Mary Shelley wrote the book with input by Percy Shelley, whom she married while the work was in progress. He “shaped the novel's place in the literary canon and wrote the preface, which asserted the intellectual seriousness of Frankenstein,” Hegele said.
What is the Literary Canon? The canon is a list of literary works deemed by widespread consensus to be of the highest aesthetic quality. Since the 1960s, there has been a consistent debate over the Western canon, largely due to the fact that most authors included in it are dead, white males.
Frankenstein exemplifies many of the values associated with Romanticism, an artistic movement that began in Western Europe during the late 1700s through the mid-1800s.
Written by Mary Shelley when she was just nineteen years old and published anonymously in 1818, Frankenstein is one of the most recognizable and enduring novels in English literature. The story began as Shelley's contribution to a friendly competition among several of her literary cohorts.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Plot Summary, Characters & Themes Mindmap! | English GCSE Revision!
Why is Frankenstein a significant piece of literature?
'Frankenstein' is not only the first creation story to use scientific experimentation as its method, but it also presents a framework for narratively examining the morality and ethics of the experiment and experimenter.
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is most frequently read and interpreted as a Gothic horror on the dangers of the unbridled optimism of science. Gothic horror is a subset of romanticism as a genre that thrives on the excitement and terror of the mystery of nature and the supernatural.
Mary Shelley's title is an allusion to Prometheus, a Greek god who created humans and shared fire with them. He is condemned to suffer because he has betrayed Zeus in providing fire for them, much like Victor is condemned to suffer for betraying his god and creating the monster.
Frankenstein is a Romantic work in that it shows the harm of science and the struggles of the Creature against a society that fears and shuns him. Victor himself is a warning against science without checks, of ambition getting in the way of common sense.
The existence of a canon is essential to a culture. It means that people share a set of references and resonances, a public vocabulary of narratives and discourse." This shared inheritance, he argues, is now being destroyed by multiculturalism and technology, satellite television and the internet in particular.
not part of a set of works or subjects that are generally agreed to be good, important, and worth studying: Non-canonical texts can still be very influential.
What is exploding the canon in English literature?
Exploding the Canon means focusing on multiple canons while being sensitive to their connections and points of influence over time. Comparative literature studies the transmission of ideas and literary forms within and between canons.
Frankenstein is a Gothic novel in that it employs mystery, secrecy, and unsettling psychology to tell the story of Victor Frankenstein's doomed monster.
Frankenstein embodies one of the central myths of realistic fiction in the nineteenth century, even in the contrast between its sensational style and its apparently explicit moral implications.
What is the literary description of Frankenstein's monster?
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 these 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, ...
Victor seeks to use science for the greatest human good: to conquer death, but his tragic downfall is brought about by his all too human flaws, or hamartia. He's ambitious and proud, tampering with forces beyond his control, presuming to violate the laws of nature and the authority of God.
What is the most controversial scene in Frankenstein?
Upon Frankenstein's original 1931 release in "pre-code" Hollywood, all American prints were edited to some degree, according to the whims of various state and local censorship boards. The main target was the scene in which the monster accidentally drowns Maria, which was deemed too upsetting.
One of the most obvious examples of feminism in Frankenstein is the creation of the monster itself. When Victor Frankenstein dares to subvert the laws of nature, using science alone to harness the powers of life, he essentially violates the laws of maternity. He omits the mother entirely.
Mary Shelley's novel carries the message that not all science and knowledge produces progress. The novel also carries the message that criminals are made rather than born. The horrific appearance of the monster generated fear and aggression in people, which is depicted as initially unfair.
The main message that Frankenstein conveys is the danger in the pursuit of knowledge and advancement in Science and Technology. In the novel we see Victor try to push forward the limits of science by creating a creature from old body parts. The creation of the creature backfired on Victor once the monster escaped.
What is Mary Shelley's main purpose for writing Frankenstein?
Shelley's most pressing and obvious message is that science and technology can go to far. The ending is plain and simple, every person that Victor Frankenstein had cared about met a tragic end, including himself. This shows that we as beings in society should believe in the sanctity of human life.
One of the earliest and most venerable interpretations reads the novel as a critique of human hubris, of the scientific (perhaps scientistic) dreams of the Enlightenment, and of faith in the possibility of social progress through the acquisition of knowledge and the technical mastery of nature.
Like Prometheus' sacred fire, Victor Frankenstein's science gives humans what once had belonged only to the gods: immortality. Like the eagle tearing out Prometheus' liver, Victor's loved ones are torn from him. Victor's monster also resembles the modern Prometheus in that he signifies liberation from a creator.
The novel's conception of social justice -- especially in the characters of Justine ("justice") and the DeLaceys -- are firmly rooted in the Enlightenment, but the novel also offers a Romantic critique of the Enlightenment belief that scientific knowledge could and would end all of society's ills.
