Frankenstein // Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s chilling gothic novel Frankenstein – often referred to by its subtitle The Modern Prometheus – is a harrowing exploration of boundaries; it’s the tale of one man who goes further than any scientist has ever gone before. Although rooted in scripture, the novel is a relevant metaphor for controversial issues today – Frankenstein’s Creature could be an allegory for a nuclear bomb, or a designer baby. The text is the perfect vessel to spark a debate about the “slippery slope” argument, and is a prime example of a book which transcends the period in which it was written.
Studied alongside Macbeth, The Bloody Chamber and Dr Faustus, in my eyes, Shelley’s creation had by far the most interesting tale of conception. After a retreat with her husband, Percy Shelley, to Switzerland, the couple were challenged by Lord Byron to come up with the most interesting ghost story. Inspired, Mary Shelley went on to develop her short story, drawing on social problems at the time as a catalyst for her plot.
In an era which was still deeply religious, people were horrified by the scientific practice of Galvanism – or rather, the art of grave robbing, which gave medical students bodies to experiment on. In Shelley’s text, Frankenstein, a man of science, creates a Creature sewn together from dead body parts, and brings it to life using lightning. Shelley sums up this contextual turmoil perfectly in her presentation of characters, with societal reactions to Frankenstein’s Creature – e.g. the mob which chase him – epitomising the fears of the age.
Not only that, but Shelley’s characterisation is so well embellished that the reader questions where their allegiances lie until the very end, something which is aided through the epistolary and framed narrative format which Shelley uses. This is just one of the reasons I enjoyed studying Frankenstein so much for my A Level English Literature paper – it’s a book which doesn’t have any didactic overtones, and the reader is free to make their own mind up at the end. For all these reasons, Frankenstein is a novel which has become a staple of the gothic genre and, because of this, I hope it remains on the curriculum for many years to come…
Words by Beth Kirkbride