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FRANKENSTEIN BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT, Mary Wollstonecraft - Coggle Diagram
FRANKENSTEIN BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
SHELLEY'S PARENTS
William Godwin
William Godwin:
Perhaps influenced writing of Frankenstein due to his writing about education and the dangers of knowledge.
Wrote a novel called
Caleb Williams
which was a criticism of aristocracy and privilege. It was about a servant boy who found out about his Masters dark secret and was chased around London for his new found knowledge.
Critics have argued Frankenstein is a
direct criticism of her father
and how he raised her due to the novel being centered around neglect and abandonment.
Mary wollstonecraft:
Wrote Proto-feminist literature.She wrote
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
which proposed equality for the sexes and criticised established gender roles.
Wollstonecraft also wrote various other books including one about the
French Revolution.
This could have influenced Shelley's Frankenstein perhaps serving and as allegory for the revolution itself.
The monster acts as a
physical manifestation
of the anxieties that ruling classes had over oppressed masses. The masses were presented as hideous,terrifying and capable of rising up against authority.
May have influenced Shelley's literary masterpiece :through 3 flawed male narrators we view a
world where women are usurped from the reproductive process
and suffer at the hands of men.
Due to the death of her mother,Godwin remarried in
1801
to
Mary Jane Claremont.
Shelly reported having a troubled relationship with her step-mother and whilst making sure she was educated and well read,Godwin was thought to have neglected her emotional upbringing.
Godwin was a reserved unemotional man absorbed in his work.
Unexpectedly Shelly dedicates Frankenstein to him.Becomes ambiguous whether this is a
heartfelt gesture or a subtle criticism.
Influence in Frankenstein
As Shelley's father was an
anarchist
and her mother and
abolitionist
radical politics may be at the heart of her novel.
Paradise Lost:
Romantics such as Percy and Byron viewed Paradise Lost as an
anti-authoritarian
text with Lucifer as an anti-hero figure.
Division of Power:
Frankenstein can be viewed as a novel questioning the division of power in society.
LOSS AND MATERNAL ANXIETY
Love blossomed between them in
1814
when Mary was 16 and they
eloped to France
to get married after Percy had left his wife.
Percy Shelley:
At
15 years old
Mary met Percy Shelly ,
a 19 year old poet
who was similarly liberal in his politics,creative,charismatic but was married.
This all happened between the years of
1816 and 1818
which is the period in which Mary was writing Frankenstein.
One year later
Mary had her first child who sadly died after a few days.
Tragedy followed to couple in preceding years with Mary's half sister Fanny
committing suicide
along with
Harriet
,Percy's wife due to heartbreak caused by Percy's abandonment.
She was left a
widow
with one surviving child, Percy Florence.She spent the rest of her life writing to support her child never being able to repeat the success of Frankenstein.She refused to remarry due to her loss of Percy
Many years of troubles followed with rumors of
Percy's infidelity
, a
miscarriage
and the death of two more children after birth and financial difficulties.
Then in
1822
, when
Mary was 24
,Percy died in a boating accident in Italy.
LOSS AND THE INFLUENCE ON FRANKENSTEIN
-Some critics have argued that the novel is about the
anxieties Shelley had from the death of her firstborn child
.
-
Abandonment
is a key theme in the novel.
-Shelley wrote a diary of the death of her child two years before writing Frankenstein,
-She blamed herself for the death of her child believing she was becoming ill because of the milk in her breasts.She wrote about her
sleep becoming troubled
.
-The dream is comparable to Victor's dream in Chapter 5 after he has created the Monster.He dreams of death and awakens to find his creature still alive whereas
Shelley's dream is sadly reversed
.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
After the publication of Frankenstein Shelley was not able to enjoy the critical acclaim that the booked received as many people believed it was her husband who wrote it as he wrote the preface.
MARY'S DEATH:
Mary died at
age 53
from a brain tumor in
1851
.
THE CREATION OF
FRANKENSTEIN
In
1816
, on a rainy day in
Geneva
Mary,Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and his doctor John Polidori were finding an activity to keep them amused whilst staying sheltered from the rainy weather.
They decided to have a
ghost story
writing competition to see who would write the scariest story.
It is rumoured that Shelly had a
dream
about 'a pale student of the unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had created' and was inspired to write
Frankenstein.
Two versions of the novel
After the death of Percy, Mary published a revised version of the novel with some intrinsic changes.
-In
1818
Shelley published the novel with a
preface from her husband Percy
which is why many believed she wrote the novel.
-In
1831
after Percy's death Shelley published a revised version including a written explanation by Shelley as to why she wrote it.
-There are some intrinsic changed made.
Elizabeth Lavenza:
Changes from a cousin of Victor's to an orphan between each book.
Although it is not unlawful for cousins to marry each other she probably made the change due to critical comments.
In doing this she also made the character of Caroline Frankenstein more virtuous in her compassion towards the girl.
Galvanism:
In
chapter 2 of the 1831
version there is reference to Galvanism after the
'blasted stump'
observation.
This makes a link to
electricity
and hints towards the way that the monster is created although we cannot be sure.
The
1818
version presented Victor as a victim of
fate
however the revised version was a lot more critical of his actions and decisions.This could be to improve the
moral content
of the novel.
Mary Wollstonecraft