Frankenstein & Early

th
19 C Science
English 10: Dr. Gannon

The Birth of Frankenstein

Lord Byron
Percy Shelley
Mary Shelley
John Polidori, a doctor
Claire Clairmont,
Marys step-sister

Mary Shelley on the Idea for

Frankenstein

The nightmare that inspired the novel was about the

nature of the principle of life, and whether there was any
probability of its ever being discovered and
communicated.
My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me,
gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a
vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. I saw with shut eyes but acute mental vision - the pale student
of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put
together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched
out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine,
show signs of life, and stir with uneasy, half-vital motion.
Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the
effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous

Read Shelleys Preface and Discuss:

1) What kind of novel does she hope

Frankenstein will be?
2) How will it differ from other novels of
her time?

On pg 43,
Victor writes:
natural
NATURAL
PHILOSOPHY
philosophy is the genius that has regulated
my fate.
Natural Philosophy = The
philosophical study of nature and the
physical universe, precursor to modern
science.
Grows out of Rene Descartes
Cartesian Dualism, in which he
argued that the world is made up of
two substances, matter and mind.
Natural philosophy studies everything

Victor
turnsPHILOSOPHY
to natural philosophy
after
NATURAL
vs. ALCHEMY
reading the work of an alchemist:
Cornelius Agrippa = The Occult
Philosophy (1529)
*the philosophers stone & elixir of life
(pg. 45)
the principles of Agrippa had been
entirely exploded, and that a modern
system of science had been introduced,
which possessed much greater powers
than the ancient, because the powers of

Science vs. Spirituality in Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, Mary
Shelley is, in part,
meditating on new
forms
of science
invented in the early
19th century.
Does science replace
religion and
spirituality?

Modern Science (Materialism

or
Materialist Biology)
Conceived of Life as an Organism
made up of Matter
Vitalist Biology
Conceived of Life as a Substance, a
subtle fluid like Electricity that
was different from inanimate
matter.
Idealism or Spirituality
Argued that Reality is Mental or
Immaterial. Everything is
composed of Spirit, not Matter.

Discuss: Forms of Knowledge in

Frankenstein
1.What is Robert Waltons relationship to
knowledge, scientific exploration, and
discovery?
2.What is Victor Frankensteins
relationship to knowledge, scientific
exploration, and discovery?
3.What is the purpose of the frame
narrative?