1. The Basics: Answer the following questions.

 Who is Frankenstein?
 What do you know about the story?
 Have you seen any movies, adaptations, or read the original book?

2. The author: Do you know anything about who wrote this iconic book? Let’s learn about her.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London in 1797 and died in 1851. She was the daughter of William Godwin
and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, two great intellectual rebels of the time. Eleven days after her birth, her mother
died leaving her father to look after Mary and her sister. Mary developed an intense affection for her father and he
for her, but things became tense when Godwin remarried as Mary and her stepmother did not have a good relationship.
Mary never had a formal education but learned from the books that she found in her father’s library.
In 1814 she met the young poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and went with him to France. They married in 1816, after
Shelley’s first wife killed herself. They had a happy but short marriage, and on her husband’s death in 1822, she
returned to England with her son, Percy. There she published many of his poetry and prose works, adding to these her
own notes. Her most famous work, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, was published anonymously in 1818.

3. The Themes: Take a look at the mind map below. How do you think all of these connect to each other? How do you
think these ideas are used in the story?

Romanticism Love
&
Friendship

Science Industrial
& Revolution
Nature

Appearances

Frankenstein | Teacher: Emma

4. The Context: Every piece of writing is influenced by many things—other authors, historical events, political climate,
among others. Let’s read about what ultimately inspired the story of Frankenstein.

 Historical Events

Ancient Greece 18th century Late 18th century 1815-1816

Prometheus stole Romantic Movement Galvanism ‘The Year Without a Summer’

fire from the Gods vs Volcanic Eruption of Mount
and gave it to humans Industrial Revolution Tambora (modern Indonesia)

 Personal Influences

o In the summer of 1816, Lord Byron, another writer and friend of Percy, invited him, Mary, her sister, and his
personal doctor to stay with him for three days in the mansion he was renting near Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Villa Diodati Lord Byron Dr John Polidori

Mary Shelley Percy Shelley Claire Clairmont

o People would usually take walks around the area and go sailing. However, due to the awful weather, Lord
Byron and his guests were forced to stay inside.
o Once there, they chatted and read German ghost stories published in the book Fantasmagoriana (1812).
o Lord Byron proposed a friendly competition: the people present should write a ghost story each as a form of
entertainment and whoever created the most frightening one would be the winner.
o One night, Mary had a vivid dream of a creature being brought back to life by a scientist with the help of a
thunderstorm. This was the initial idea she used to then write the full story.
o Two very influential pieces we still make new adaptations of in modern times were born during that short trip
to Switzerland: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), and Dr John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819), which will later
become the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).

Frankenstein | Teacher: Emma