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Home , Mary Shelley

BACKGROUND MARY SHELLEY, , GOTHIC LITERATURE, AND HOW THE STORY CAME TO BE BACKGROUND ON SHELLEY • Born as Godwin (named after her mother) • Born in Somers Town, London, on August 30th, 1797 • Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, died only 11 days after birth • She and her four half-sisters were raised by her father, , who encouraged his daughters to write at a very early age. BACKGROUND CONT’D

• Shelley had an affair with the married poet, • Mary became pregnant with Percy’s child and upon hearing such, her father refused to receive her. • She became ostracized from society as an adulterer • Mary’s daughter died soon after her birth and led Mary into a deep depression. Percy • In 1816 Mary gave birth to a son, William, which eased her depression. Shelley BACKGROUND CONT’D

• Mary and Percy gave birth to another child, Clara in 1817 • Mary grew very ill during her final years • While on a trip together, William and Clara both • She died on February 1, 1851 became extremely sick and died • Some believe the cause of her death to be a • She later gave birth to another son, Percy, whom brain tumor she feared she would also lose THE MAKING OF FRANKENSTEIN

• The idea for the came to Shelley in a dream • During this time, the party would engage in • She would spend the summer with Lord , ghost stories and talking about galvanism her friends affair at the time • This led to Shelley producing the first sketch of • They would be confined to their house due to what would become Frankenstein bad weather SHELLEY’S INFLUENCES

• Both parents were prominent writers • Mother was a feminist writer who wrote a book about the equality of the sexes Shelley’s mother • Her father, William, was an accomplished journalist and novelist and father SHELLEY’S IMPACT ON LITERATURE

• Through this novel, Shelley explicitly gave birth to a new theme in literature which is: hubris and unbridled ambition causing one’s ultimate downfall. This is also present in many Greek myths and are also two elements of a tragic hero. Shelley merely brought it to modern literature. • Example: ROMANTICISM DEFINITION:

ROMANTICISM IS A COMPLEX ARTISTIC, LITERARY, AND INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT THAT ORIGINATED IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY IN WESTERN EUROPE, AND GAINED STRENGTH IN REACTION TO THE . IN PART, IT WAS A REVOLT AGAINST ARISTOCRATIC SOCIAL AND POLITICAL NORMS OF THE AND A REACTION AGAINST THE SCIENTIFIC RATIONALIZATION OF NATURE (NEOCLASSICISM), AND WAS EMBODIED MOST STRONGLY IN THE VISUAL ARTS, MUSIC, AND LITERATURE, BUT CAN BE DETECTED EVEN IN CHANGED ATTITUDES TOWARDS CHILDREN AND EDUCATION. ROMANTICISM • The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both

new aesthetic categories. , Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818 ROMANTICISM

• In the U.S., romantic Gothic literature made an early appearance with 's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) and Rip Van Winkle (1819), followed by the Leatherstocking Tales of , with their emphasis on heroic simplicity and their fervent landscape descriptions of an already- exotic mythicized frontier peopled by "noble savages," similar to the philosophical theory of Rousseau. • Later, Transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau and still show elements of its influence and imagination, as does the romantic realism of Walt Whitman. But by the 1880s, psychological and social realism was competing with romanticism in the novel. The poetry of Emily Dickinson— nearly unread in her own time—and Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick can be taken as epitomes of American Romantic literature. ROMANTICISM CHARACTERISTICS: •Enthusiasm for the • THE PREDOMINANCE OF IMAGINATION OVER REASON wild, irregular, or AND RULES grotesque in nature • PRIMITIVISM • Enthusiasm for the • LOVE OF NATURE uncivilized or • AN INTEREST IN THE PAST “natural” • MYSTICISM • INDIVIDUALISM ROMANTICISM MORE CHARACTERISTICS: • INTEREST IN HUMAN RIGHTS • SENTIMENTALITY • MELANCHOLY • INTEREST IN THE GOTHIC Supernatural And Gothic Literary Themes Supernatural motifs appear throughout literature but are most prominent in the literary genre labeled "Gothic," which developed in the late eighteenth-century and is devoted primarily to stories of horror, the , and the "darker" supernatural forces. • Gothic literature derives its name from its similarities to the Gothic medieval cathedrals, which feature a majestic, unrestrained architectural style with often savage or grotesque ornamentation (the word "Gothic" derives from "Goth," the name of one of the barbaric Germanic tribes that invaded the Roman Empire). • The vaulting arches and spires of Gothic cathedrals reach wildly to the sky as if the builders were trying to grasp the heavens; and the cathedrals are covered with a profusion of wild carvings depicting humanity in conflict with supernatural forces—demons, angels, gargoyles, and . • The architecture evokes the sense of humanity’s division between a finite, physical identity and the often terrifying and bizarre forces of the infinite. The Gothic aesthetic also embodies an ambition to transcend earthly human limitations and reach the divine. • Like Gothic architecture, Gothic literature focuses on humanity’s fascination with the grotesque, the unknown, and the frightening, inexplicable aspects of the universe and the human soul. The Gothic "relates the individual to the infinite universe" (Varma, 16) and creates horror by portraying human individuals in confrontation with the overwhelming, mysterious, terrifying forces found in the cosmos and within themselves. Gothic literature pictures the human condition as an ambiguous mixture of good and evil powers that cannot be understood completely by human reason. • Thus, the Gothic perspective conceives of the human condition as a paradox, a dilemma of duality—humans are divided in the conflict between opposing forces in the world and in themselves. GOTHIC • Prominent features of include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, , death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets, and hereditary curses. • The stock characters of Gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, monks, nuns, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, angels, fallen angels, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew (!?) and the Devil himself. SCIENCE AND ROMANTICISM

