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Published anonymously in 1818, Mary Shelley's work, Frankenstein, was
originally written as part of a wager. Mary Shelley was a young woman,
still in her teens, when she published this work. Later, in 1823, a
refined edition was published with Shelley's name actually on it.
Frankenstein is a story about a doctor who wishes to create life, and
his creation, the monster. Shelley's book raises questions about the
morality of science and the nature of good and evil in general.
Although Frankenstein's monster seeks to be accepted by society, he is
ultimately rejected because of his hideous appearance. Seeking revenge
on his creator, the monster kills Frankenstein's younger brother and
then his young bride before ultimately tracking down and destroying
the man who created him. Both Romanticism and the gothic novel were
popular at the time this work was published, and the Industrial
Revolution was gearing up, leading people to ask questions about the
effects of science and industrialization on society. At this same time
the Enlightenment was in full swing, and Mary Shelley's own father was
part of the movement. Enlightenment -- or the Age of Enlightenment --
was a school of intellectual recourse that involved higher society
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It promoted the
virtues of higher thought and philosophy and railed against the
intolerance of the church and abuses of power by both church and
state.
During the late seventeen hundreds and the early eighteen hundreds,
the gothic novel experienced its hayday, and had a great deal of
influence on the Romantic movement of art and writing. "The
traditional setting, beginning with Hugh Walpole's The Castle of
Otranto (1764), is a medieval (hence, "gothic") castle, replete with
secret passages, torchlit dungeons, and an occasional bat. The
traditional plot, as in Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho
(1794), involves a beautiful heroine beset by dark shadows, strange
noises, and a candle that keeps blowing out. These early gothic novels
aimed at instilling terror. Later examples of the form, such as
Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796), moved beyond terror to horror,
invoking demons, ghosts, and other supernatural paraphernalia in gory
and subliminally erotic detail, (Quinn)". Mary Shelley's work was
perhaps one of the best known examples of the gothic novel, and is
also considered one of the earliest works of science fiction. Shelley
deals with themes that were at the time unique to gothic literature,
using elements of the 'supernatural' and building her story so as to
incite horror in the reader. At the time it was considered highly
controversial, and part of what led up to the second edition of the
book with Shelley's real name on the cover was the need to edit and
refine the writing due to some of the public's reaction to the
content. Frankenstein is also somewhat typical of the Romantic era
writer's use of the wayward hero, and a similarity can be found in the
story of Prometheus, by Johann Gothe. "Victor and the monster are not
so much villains as they are typically ambiguous Romantic heroes:
Victor fails miserably, but his quest is inspiring; and the monster,
though a murderer, is also a victim, and an eloquent and sympathetic
rebel against forces that violate his basic rights, (Classics
Reviewed)".
What truely sets Mary Shelley's tale apart from other writing of the
time is that it is one of the original instances where a story focuses
on the laboratory and what takes place there. "Often called the first
of its kind, Frankenstein paved the way for science fiction writing.
Its depiction of a then impossible scientific feat has in our time
become possible and is essentially recognizable in what we now refer
to as bioengineering, biomedicine, or biotechnology...Victor
Frankenstein, has come to serve as the poster child and whipping boy
for all scientific and technological irresponsibility, so much so that
thanks to him we are able to free ourselves and our scientists from
any real responsibility, since none of us ever would or could be as
monstrous as Frankenstein,  (van der Laan)". There can be no doubt
that Frankenstein has an iconic place in culture, which it would not
have earned if it were not a revolutionary piece of work. At the time
it was published no mere human could conceive of doing what Victor
Frankenstein had done. Creating life was out of the question, and with
the primitive conditions that most scientists were forced to function
under due to the church, even saving lives with improvements to modern
medicine was difficult. Mary Shelley touches on the back-alley secrecy
that surrounded the act of acquiring body parts for research, which
was made practically impossible by the religious attitudes of the
time. "From the thirteenth to the early seventeenth century, the
bodies of the executed were the only legal source of bodies for
dissection. Starting in the late seventeenth century, the bodies of
unclaimed persons were also made legally available, (Hildebrandt)".
Mary Shelley's work was also unusual and unique because of the author,
since even during the Age of Enlightenment it was still more common
for men to be published authors than women, and Shelley wrote
Frankenstein while she was still a mere teenager.
Although response to the initial publishing of Frankenstein was mixed,
it seems to be the overall concensus that for better or worse, this
novel has firmly earned its place in history. Helen Moore wrote in
1886 that,"Of Mrs. Shelley's writings, Frankenstein is without
question the most noteworthy. From the day of its first appearance in
print down to the present, it has had accorded to it a position as a
unique and remarkable production." Although Frankenstein presented
shocking and grotesque new concepts to the public, it also took off as
an allegory for science without morality. The word 'Frankenstein' has
become almost synonymous with 'monster', even though Frankenstein was
the monster's creator, and the monster himself remained nameless.
Frankenstein was parodied in pictures as early as 1843.

