[Music] in 1823 just five years after the original publication of Frankenstein Mary Shelley saw a staged version of her novel in London the resurgence of interest in it events by the popularity of the play in part prompted her decision to publish a second revised edition with an Augmented introduction in 1831 a century later James Whale created a riveting film version of Frankenstein starring an electrode necked monster memorably played by Boris Karloff today if you say Frankenstein people think not of Victor Frankenstein the creator of the creature or of Mary Shelley's original yellow skinned monster but
of the green skinned monster as depicted in film after film the Bride of Frankenstein son of Frankenstein Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman and countless others Mary Shelley was born in 1797 to two prominent English writers her mother died giving birth to her her father was a philosopher and political scientist while her mother was a feminist and writer oddly enough her father did not allow her a formal education and so she taught herself to read and write at the age of seventeen she ran off to Europe with the married writer Percy Shelley together they had a child
who died shortly after birth shortly after that Mary began to write Frankenstein during this time Mary's half-sister and Percy's abandoned wife both committed suicide Mary published the novel in 1818 because Percy wrote the preface and Mary was little known many assumed he had written it though the novel sold out only 500 copies were printed so the couple struggled financially and emotionally Mary faced the deaths of three of her children and her husband's infidelity tragedy struck again in 1822 when Percy drowned in order to support herself and her one surviving child Mary Shelley wrote five more
novels and a novella but none were as successful as Frankenstein several men tried to win her hand in marriage but she remained faithfully devoted to Percy's memory she even carried his heart around for the rest of her life she died in London on February 1st 1851 at age 53 Frankenstein opens with letters from Captain Robert Wilton to his sister describing his exploratory mission to the North Pole when his ship hits an iceberg and becomes stuck his crewmen see a giant man on a dogsled shortly after another man appears one of the rock slid and Walton
and his crew take him on board Batman Victor Frankenstein tells Walton his story leading up to his rescue Victor takes up the narration describing his youth in Switzerland and love of science shortly after his mother dies Victor leaves for the University of Ingolstadt to study chemistry he makes a breakthrough discovering the source of life he collects corpses from local graves stitches together an eight-foot-tall body and animates he realizes the hideous and rejects it almost a year later he learns that his brother William has been murdered Victor suspects it was the monster he meets the monster
in the mountains and he tells Victor his story of survival he asks Victor to make him a mate for companionship and Victor agrees and begins working on the female monster but he destroys it after fearing a race of the monsters the monster watching his work through a window becomes enraged and vengefully kills Victor's wife on their wedding night for the remainder of his story Victor describes how he chased the monster across the globe leading up to the point where he is recounting his story to Walton he makes Walton swear to kill the monster for him
and dies shortly after after Victor's death the monster comes on the ship he tells Walton he is going to kill himself the idea behind the story of Frankenstein was inspired during a friendly contest among Mary Shelley her husband Percy and writers Lord Byron and John Polidori Frankenstein mixes of Gothic literature and the Romantic movement at times the scenery in the novel is eerie and isolated the ideal setting for brooding heroes and monsters the novel is full of mystery horror and supernatural elements especially those that surround Victor's monster additionally the novel contains many elements from the
Romantic movement such as deep connections with nature and the exploration of human emotions another characteristic of Romanticism is attraction to a heroic figure interested in breaking the boundaries of traditional society and achieving a lofty ideal although Victor and Walton both initially begin in this light Mary warns readers of the relentless pursuit of an obsession with knowledge this coincides with the Scientific Revolution and enlightenment thinkers prominent during the writing of the novel whereas these thinkers believed reasoned and science could uncover all of the mysteries of the world romantic thinkers like Shelley rejected rationality order and balance
in the arts and instead valued individual experience and subjective perceptions over object of principles significant symbols in the novel include light and darkness light symbolizes hope knowledge learning and discovery while darkness symbolizes emptiness and despair fire offers a dual edged sword light tape a little sustaining life but it also causes pain death and destruction atom and Satan both the monster and Victor's share elements related to these significant characters from John Milton's Paradise Lost such as an unrelenting pursuit of knowledge eating the forbidden fruit trying to play God as Victor does and being cast out or
rejected the monster and atom and Satan both Victor and Walton are driven by curiosity to explore new possibilities leading them into danger electricity was one of the areas of scientific discovery in the late 1700s and early 1800s that seems to promise great improvements in human life in the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein shall they refer to galvanism connection with reanimating life Victor's success in animating the monster however highlights Shelley's view that scientific experimentation carried too far can produce tragedy won't get to any costume shop and a green skinned black lift costume with electrodes
protruding from the neck will be available for purchase or rental Frankenstein is one of the most readily recognizable creations of the gothic literary tradition in addition to the figure of the monster himself the conflict that Mary Shelley depicts between scientific overreach and nature also remains alive today via the term Frankenstein cloned animals who grow to maturity are marveled at by some and fearfully rejected by others as Frankenstein's genetically modified crops are hailed by some as a solution to global food shortages and shunned by others as frankenfoods every time we use a term such as this
we are invoking the complex duality at the heart of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