• Anxiety about manipulating nature and pushing the limits of science (“” figure emerges) 1. Galvanism (electric currents to stimulate muscle movement) 2. Body Snatching (theft of bodies from graves to sell to doctors and scientists) 3. Vivisections (dissecting living animals for scientific study) 4. Polar Expeditions CRASH COURSE

• Part I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyyrwoCec1k • Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRDjmyEvmBI MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN AND THE DEPTH OF ITS THEMES. • Frankenstein is a novel that came about from a challenge and the philosophical thoughts of a 17 year old girl.

• The roots of Frankenstein stem from several different sources, though one of the major contributors was the original challenge issued to her from the famous poet, . Not only did this challenge lead to the creation of the Gothic masterpiece, it also established THE original Vampire story and set philosophy on new trends. • The story goes as follows: Late one evening at the infamous Villa Diadoti in Switzerland, just on the coast, Lord Byron and his physician, John Palidori had rented the mansion for use as a vacationing spot. They invited their close friends including the famous poet, Percy Shelly and his 17 year old girlfriend, Mary (even though he was married at the time), and a few other close friends who shared their ideas in poetry, philosophy and life’s many splendors. of the stories, threw the book Once the vacation was across the room, denting the done, the guests were on their wall where it hit. “We can do way home. Percy and Mary, better than THIS!” He screamed however, were detained for some time afterward. at them, and so he proposed a challenge that each of them The eruption of a nearby would create their own horror volcano had clouded the sky and caused a rather dreary story and present it the next storm that increased the very year. gothic atmosphere around the It is from this challenge that Villa. Mary and Percy were Gothic literature was truly born stuck with Byron and Palidori into what it is now. Byron for a few more days until they could travel on again. produced half a poem, Percy had squat, but ironically, the One night, the group sat in young girl Mary, and the the house reading German ghost stories from the physician John Palidori had Fantasmagorianna. Byron, created modern Gothic frustrated by the low caliber Literature. • The next time the four met, Byron produced a fragment of a Fanciful poem. Shelly brought basically nothing, but John Palidori changed Gothic text forever. • The he produced (only about 70 pages) was titled “The Vampyre”. It is the story of Lord Ruthvym. He was a vampire unlike any other in that he was tall, aristocratic, seductive, beautiful and he made murder of innocents attractive. “The Vampyre” had some success and can still be found today. What made it so new and interesting was that Lord Ruthvym was such an attractive creature. He was based, at least in appearance and attitude, on Lord Byron himself. This then spawned the creation of intelligent, attractive vampires such as and those in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. Lord Byron Mary Shelley’s creation came as the result of a dream she had after a philosophical discussion of the possibilities of reanimating dead materials. She dreamt of a man standing in terror over a creation he had made from dead people. It opened its eyes and reached for him. Shelley woke from her nightmare and knew she had found something phenomenal. Shelley’s book was written by hand with quill and ink in a matter of months. It explored the story of , an ingenious college student who believed he could stop and reverse death. If he could do this, no one would mourn for lost loved ones again, AND it would boost him to be the greatest mind of the time. What Victor had not planned on was the creation and responsibility for another soul. It brought up the idea of “Perhaps we CAN play God. But what of the responsibilities for the creature we create?” Shelley brought up not just a great story, but a point we often overlook; “We can, but SHOULD we?” The concept can be debated eternally and with The time she wrote Frankenstein was bursting with no real way to discover the philosophical ideas of human nature, all we are human nature. What IS human left with are our beliefs nature? Is it inherently born …except that at the time into us, or somehow gained? Frankenstein was written, And above all, if there truly something that could have is Human Nature, is it innately answered most of these good? Is it more innately evil? questions was happening Or does it exist at all? in France. • In the cold morning hours of January 8, 1800, a wild boy wandered from the woods into the village of Avyeron in France. He was naked, save for the tattered remains of a shirt. His hair and nails long and unkempt and his body covered in scars. • The boy, as would be