Mary Shelley

1
Mary Shelleys Frankenstein

• Notes

2
The Beginnings

• Began as a short story but encouraged by her
  husband expanded into a novel
• Originally began It was on a dreary night. Now
  first words of Chapter 5
• Percy edited and wrote preface

3
Origin

• Ghost story sessions with Byron
• Her dream about her dead children returning to
  life
• Victor Frankenstein may have been modeled on
  real-life chemist Konrad Dippel (lived near
  Castle Frankenstein)

4
Style

• Rich vocabulary
• Elaborate sentence structure
• Jumbled chronology
• Literary allusions to Milton, Coleridge, and
  Plutarch

5
Allusion

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• reinforces feelings of loneliness and separation
• Monster reads Paradise Lost and compares himself
  to Adam, Satan, and the creator
• Compares Victor Frankenstein and Greek god
  Prometheus (subtitle)

6
Characterization

• Many characters were modeled after, or in some
  manner represent, real people
• Examples
• Professor Krempe Keats
• Henry Clerval Byron
• Victor Frankenstein Dippel, William Godwin, and
  Percy Shelley
• Monster Claire

7
Foreshadowing

• Last sentence of Waltons letter of August 19
  sets tone of Victors story
• Strange and harrowing must be his story,
  frightful the storm which embraced the gallant
  vessel on its course and wrecked it thus!
• Victor hints of events to come in telling his
  story

8
Point of View

• Frame story technique
• At the beginning of the novel, the reader is
  introduced to Robert Walton as he writes letters
  to his sister Margaret
• Tells the story of his polar expedition, then
  turns narrative over to Victor, telling his
  tragic story to Walton, who in turn tells his
  sister

9
Point of View (contd)

• Chapters 11 to 16 contain the monsters story as
  he relates it to Frankenstein
• Even a story within the monsters story relating
  the history of the DeLacey family and Safie
• Monster hears the tale from Felix and relates it
  to Frankenstein who tells it to Walton who tells
  it to his sister
• Waltons role equals the wedding guests role in
  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

10
The End