8726-9 FM.F 3/21/01 9:01 AM Page i CLIFFSCOMPLETE Shelley’s Frankenstein Edited by Dr. Stephen C. Behrendt George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English University of Nebraska-Lincoln Complete Text + Commentary + Glossary Commentary by Anca Munteanu, Ph.D. HUNGRY MINDS, INC. New York, NY • Cleveland, OH • Indianapolis, IN 8726-9 FM.F 3/21/01 9:01 AM Page ii About the Author Publisher’s Acknowledgments Anca Munteanu earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Editorial and teaches at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. Her expertise is Project Editor: Kathleen A. Dobie in nineteenth century British literature, with an emphasis on Romanticism. Acquisitions Editor: Gregory W. 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Hungry Minds, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. is a trademark of Hungry Minds, Inc. 8726-9 FM.F 3/21/01 9:01 AM Page iii CLIFFSCOMPLETE Shelley’s Frankenstein CONTENTS AT A GLANCE Introduction . 1 Novel Text and Commentaries . 15 CliffsComplete Review . 213 CliffsComplete Resource Center . 220 CliffsComplete Reading Group Discussion Guide. 225 Index. 226 8726-9 FM.F 3/21/01 9:01 AM Page iv CLIFFSCOMPLETE Shelley’s Frankenstein TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . 1 Introduction to Mary Shelley. 1 Introduction to Frankenstein . 9 Character Map . 14 Letter 1 . .17 Letters 2–3 . .21 Letter 4 . 26 Chapter 1 . 33 Chapter 2 . 38 Chapter 3 . 44 Chapter 4 . 52 Chapter 5 . 59 Chapter 6 . 67 Chapter 7 . 74 Chapter 8 . 83 Chapters 9–10 . 90 Chapter 11. 100 Chapter 12 . 108 Chapter 13 . 114 Chapter 14. 120 Chapter 15. 125 Chapter 16. 133 Chapter 17. 141 Chapters 18–19 . 146 Chapter 20. 158 Chapter 21. 166 vi CliffsComplete Shelley’s Frankenstein Chapter 22. 176 Chapter 23. 185 Chapter 24 . 192 CliffsComplete Review . 213 CliffsComplete Resource Center . 220 CliffsComplete Reading Group Discussion Guide. 225 Index. 226 Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN INTRODUCTION TO of the Rights of Woman (on such issues as domestic MARY SHELLEY affection, education, and the dynamics between rational and emotional). Grasping all the implications In the introduction to the 1831 edition of Franken- of Mary Shelley’s novel is difficult without having a stein, Mary Shelley presents herself as “the daughter of sense of her parents’ social, political, and philosophi- two persons of distinguished literary celebrity.” She cal ideas. was also the lover and wife of one of the most promi- nent poets of the second generation of Romantics and the author of the most disturbing novel of the period. In her time, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was, Mary Shelley’s Mother, and continues to be, a subject of enormous interest Mary Wollstonecraft and fascination. Her life and literary career give insight A rebellious but sensitive child, Mary Wollstonecraft into a period of radical transformations, many of them grew into a daring and independent young woman. generated by the two major revolutions of the period: At 21 years of age, she declared herself against mar- the Industrial Revolution (1780–1830) and the riage because she perceived it as nothing more than French Revolution (1789–93). Mary Shelley’s turbu- legalized slavery for women. After her mother’s death, lent life and prolific literary career reflect the hopes Mary Wollstonecraft left her home and worked as a and disillusions of a complex time of transition. They governess. also reflect the ambiguities inherent in any period— With the help of Fanny Blood, a close and dear issues that fundamentally question the old order of friend, Wollstonecraft set up a school for girls, and in things and, at the same time, envision revolutionary 1786, she wrote her first book, Thoughts on the Edu- ways of inaugurating a new social, economic, and cation of Daughters, advocating for an educational sys- political order. tem to free women intellectually and economically. At As her own words reveal, Mary Shelley’s exquisite age 28, she went to London to become a writer. She parental heritage played an important role in her life wrote a largely autobiographical novel titled Mary: A and literary career. The revolutionary works and rad- Fiction (1788) and met the famous liberal publisher ical ideas of her parents, and the contradictions Joseph Johnson, who hired her as an editor and intro- between these ideas and their personal lives, signifi- duced her to London’s radical intellectuals. cantly influenced Mary. Frankenstein is dedicated to The French Revolution began when Woll- her father, and many of the ideas in the novel engage in stonecraft was 30, and its initial ideals of a new order a very precise and often critical dialogue with Godwin’s based on justice, equality, and freedom, made her one Political Justice (including his ideas on rationalism, of the most ardent supporters of the revolution. In happiness, technological progress, and moral evil). 1790, she wrote Vindication of the Rights of Men in Between 1814 and 1816, Mary read almost all her response to a conservative attack on the revolution’s mother’s books, and Frankenstein also engages in a pro- ideology.