discovered, had likely been the victim of a failed attempt on his life. On his neck was a scar from where someone had tried to slit his throat. He was approximately four years old at the time someone tried to kill him. • The boy was then thrown into the woods and left for dead. Somehow, the boy managed to survive in the wild for 8 to 9 YEARS. He fed and protected himself, learned to survive, and eventually stumbled into “civilization” when he was about 13 years old. • There was an idea of something called • The boy was actually captured while “The Forbidden Experiment”. In this trying to take some potatoes from a experiment, an infant would be left garden. “Captured” is the right without any human contact word as he was taken and held whatsoever, though observed to see against his will. what a human would do “naturally”. • Had he been found ten years, ten • This is, of course, a sick idea though months, even just ten weeks before the experiment had happened at least THREE times before. An Egyptian he was, he would have been beaten Pharaoh wanted to know the true and sent back to the woods, which language of people, so he locked two would likely have been better for infants in a room where food would be him. brought to them, but no compassion, • As it was, all France and England no words, nothing human. Supposedly the two eventually said a word similar were abuzz with the ideas of Human to the Egyptian word for bread, though Nature and the only way TRUE both died incredibly young, before human nature could be found. more could be learned. • Later, Kings and Philosophers • The boy was soon taken in by a alike wanted to reenact the teacher named Itard who was same experiment, and a few famous for his work with deaf children. Although The Wild times actually did, in order to Boy was not deaf, he was taken find what people would do to the school for teaching and naturally. observation in the name of science and human decency. • In most cases, the children • The boy could not speak, merely died or became preferred to sleep on the frightened animals. ground, go naked and repeatedly tried to run away. • The Wild Boy of Aveyron, He showed no want of however, was a promise to socialization or civilization, and understand our nature at last. thus showed little of what philosophers wanted. • Eventually, Itard began treating the boy as an animal. He was leashed when in public, disciplined when he did wrong, though he could not have possibly known it was wrong, and eventually broken . • Itard gave up on the boy 8 years later, labeled him as “an incurable idiot.” and locked him in an insane asylum. There the boy became more and more of a destroyed creature. Any progress he made disappeared and the boy, now named Victor, was slowly dieing. • Eventually, he was taken in by Mme Geurin, who had worked at the school he had been at, and lived the short rest of his life in silence and obscurity in this small apartment. He never socialized, never grew in society, only withered and died in it. Science and Philosophy had hoped Victor could show them if people, raised apart from society and human contact, could finally answer if we are intrinsically good, or intrinsically evil. According to Itard’s own writing, the only observation of human nature that Victor could provide them with was; “He seeks no harm, for he does not know what that means…He merely sits there like the true innocent…Therefore; it is impossible to affirm that our boy from Aveyron is either good or bad; he is just mild…and thus, has no relation to us at all.” • The Wild Boy was taken by science to prove once and for all what our nature is. He showed an answer, it was just not what science and philosophy wanted. • Similar situations have presented themselves as recently as 1970 in Los Angeles, • He showed us that in nature, humans will merely be mild. California with the case of They will have feelings, ideas Genie. Again, human nature and knowledge, but they will basically seemed to show govern their life by comfort, merely the want to survive, not safety and survival; not by to seek good or evil means. notions of good or evil. • Going back to Shelley’s Frankenstein, she explored the idea of what would happen to a being if created and abandoned. What would that being seek? Good? Evil? Vengeance? Or mere survival free from pain? • Likewise, what comes of the person who creates and then abandons? What degree of responsibility does the maker have to his creation and why? • What becomes of a flawed creature made by a flawed God? To whom do they pray? From where do they come? To where will they go? • And finally, what areas should be and which should not be crossed in our pursuit of knowledge. • Frankenstein is not merely a story about a scientist who created a , there are much deeper concepts at work. • It is about the cost of human ambition, the responsibilities of creation, the price one pays to be God, and most of all, the truth of our Nature.