Author of Frankenstein's parents

• Her parents were both famous intellectuals (wrote a book on the vindication of the rights of woman) that believed in the importance of education and that environmental factors influenced personhood.

The Birth of Frankenstein

• The book came about when Mary hung out with the British Romantics, a bunch of writers that loved literature and told ghost stories around a fire, as some playful dare you could say.

• The British Romantics didn't call themselves "romantics" because they wrote romance books, but because they had a love for literature that took common, every-day-life situations (themes) and applied them to their writing.

• Shelley believed that creating/inventing something (art) needed some foundation for support. It needed a backbone that it could build on top of by sorting out "chaos." It could also be fought of as a chemistry equation, where two different elements have to be brought together to make something new.
• Uniting Art and Science

• Refers to the parallel between Victor and the Prometheus (meaning "Forethought"), a Titan in Greek mythology.
• Prometheus stole fire, representing knowledge, from the Olympian Zeus to give to "primal and prerational' humankind (like Adam and Eve?), and Zeus punishes him by torture for all eternity (eagles/vultures eat his liver/heart daily). This is supposed to show how actions have consequences.
• The meaning of Prometheus is ironic, as he had lacked forethought just like Victor lacked forethought on the complications that would arise when making the creature.

Walton's Letters and the Framing of Frankenstein

• Frame narrative: a story in which another story is enclosed or embedded as a 'tale within the tale'
• Reminds us that we are listening to Victor's perspective of the story's events; they can't completely truthful or accurate.
• What is the purpose of writing it like that, from the perspective of other characters?
• in reference to the way Captain Walton sends letters to his sister Margaret to "frame" the primary action of Frankenstein (details of Victor's story as told by Victor himself), and to introduce us to the novel's main characters (except Justine) w/o actually reading their interactions
• We don't see inside his mind or understand his motivations right away.
• Makes Frankenstein a fictional novel because the events aren't accurate.

1. To "discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle:" an early references to experiments with magnetism and electricity
2. "Celestial observations:" scientific inquiry into astronomy
3. The "sight of a world never before visited": in reference to the myth of terrus nullius; the idea that the rest of the globe outside of Europe is made of uninhabitated and untouched land.
1. Why would Walton assume there is uninhabitated land in an era of increasing encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples?
1. Maybe because there's a thrill that comes with discovery? A need to be the first to know/see/find something?

Walton and Victor: Friends at First Sight? 

-> Uniting Art & Science?

• "I have no friend, Margaret:" Walton expresses how lonely he feels in his pursuit for scientific inquiry. It begs the question: does scientific inquiry encourage isolation or bring people together?
• Walton and Victor develop a friendship due to their shared hunger for discovery.

Victor's Early Education

• Victor's interest in natural philosophy triggered the start of his obsession with creation; he read a book by a philosopher who spoke of outdated and false scientific theories. He mistook his father's disdain for ignorance, and kept reading more archaic information.
• Victor tells Walton that perhaps if Victor's father would have engaged in an open-minded conversation with him, then maybe he could have avoided his fate. Is that true? Isn't this just an example of him being unaccountable for his actions?
• What is this text suggesting about the relationship between previous eras of scientific inquiry and our current one? That although there's are positives in using older theories to develop new ones (reference to UAS) and documenting how far we've come in accurately explaining "strange" phenomena , there's also an unspoken negative that outdated information can teach falsehoods to young people that don't know any better or are overly optimistic.
• How do we acknowledge the contributions of previous generations without repeating their mistakes?
• Do we trust Victor's narration, in the first place?

• Victor appreciated how open-minded professor Waldman was to his findings of Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus (outdated theorists) compared to his father and professor Krempe. Waldman even said they made the foundation of modern knowledge and that later generations can learn from them. -> UAS

• As Victor makes the creature, the only thing keeping him going is the end goal of creation and the supposed admiration that would come from being a creator (like God). Although taking body parts from graves and killing animals disgusted him, and he barely slept and ate for weeks on end, which harmed his mental health, he kept going. Looks like he had the mindset of "the end justifies the means." Additionally, he did all this in isolation.
• Important themes:
• Creation must be done with the right motivations and for the correct reasons.
• If the creature is somewhat a product of Victor's isolation, does that mean isolation, and therefore lack of community involvement, proof-reading, check and balances, more dangerous than the creature himself?

• Victor judges the creature's intentions by his appearance. What does this say about the creature's approach to creation? Is this saying that a creation is only worth acknowledgment if it's beautiful.
• Victor also fails to name the creature, leaving it w/o a clear identity or place within social order.

• Justine was a domestic servant that was "saved" from her abusive mother by Caroline Beaufort (Victor's mother). She comes from a lower class family. She is later accused of killing Victor's younger brother William and is executed.
• Justine's experience of adoption parallels Elizabeth's, yet both are treated differently due to their upbringings/class.
• Justine the Mime

• "most grateful little creature in the world," "endeavoured to imitate her phraseology and manners
• Refers to the way the Frankenstein family saw Justine as less than (not entirely a servant but not technically part of the family)
• The use of the word creature to describe Justine is significant
• By bringing Caroline "back to life" through imitation. Justine's existence serves to be a medium between Caroline in death and real life (like the creature)
• What Makes a Monster?

• What Makes a Monster?
• Monster are social creations that form when we can't make sense of the unknown, when we lack a category for a certain thing/person.
• The Frankenstein family couldn't make sense of who Justine is, as a lower class individual could never be as great (regardless of imitation/knowledge) as a noble born. So they were quick to turn their backs against her when she needed them most.
• Justine's Confession: Just like the creature, when Justine confesses to a crime she didn't commit. She also comes to believe what everyone around her thought of her.

• The creature devolves from a good natured and well-intentioned entity, to one full of hatred by 3 events: the rejection from his creator (Victor), the first set of humans he interacts with after stepping into the real world (villagers that attack him on sight), and the De Laceys.

• At the time of Shelley's writing, there were a lot of racial discourse depicting black people in stereotypical manners, and although there is exaggeration in Shelley's description of the creature, there are some similarities (large size, brute strength, black lips).
• The Creature and the (Anti)slavery Debate
• Some pro-slavery debators thought that black people were so barbaric, that if they were to let them go free, they would cause havoc.
• Was Shelley being racist? Or was she providing an explanation for the supposed cruelty that black people may have.

1. Emphasis on the scientific process that makes human beings develop
2. Narrative strategies that are best suited to represent this development
1. Shelley invents a new way of narrating development through the fictional writing of a novel (100ish pages, prose language, unified plot )

• Bildungsroman = German for "novel of formation/personal development"
• Example of novelistic/new "genre" -> category used to differentiate one type of literary writing from another like Mean Girls
• A reference that Elizabeth has her own development (go over)

• Why does the Creature automatically assume "white-coded" human forms are beautiful?
• Growing up for the creature is not a secure of comfortable process.

• Thought that keeping women out of education kept them in an infantile position that opened them up to abuse from their oppressors with no pushback.