Hello Dear All!

After reading the novel, I’m going to leave some ideas related to
Frankenstein’s main themes:

Mary Shelley and Romanticism

“Frankenstein” is a very clear example of many of the values associated with

Romanticism, the artistic movement that began in Western Europe during the late 1700s
until the mid- 1800s. The characteristics of Romanticism (As we have seen in Blake’s
works) include enthusiasm about the natural world , a focus on individual emotions, and a
celebration of creativity and the figure of the artist. Mary Shelley was influenced by some
of the most famous writers and thinkers of the Romantic period. Her parents were writers
and intellectuals fascinated with questions of rights, social and gender inequality. She was
also influenced by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, his first love, who was passionate about
writing innovative literature that reflected his somewhat radical ideals of creativity,
freedom, and equality and a friend, the poet Lord Byron.

The context of Romanticism influenced the creation of Mary Shelly’s novel. Therefore,
many of the characteristics of Romanticism are evident in the story of Frankenstein. For
example, Walton and Frankenstein are ambitious geniuses who are determined to live up
to their destinies; while neither is an artist, both engage in works of ground-breaking
creativity by pushing the limits of geography and science. Furthermore the impact and
beauty of the natural world, always significant to Romantic writers, play an important role
in creating an appropriate setting for the novel’s dramatic events. The monster’s
experience of coming into the world without any knowledge of social norms and behavioral
expectations reflects Romanticism’s curiosity about how innate human nature is gradually
shaped by society and culture.

Frankenstein and the Scientific Revolution of that time

As it was written around 1818, the story was not only influenced by Romanticism, but
also by the emergence of modern science during the early modern period. In
Frankenstein, the pursuit of scientific discovery leads to chaos and tragedy. Moreover,
many critics read the book as a critical response to the Scientific Revolution. In the
story, we can see manyr eferences to the theorics of the epoch, such as Copernicus’s
argument for the sun being located at the center of the universe, the Scientific
Revolution developed in an era where assumptions about the natural world were
challenged and revised. Other significant scientific discoveries, such as Galileo’s
contributions to astronomy and physics and Isaac Newton’s discoveries about gravity,
marked the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries making huge changes to the level of
knowledge available about the world and how it worked. These scientific discoveries
also led to shifts in how people related to knowledge: rather than relying on accepting
God’s existence.

Victor as a GOD
Christian theology explains creation as an act of God; therefore, to tamper with this
process, as Victor Frankenstein does in creating his monster, was to position oneself
as on the same level as God. The idea of mutilating and dissecting corpses for
experimentating on them became an increasingly real fear as medical study required
better knowledge of anatomy and the possibility of experimental procedures. Shelley’s
novel is not opposed to scientific progress or discovery, but focuses on what happens
when science is not used with individual moral responsibility. Victor Frankenstein is
obsessed on the glory of achievement, without considering what it will mean to have a
new species be dependent on him.
Since the publication of “Frankenstein”, many other writers have questioned what might
happen when people ignore the potential consequences of scientific discovery. More
recent developments in science and technology have also provoked reflection about a
need for caution when testing the limits of innovation. As technology and artificial
intelligence come to the forefront of scientific and ethical debates, it is mandatory for
us to reflect on its power.

Parenting roles in the story

The parenting theme is most explicit in the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and
the Creature. At first, the roles in the relationship seem clear, Victor is shown as a father
to the who gives life to his creation. Over the course of the story, however, Victor and the
Creature interchanges roles acting at times as “creator and created”, or “subject and
master”(respectively).
A second parental figure exists in the number of characters who are orphaned in
Shelley’story: Caroline(Victor’s mother), his adopted sister Elizabeth , the Frankenstein
family’s servant Justine, and, in effect, the character of Safie, who loses her mother at a
young age and separates from her father to join the family. Additionally, the Creature
himself is often considered an orphan, particularly in the moments when Victor is not
serving as his kind of “father”.

Mary Shell introduces the topic of giving birth.

After investigation a little bit on Mary Shelly’s life, I came up to the conclusion that the
events that follow upon the “birth” of the creature are also of a piece of Mary’s own
experience.
Mary lost her own mother (her death was caused by a piece of the placenta that remained
inside her.) Mary would nearly die herself a few years later after suffering a miscarriage.
And, in an era when children often died young, it is not a coincidence that the monster’s
first victims are children: first a young boy called William, the same name as Mary’s son;
then a teenage girl. (William Shelley lived to be only three; daughter Clara died at only a
year old.) Therefore, these events would mark Mary shelly’s life in order to create this
story.

The power of education and communication process.

The monster is shown with an intellectual development of a human infant. While hiding
out, he learns basic language by watching and listening to the inhabitants of the place, just
as a child learns to speak.
Through his experience at the cottage, the creature learns much, not only from the family's
lessons, but also from their interactions.With comprehension of their language, there
comes a clarity with which the creature can perceive the way people are meant to interact.
Eventually, he has the tools by which he is able to truly ponder the exact nature of his
existence, and therefore he begins to form a self-identity. He is also informed enough to
make choices about his future; what he wants from his life and who he will choose to be-
choices that are directly a result of the type of education he receives.

There is a break traced here. The creatude is no longer the innocent one wandering
through the woods in search of his food, scaring or harming people who come across him.
He has entered his adulthood and is now responsible for his actions, since he understands
in some way his existence. When the creature first learns about the values and conduct of
mankind, he feels more alone and isolated than he has ever before because he has the
confirmation that he is not normal, and the reactions of others towards him are also not
normal.What is normal are the feelings he's been having, his desire for companionship,
that is a human feeling. Now he knows that in fact, he has been abandoned.

In relation to the learning process the creature makes, I find it tightly tied to the one school
make with students. We, as teachers, prepare students for the “outside” world and it is
their duty to discover what their place in the world is.