Frankenstein Background Notes
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)
• Mother died shortly after her birth
• bothered Shelly forever
• touched upon in novel (themes of loss)
• blamed self for death
• Raised by father (who remarried shortly after wife’s death)
• Received excellent education (rare for females at the time)
• Eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelly when she was 17
• he was already married (open marriage)
• Shelley’s wife eventually committed suicide; their “marital”
union is made legal Mary Shelley - 1840
• Shared a love of language and literature portrait by Richard
Rothwell (1800–1868)
• First three children died – deepened her melancholy
• Wrote Frankenstein in 1818
• Ghost telling contest in 1816
• Lord Byron, John Polidori (influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula)
• Percy drowned on July 8, 1822 in Italy with a friend (storm-not suicide)
• Lived rest of life in England
• raised one son and helped her father
• published various stories, plays, novels, novellas, bios
• worked tirelessly to promote Percy’s literary work (major poet of English
Romantic Period)
• refused various marriage proposals
• Died February 1, 1851 in London
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus Information
• Early example of “science fiction”
• The story, begun one “wet, ungenial summer” when the author was just 17, had an influence
across literature and popular culture; it spawned a complete genre of horror stories and movies.
• A story within a story within a story
• Victor Frankenstein is monster’s creator…NOT the monster! (think father-figure)
• Various interpretations
• Critique of modern science?
• Allegory? (Industrial Revolution)
• Bringing life into the world? Search for ultimate power/Godhood?
• Woman’s roles in society/alienation?
• Modern Prometheus? (think Greek mythology)
• Archetypal “Gothic” novel
• Gothic: connected to the dark and horrific; eventually considered “horror fiction”
• Dark and setting(s) with macabre and melodramatic plot
• Isolated gothic villain
• Death and destruction
• Nature versus technology
• Story within story plot
• Long passages filled with pastoral imagery
• Numerous Film and Television adaptations (both serious and comedic), including “The
Munsters,” Phil Hartman on early 1990’s episodes of “Saturday Night Live”, and Conan O’Brien
Show character of Frankenstein’s Mother. Allusions often found on the TV Series, “Buffy the
Vampire Slayer”
• Numerous Print and Video adaptations, including Marvel Comics’ “The Monster of
Frankenstein” and Konami’s video game series, “Castlevania.”
• The Edgar Winters Group 1970’s rock hit “Frankenstein”… you’ve heard it!