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| ==Name origins== | |||
| ===The creature=== | |||
| {{main|Frankenstein's monster}} | |||
| The creature – "my hideous progeny" – was not given a name by Mary Shelley, and is only referred to by words such as 'monster', 'creature', 'daemon', 'fiend', and 'wretch'. | |||
| After the release of ]'s popular 1931 film '']'', the filmgoing public immediately began speaking of the monster itself as "Frankenstein". A reference to this occurs in '']'' (1935) and in several subsequent films in the series, as well as in film titles such as ''].'' | |||
| Some justify referring to the Creature as "Frankenstein" by pointing out that the Creature is, so to speak, Victor Frankenstein's offspring. | |||
| ===Frankenstein=== | |||
| Mary Shelley always maintained that she derived the name "Frankenstein" from a dream-vision, yet despite these public claims of originality, the name and what it means has been a source of many speculations. Literally, in ], the name ''Frankenstein'' means ''stone of the ]''. Frankenstein is the former name of ], a city in ]. There is a town called Frankenstein<ref></ref> in the ] with Burg Frankenstein<ref></ref> (Frankenstein Castle) and Burg Frankenstein<ref></ref> near Darmstadt. Moreover Frankenstein is a common family name in Germany. | |||
| More recently, ], in his ''In Search of Frankenstein'', argued that Mary and Percy Shelley stayed at Castle Frankenstein on their way to Switzerland, near ] along the Rhine, where a notorious alchemist named ] had experimented with human bodies, but that Mary suppressed mentioning this visit, to maintain her public claim of originality. A recent literary essay<ref>This essay was included in the 2005 publication of '']''; the first full English translation of the book of 'ghost stories' that inspired the literary competition resulting in Mary's writing of Frankenstein.</ref> by ] supports Florescu's position that Mary Shelley knew of, and visited 'Burg Frankenstein' before writing her debut novel. Day includes details of an alleged description of the Frankenstein castle that exists in Shelley's 'lost' journals. However, this theory is not without critics; Frankenstein expert ] calls it an "unconvincing....conspiracy theory".<ref>(Leonard Wolf, p.20).</ref> | |||
| ===Victor=== | |||
| A possible interpretation of the name Victor derives from the poem '']'' by ], a great influence on Shelley (a quotation from ''Paradise Lost'' is on the opening page of ''Frankenstein'' and Shelley even allows the monster himself to read it). Milton frequently refers to God as "the Victor" in ''Paradise Lost'', and Shelley sees Victor as playing God by creating life. In addition, Shelley's portrayal of the monster owes much to the character of ] in ''Paradise Lost''; indeed, the monster says, after reading the epic poem, that he sympathizes with Satan's role in the story. | |||
| Victor was also a pen name of Percy Shelley's, as in the collection of poetry he wrote with his sister Elizabeth, ''Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire''.<ref></ref> There is speculation that one of Mary Shelley's models for Victor Frankenstein was Percy, who at Eton had "experimented with electricity and magnetism as well as with gunpowder and numerous chemical reactions," and whose rooms at Oxford were filled with scientific equipment.<ref></ref> | |||
| ==="Modern Prometheus"=== | |||
| ''The Modern Prometheus'' is the novel's subtitle (though some modern publishings of the work now drop the subtitle, mentioning it only in an introduction). ], in some versions of Greek mythology, was the ] who created mankind, and Victor's work by creating man by new means obviously reflects that creative work. Prometheus was also the bringer of fire who took fire from heaven and gave it to man. ] then punished Prometheus by fixing him to a rock where each day a predatory bird came to devour his liver. | |||
| Prometheus was also a myth told in Latin but was a very different story. In this version Prometheus makes man from clay and water, again a very relevant theme to Frankenstein as Victor rebels against the laws of nature and as a result is punished by his creation. | |||
| Prometheus' relation to the novel can be interpreted in a number of ways. For Mary Shelley on a personal level, Prometheus was not a hero but a devil, whom she blamed for bringing fire to man and thereby seducing the human race to the vice of eating meat (fire brought cooking which brought hunting and killing)<ref>(Leonard Wolf, p. 20).</ref> For Romance era artists in general, Prometheus' gift to man compared with the two great utopian promises of the 18th century: the ] and the ], containing both great promise and potentially unknown horrors. | |||
| Byron was particularly attached to the play '']'' by Aeschylus, and ] would soon write '']''. | |||
| jimbob '''Bold text'''james maby | |||
| ==Analysis== | ==Analysis== | ||
Revision as of 14:15, 7 November 2006
- This article is about the 1818 novel. For the monster itself see Frankenstein's monster. For movies, comics and other derivative works see Frankenstein in popular culture.
 Book covers for Frankenstein have taken many forms over the years which emphasize different themes of the novel such as gothic horror, science fiction, and romanticism. In this example, an historical anatomical painting of the human arm by Girolamo Fabrici (1537-1619) examines the themes of romanticism, science and art. | |
| Author | Mary Shelley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Gothic horror, Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones |
| Publication date | 1 January 1818 |
| Publication place | England |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel by Mary Shelley. First published in London, England in 1818 (but more often read in the revised third edition of 1831), it is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution. (The novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus, alludes to the over-reaching and punishment of the character from Greek mythology.) The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. Many distinguished authors, such as Brian Aldiss, claim that it is the very first science fiction novel.
