Mary Shelley S Frankenstein Essay
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Social changes in industrialised societies have brought new perspectives to the study of creativity, shifting from a focus on the aesthetic, the philosophical and the psychological, to an analysis of the significance of creativity in social and economic development.
Romanticism favours heroic emotion and revolutionary fervour accompanied by a 'gothick' taste for the fantastic and the macabre
In 18th century Europe the idea of creativity and invention underwent a dramatic change. During a period of nationalistic and imperialist expansion into North America and Asia as well as discovery beyond the confines of earth with the science of Kepler, Newton and Galileo (de la Croix & Tansey, 1980:630) a 'modern' conception of genius gathered strength. This notion emphasised the invention and production of original products by those of superior intellect, imagination and talent. Gone was the idea of genius as one who sought merely clever and methodical imitation (Becker, 1978:109).
These conceptions of creativity and genius were carried into the nineteenth century, but endowed with the flavour of Romanticism. Romanticism favours heroic emotion and revolutionary fervour accompanied by a 'gothick' taste for the fantastic and the macabre (de la Croix & Tansey, 1980:701-2). Many fictional works of this period offer tales of inventors and the emergence of modern science.
An example with which many of us are familiar is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The story was first published in 1818, when Shelley was nineteen years old and staying near Lake Geneva. In the book, Frankenstein, a young university student of chemistry and natural philosophy, passionately and compulsively seeks to 'pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation' (Shelley, 1994:46). After years of 'painful' labour, Frankenstein discovers the cause of the generation of life, and succeeds in bringing animation to 'lifeless matter' producing a creature made from discarded pieces of human bodies (ibid:50).
The story of Frankenstein illustrates the eighteenth century idea of creativity as the invention of something entirely new which advances knowledge rather than reiterates tradition, and portrays the inventor as a person of superior intellect. The novel is also firmly within the Romantic tradition, offering high drama and emotional pathos. This is particularly evident in Frankenstein's reaction to his creation. He is horrified by what he has produced and flees across Europe as if a fugitive. Frankenstein is followed by the desperately lonely creature who becomes angry at Frankenstein's refusal to assist him. The rest of the story is one of deepening sadness and horror as Frankenstein and his family face the consequences of his scientific discovery.
Frankenstein is the epitom+ of the heroic inventor who suffers tragedy but eventually takes responsibility for his creation. The tale may be read as a dialogue about the morality of invention, contrasting 'Christian values' with those of modern science, a condemnation of intense intellectual labour as both 'unlawful' and 'unnatural' (cf. Shelley, 1994:53) and the expression of a newly developing concern about scientific invention and its threat to social convention.
Shelley's story is part of a genre in which many writers expressed similar concerns. In 1849 Edgar Allan Poe published a short fictional tale about an alchemist called Von Kempelen, who had discovered the alchemist's secret of converting lead into gold. It appears the alchemist came to the notice of the police when he purchased property despite having always been in poverty. He was suspected of fraudulent activities and kept under surveillance. Upon 'bursting into his chamber' the police found Von Kempelen at work with his test tubes and chemicals. As news of the invention spreads, the price of gold falls, the price of lead increases, and the rush to the gold fields of California ceases. Poe explicitly poses the question to the reader about whether the discovery 'will be of service or disservice to mankind at large' (1980:296). Though not as dramatic an example as Frankenstein, the tale of Von Kempelen also served as a warning about the value and direction of modern science.
Public concern over new developments in science during this period can be related to dramatic social upheaval as cities industrialised and medicine grew as a profession (cf. Larson, 1977). The care of the sick, which had previously been the province of the community and particularly of women, was unexpectedly becoming the occupation of men who were increasingly being granted legitimacy by the State in their role of managing the community's health (cf. Marland, 1993; Achterberg, 1990). The idea of the doctor as a respected and cultured gentleman (and there was an almost total predominance of male practitioners) existed simultaneously with one of the doctor as a scientist who turns from established practices and traditions in search of elusive discoveries. Becker proposes that creative individuals were given a 'licence' to challenge established rules and conventions, in order that they may guide the 'course of civilisation' (1978:112). If such a 'licence' existed, it did not prevent writers from expressing deep concern over the moral and physical dangers that could be unleashed by unwise scientific invention.
http://www.sociology.org/content/vol002.002/collyer.html
Mary Shelley+s first novel has established itself as one of modernity+s most compelling and ominous myths. Frankenstein poignantly captures the spirit of the early 1800s as an age of transition tragically divided between scientific progress and religious conservatism, revolutionary reform and conformist reaction.
This Guide encapsulates the most important critical reactions to a novel that straddles the realms of both "high" literature and popular culture. The selections shed light on Frankenstein+s historical and socio-political relevance, its innovative representations of science, gender, and identity, as well as its problematic cultural location between academic critique and creative production. Ranging from the first reviews in 1818 to postmodern readings of the mid-1990s, the Guide illuminates one of British literature+s most spectacular novels.
In her complete works, including seven novels, stories, essays, poetry, and travel writing, Mary Shelley creates a feminist vision of women in an egalitarian society. In doing so, Shelley places women in the cultural center, rejecting the idea of "separate spheres" and beginning with the feminist ideas of Wollstonecraft: sound education for females results in strong women citizens.
Chapter one of part two focuses on Frankenstein and its powerful critique of Romanticism and traditional domesticity,
male-female relations in the novel. In concentrating on what she variously calls ``the `marriage complex''' (ix) or ``the marriage conundrum'' (82), Lowe-Evans, ``biographical-historicist'' approach (ix) puts male-female relations in the novel at the centre of her interpretation.
reading ultimately opposes the unsatisfactory ``separate spheres'' marriage of Victor's parents to the rather more satisfactory union of Felix and Safie. Although Lowe-Evans identifies Felix and Safie with Percy and Mary Shelley, and suggests that Safie's Turkish father ``may...owe something to William Godwin's example'' (80), she makes no mention of Marc A. Rubenstein's exemplary 1976 article, ```My Accursed Origin': The Search for the Mother in Frankenstein'' in which, for the first time, Safie's mother is identified as Mary Wollstonecraft. (Had Lowe-Evans been aware of Rubenstein's article and his demonstration that the description of Safie's mother constitutes the novel's structural centre, she might not have repeatedly referred to the monster's creation as the ``central scene'' of Frankenstein [26, 28, 29]). And while it seems accurate to state that Felix and Safie ``do not marry in the novel'' (48), it is...
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