated)
THIS is why the novel is such a classic - it’s probably the first science fiction book, and one of the earliest classic horror stories
Reading the Novel:
Skip the opening letters - Lobb does opening letters
Chapters 1 - 5 - Victor’s life up to the creation of the monster - Students read these
Chapters 6 - 10 - Victor’s life after the monster begins his campaign of revenge - Students do these with Lobb
Chapters 11 - 16 - Monster tells his story - broken into assigned group readings
Chapters 17 - 24 - the final revenge - broken into assigned group readings
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