HISTORY OF

FRANKENSTEIN

An insight into the Weltanschauung of Mary Shelley

 WELTANSCHAUUNG
DEFINITION: Ones view on life; a personal view due to the
experiences one has had.
The gothic horror text, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley contains a definitive image of the
burdens in ones life. In relativity, the text explores motifs of death, consequence and love,
all of which were prevalent in Shelleys life. She was born in 1797 to philosophical
intellects William Goodwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Being a part of this intellectual
heritage allowed for Shelley (ne Goodwin) to move into the marriage with Romanticist
Percy Shelley in 1816 (after the suicide of Percys first-wife Harriet). Struggle met them
with tougher times of debt, ostracism and death (their prematurely born baby girl died
just before their marriage). During their coupling, they bore three children, but sadly only
one, the final baby Percy [Florence] Shelley, survived whilst they had moved to Italy. It
was that when death finally drew all that was left of Marys love; her husband drowned in
1822 (a boat crash), and still she lived on, attempting to publish Percys [husband] poetry
until her timely death at the age of 53, after surviving 10 years with a brain tumour.
FAMILIERS
DEFINITION: Family, Relatives, Friends and Acquaintances
of importance.
The intellect brought from an early age in Shelley came from her strongly inheritance of
knowledge held by her philosophical intellects. Namely her parents, William Goodwin and
Mary Wollstonecraft were the main influence for her drive in education. William was a
journalist and author (essayist and novelist in this area), known for his work in political
philosophy. His style of novel writing is now what is considered the Mystery Novel genre,
and was prolific in the area of English literary writings (being still used as influence in the
modern day).
Her Mother on the other hand was far more of an activist in the area of politics, and was
known to be one of the most prevalent in the area of the feminist movement for womens
rights, especially in her [in]famous novel A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Her
death was met only a week or two after the birth of daughter Mary Shelley. In the
representation of her life now we have Memoirs written by her husband (William) which
talks of the difficulties that Wollstonecraft underwent due to her political radicalisations.
FAMILIERS
DEFINITION: Family, Relatives, Friends and Acquaintances
of importance.
On the front of internal family, Mary Shelley was married to widower Percy Shelley after the
tragic death of his previous wife Harriet when she took her own life (1816). During this time,
Shelley and Percy had begun a relationship which resulted in Shelley carrying their first
child (Clara Everina). Alas, it was not to be as death came again and took the child from
them in its premature birth. They had two other children whilst travelling in Italy (William
and Percy Florence) but only the last (Percy) survived into adulthood. Due to the lacking
success in her other novels (besides Frankenstein), Shelley moved to publishing her
husbands writings, even after his death in 1822. His Romantic Poetry proved to be
successful and is still read today. Her own death was in 1851 (aged 53).

In acquaintances and friendships Shelley found many influences, mainly in the trip to
Geneva where the idea of Frankenstein was borne. Twas on this trip that with Claire
Clairmont (Shelleys stepsister, Lord Byron (who began the scandal with Claire of
impregnating her and then leaving her) and their son, that Shelley and her husband began
to decipher the story of Frankenstein.
CLASSICISM
DEFINITION: The historical context that lies behind the novel, and the
reason and placement of its writing.

The historical context is surrounded by the events in which Mary Shelley

underwent (thus her Weltanschauung). Considering the horrors of death and life
that surrounded her chronology, Shelley expressed the power of life and death
through her novel due to it being such a horrific image in her own life.
The birthplace of this story came from the trip to the lake in Geneva, where the
group of friends and family were experimenting with opium (a popular
hallucinogen at the time of the novels writing). They had made a pact to write the
scariest horror fiction (jokingly at the time) ever. In reflection, Shelley looked upon
this as an opportunity to embellish upon the tragedies in her life and fictionalise
them; using the Greek myth of Prometheus (a God-like symbolism utilised
throughout the entire novel) who disobeys the laws of life and is punished for his
actions, thus we see that even the smallest symbols of childbirth and affairs are
key in realising the tragedy that Shelley saw in her life.
INTERTWININGS
DEFINITION: The use of exterior texts in order to influence
the meanings behind Frankenstein.

There are many texts which Shelley took influence from, including the myth of
Prometheus. As its alternately deemed The Modern Prometheus, immediately one is
drawn to the sense of betrayal and death, life and giving (in these cases for the
wrong reason). It is after the creation of the monster that we see the dawning of
the wrongness behind Viktor Frankensteins actions. He is playing with the power
of creation, and has broken the rules of not creating life artificially (a somewhat
correlation with the baring of the first Shelley child who was born of an affair, an
artificial relationship creating life[?]). This can be interpreted in the modern world
as the lead-up to artificial-intelligence (a foreshadowing somewhat). The idea of not
playing God is what is woven through this writing. Often the consequentialist
(being the monster) utilises the pain of death (a frequent image in Shelleys life) as
the punishment for the creation (being the double figure of the fire and of God in
Prometheus). Thus it is clear that Viktor Franksteins authorial personification of
Greek hero Prometheus is noted as the most prevalent feature in the text.
INTERTWININGS
DEFINITION: The use of exterior texts in order to influence
the meanings behind Frankenstein.

Again, another text is used to influence the fantastical style of the gothic horror
novel. The lengthy poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from English Romantic
Poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This text is considered a blatant image of the life
and death sequence, and again we see the influence that Shelley took in the
gambling for life and death due to abuse of power over creation (the killing of an
albatross). Through his week of despair after being won over by the curse of Life-
in-death, he begins to appreciate (or respect) the beauty of nature (seeing the
previously grotesque sea-creatures as the most beautiful). This is relevant to
Frankensteins melody due to it having many correlations; the Life-in-death
character being representational of the monster, who punishes the Mariner (hence
punishing Viktor) for tampering/disturbing the balance in creation. As it can be
seen through this relationship, the text is about balance of life, death and
creation; allowing life to pan out as usual, but when is it disturbed, it mustn't go
unpunished.
INTERTWININGS
DEFINITION: The use of exterior texts in order to influence
the meanings behind Frankenstein.
Another key influence for the writing of Frankenstein was the 1667 epic poem, Paradise
Lost. This religiously influence marathon involved the production of ten [12 in the revised
edition] books in relation to different religious characters. The connotations behind each
was distinctly labelled [characters such as Satan, Adam and Eve ect] but were equally
mystified inside of their own poems. This was a construction feature used by Shelley in her
dual titling of the novel (relevant to Prometheus), which allowed for the fictionalisations to
be realised in different settings. Also, the changing of narratorial roles in Paradise Lost is a
key feature that is highlighted latently in Frankenstein, Robert Walton; a traveller to
Antartica, Viktor Frankenstein and finally the monster; in which we see points of view from
three angles (the distant, the close and the intimate). These different points of view show a
different view of a situation. From a distance, in relation to Shelleys Weltanschauung, we
can note Percy, who was always on the outside of the situation, never truly being involved
in Shelleys grief (perse). In the close and intimate categories we have Shelley, who creates
life (birth) and is rewarded with death (a bleak but relevant view on the topic of creation;
difficult but still relevant). Thus we see the disobedience and the creation hindrances
appear once again in this influential text, and now understand the scaffold from which
Frankenstein was created.