MARY SHELLEY AND FRANKENSTEIN

HER LIFE: Mary Shelley was born in 1797, the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the famous
women's rights activist and radical thinker William Godwin. Both of her parents had been
strongly influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution and were part of a small radical
group of thinkers. In the summer of 1816, they decided to take a vacation on the shores of
Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Here they met another famous poet, Lord Byron, so they
decided to entertain themselves by reading German horror stories. It was here that
18-year-old Mary conceived her idea for her novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern
Prometheus. The book was published anonymously in 1818. In 1823 she returned to
England, where she continued to publish and write. She died in 18519.

LEVELS OF NARRATION: Frankenstein is written as an epistolary novel, in letter form, and

uses embedded narratives. It is composed of three narratives, with three different narrators
and three different points of view:
● Robert Walton
● Frankenstein
● the creature
Margaret Saville, Walton's sister, is the recipient of the letters that make up the novel.

LITERARY INFLUENCES: The monster can be considered Rousseau's "natural man", that
is, a man unaffected by civilization. The ghost stories told at Villa Diodati provided a
stimulus, even if Frankenstein differs from the gothic tradition because it is not set in a dark
castle and does not deal with supernatural events.

THE ROLE OF SCIENCE: Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to her father, who believed
that everyone has a collective responsibility in society.The creature is the character who is
treated the most unfairly; he is rejected by society because he is different. Percy and Mary
Shelley were particularly fascinated by experiments with electricity.So when Mary wrote
Frankenstein, she was aware of the latest scientific theories and experiments involving
galvanism. The monster represents the first literary incarnation of the theme of science.

THEMES: Frankenstein explores: the line between life and death. The usurpation of the
female role is another important theme: in the novel, the creation of human beings becomes
possible without the participation of women. The novel also reflects on the theme of
education and social prejudices through the figure of the monster, depicted as an outcast.