[caption id="attachment_1976" align="aligncenter" width="223" caption="Frankenstein as Propoganda"]<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Punch_Anti-Irish_propaganda_(1882)_Irish_Frankenstein.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1976" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/446px-Punch_Anti-Irish_propaganda_1882_Irish_Frankenstein-223x300.jpg" alt="" width="223" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

Current day opinion of Frankenstein does not seem to have changed much
from the attitudes of the time towards the work. In fact, there is an
eerie similarity between what critics at the time were saying and what
the modern day critics seem to feel about Shelley's masterpiece. "Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley is responsible for a creative transformation
worthy of her prototypical mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein: she
reconfigures, recontextualizes, and thus modernizes the myth of
Prometheus by means of a tiresome, unlucky ghost story, (Hustis)". It
may very well be that Mary Shelley managed, without entirely meaning
to, to create a story that touches so many people so deeply and
effectively that she has broken the proverbial mold of writing.
Whatever the case may be, there seems to be almost unilateral
agreement that this particular piece of work is well deserving of its
place in the annals of history.
My personal reaction to this work has always been very strong. Whether
reading the book or watching any of the myriad of movies that were
inspired by Frankenstein, it is impossible to resist the allure of the
tale. Victor Frankenstein takes the role of God in his hands and sets
about to defy death by creating life through the use of science. In
some ways there lies the majority of the allure. Everyone fears death,
and humankind as a whole has an obsession with defeating it, whether
looking back to ancient tales of the fountain of youth, or going
forward to the more modern age, where life and death are now
controlled in the pristine setting of a laboratory or hospital.
Secondary but not lesser by any means are the themes of revenge and
betrayal that come with following Frankenstein's creation through his
journey as a misfit of society. Desperately seeking to be accepted and
loved, the monster instead becomes a killer, giving up on attaining
his dream and instead attempting to get even with the person who
created him without thought for what misery might result.
Although it was written much later at the closing of the century,
perhaps the best story to compare with Frankenstein is that of Brahm
Stoker's Dracula. A similar tale of supernatural horror and foiled
romance, Dracula focuses on some of the similar themes that
Frankenstein does, and has also easily become as famous as Shelley's
novel. Both Dracula and Frankenstein have a monsterous main character,
and both Dracula and the monster created by Victor Frankenstein
struggle to have something resembling a 'human' existance, even though
such a thing is clearly impossible. While Frankenstein is wrought with
anguish at his inability to join society, Dracula seems almost
unbothered by it. Instead, Dracula rejoices in the powers that he has
gained, which may be because of how much easier it is for Dracula to
move about among the 'normal' population due to his more human
appearance. Dracula and Frankenstein both rely on gothic themes and
isolated landscapes to enhance the 'horrific' aspect of the narrative,
and in both stories there are a number of innocent people who suffer
because of being involved with the monster in some tenebrous way. The
carefree Lucy in Brahm Stoker's tale is killed for no reason other
than being friends with the family that Dracula is tormenting.
Victor's bride Emily falls victim to the monster that her fiancee --
and later husband -- created. Both stories share aspects of
Romanticism and have love stories contained within that are less
central to the plot than the monster, which remains the focal point of
the story-telling.
For future generations there are several things to be aware of,
including the age at which Mary Shelley authored Frankenstein, the
moral of the story, which is one cautioning against the development of
science without a counter-check of morality. To know that a teenage
girl was capable of creating such a timeless classic should inspire
everyone who reads it to make the best use of their talents and aspire
to do whatever it is that they love. Creativity knows no bounds, and a
work of genius can be recognized as such no matter who is the creator.
At the same time, there is also much to be gleaned from the work
itself, not just about being moderate and careful when approaching new
scientific and technological advances, but also about being more
accepting as a society.
<p style="text-align: center">
_______________Works Cited_______________</p>
<p style="text-align: left">
Quinn, Edward. "gothic literature." A Dictionary of Literary and
Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.
Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
"Frankenstein." Recommended Reading: 500 Classics Reviewed (1995): 1.
MagillOnLiterature Plus. EBSCO. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
van der Laan, J. M. "Frankenstein as Science Fiction and Fact."
Bulletin of Science, Technology &amp; Society 30.4 (2010): 298-304.
Vocational and Career Collection. EBSCO. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
Hildebrandt, S. "Capital punishment and anatomy: history and ethics of
an ongoing association." Clinical Anatomy (New York, N.Y.) 21.1
(2008): 5-14. MEDLINE. EBSCO. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
Moore, Helen. From "Frankenstein, and Other Writings." In Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley: 244–264. 1886. Quoted as "Frankenstein, and
Other Writings" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Mary Shelley, Bloom's Classic
Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's
Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Hustis, Harriet. "Responsible Creativity and the "Modernity" of Mary
Shelley's Prometheus." SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900,
43, no. 4 (Autumn 2003): 845–858. Quoted as "Responsible Creativity
and the "Modernity" of Mary Shelley's Prometheus" in Bloom, Harold,
ed. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, New Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical
Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009. Bloom's Literary
Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc</p>