Genesis
How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?
During the snowy summer of 1816, the "Year Without A Summer," the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Tambora in 1815. In this terrible year, the then Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, age 19, and her husband-to-be Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor vacation activities they had planned, so after reading Fantasmagoriana, an anthology of German ghost stories, Byron challenged the Shelleys and his personal physician John William Polidori to each compose a story of their own, the contest being won by whoever wrote the scariest tale. Mary conceived an idea after she fell into a waking dream or nightmare during which she saw "the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." This was the germ of Frankenstein. Byron managed to write just a fragment based on the vampire legends he heard while travelling the Balkans, and from this Polidori created The Vampyre (1819), the progenitor of the romantic vampire literary genre. Thus, the Frankenstein and vampire themes were created from that single circumstance.
Analysis
Frankenstein is in some ways allegorical, and was conceived and written during an early phase of the Industrial Revolution, at a time of dramatic change. Behind Frankenstein's experiments is the search for ultimate power or godhood: what greater power could there be than that found in the act of creating life? Frankenstein and his utter disregard for the human and animal remains gathered in his pursuit of power can be taken as symbolic of the rampant forces of laissez-faire capitalism extant at the time and their basic disregard for human dignity. Moreover, the creation rebels against its creator: a clear message that irresponsible uses of technologies can have unconsidered consequences.
Another popular critique of the novel Frankenstein views the tale as a journey of pregnancy and the common fears of women in Shelley's day of frequent stillborn births and maternal deaths due to complications in delivery. Mary Shelley experienced the horrors of a stillborn birth the prior year. Victor Frankenstein is often fearful of the release of the Monster from his control, when it is free to act independently in the world and affect it for better or worse. Also, during much of the novel Victor fears the creature's desire to destroy him by killing everyone and everything most dear to him. However it must be noted that the creature was not born evil, but only wanted to be loved by its creator, by other humans, and to love a sentient creature like itself. It was mankind who taught it evil, Victor rejected it, and the creature's poor treatment by villagers taught it how to be evil. In this way the creature represents the natural fears of bringing a new innocent life into the world and raising it properly so that it does not become a monster.
Representing a minority opinion, Arthur Belefant in his 116-page book, Frankenstein, the Man and the Monster (1999, ISBN 0-9629555-8-2) contends that Mary Shelley's intent was for the reader to understand that the Creature never existed, and Victor Frankenstein committed the three murders. In this interpretation, the story is a study of the moral degradation of Victor, and the "science-fiction" aspects of the story are Victor's imagination.
Alchemy was a very popular topic in Shelley's world. In fact, it was becoming an acceptable idea that humanity could infuse the spark of life into a non-living thing (Luigi Galvani's experiments, for example). The scientific world just after the Industrial Revolution was delving into the unknown, and limitless possibilities also caused fear and apprehension for many as to the consequences of such horrific possibilities.
The book also discusses the ethics of creating life and contains innumerable biblical allusions in this context.
In the 1931 film "Frankenstein," Boris Karloff plays the part of the Creature, and the scientist, played by Colin Clive, is renamed Henry Frankenstein. Shelley's character Henry Clerval does not appear in the film at all, which eliminates Victor's foil altogether. However there is a character called Victor who is after Elizabeth, Frankenstein's fiancee. Changing the doctor's name from Victor also eliminates some original irony, inasmuch as the novel ends after exposing the doctor's utter failure and destruction. Since this film, the horror culture has confused modern audiences into replacing the scientist's name with his freakish creation. This event has stimulated much conversation in the literary criticism of Shelley's work. Attributing the name of the scientist to his creation reveals a deeper connection between the two, especially when the scientist realizes the great danger that the creation presents to himself and to the world.deano deano deano deano deano
Frankenstein in popular culture
For Frankenstein in film, comics, games and other derivatives, see Frankenstein in popular culture.
See also
- Frankenstein argument
- Frankenstein complex
- Frankenstein's monster
- Frankenstein in popular culture
- The homunculus was thought to be a living being created through alchemy.
- The golem was a living being created from clay through Kabbalah.
Notes
Further reading
- Comroe, Julius H., Jr. (1975). Retrospectroscope article in the American Thoracic Society website. Analyzes errors in the re-telling of Mary Shelley's original plot.
- Florescu, Radu. In Search of Frankenstein
- Garrett, Martin (2002). Mary Shelley.
- Lylys, William H. (1975). Mary Shelley, an Annotated Bibliography
- Rosenberg, Samuel. The Confessions of a Trivialist
- Spark, Muriel. Mary Shelley
- Wolf, Leonard (2004). The Essential Frankenstein. ISBN 0-7434-9806-2. The complete original text of Mary Shelley's novel, fully annotated with thousands of facts and legends.
External links
- Frankenstein at Project Gutenberg (omits the prefaces)
- Free audiobook from LibriVox (without prefaces and edition information)
- Online Literature Library (w/ the prefaces)
- The Pennsylvania Electronic Edition (annotated edition containing also critical articles and variety of other resources)
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology & Resource Site
- RSS Version RSS Version of the Text
- Online Sparknotes for Frankenstein
- Percy Shelley's Review of Frankenstein