Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was a well-known English woman who was a novelist, short story writer, professional editor, and biographer. She was born on August 30, 1797, and passed away on February 1, 1851. She is well known for the 1818 publication of her Gothic book, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. She also helped edit and publicize the works of her spouse, the philosopher and accomplished Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley's father, William Godwin, was a well-known political scholar, and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a staunch feminist and philosopher. (Shelley 7). As established, Shelley wrote the novel, Frankenstein, after being challenged by her teacher to write a story that would challenge him. This paper will present a well-versed research on her thoughts and what she wished to portray in the writing of this story that later became a legendary fictional story of her time.
To begin with, the plot on Frankenstein is based on a research scientist known as Victor Frankenstein, who in attempts to understand the dynamics of the soul and the science behind it ends up reanimating a dead body. This creature ends up being called Frankenstein, and because of its rejection by the world it lived in, hated grew within it, and it decided to seek revenge on its maker. It took the path to vengeance on either Frankenstein or his family but ends up being torn between the good and the bad within its conscience.
Shelley as a gothic writer knew that to make her tale realistic; she had to create themes that would go in resonance with the contemporary society she lived in then yet still maintain the gothic effects as will be treated later in this paper. Her most important theme was the treatment of the poor and the uneducated. Shelley who had lived during the times of the industrial revolution in Europe had witnessed how the modernization of Europe had created classes of the rich and the have-nots. She also witnessed to how the poor were neglected and forced to work in the emerging factories (Hartwell 23). So to put this context in her novel, she introduces Frankenstein as that monster that was poor, nowhere or any ancestry and how it became the object of societal hatred though she manages to turn this around at the end where the monster is depicted to help save humankind.
Another theme that she addresses is the use of knowledge for good and evil. During her times, the industrial revolution was just picking up, and the advancement of technology was being used to improve and revolutionize the factories. This advancement in technology was growing the companies, but at the same time, it was replacing the human labor due to the introduction of automated machines in the factories to cut production costs (Haywood, 512). To depict this, she demonstrated how the researcher of Victor Frankenstein was supposed to discover the pillars of the soul(a laudable technological advancement) ends up creating a monster that seeks wreck of the same society it was placed.
Connected to the above point was the invasion of technology in the modern society. During the industrial revolution times that Shelley lived, technology was beginning g to the new trend, and every home was switching from old methods or procedures of daily life to embrace the use of technology which rendered many people lazy and redundant in their daily productivity. So the same was depicted by Shelley in the novel, she illustrates how technology can invade normal life if it is not contained. The mere introduction of Frankenstein is a depiction of how technology can invade normal life.
Another important theme that Shelley dwells on, actually which takes center stage of all the other themes is the conflict between the good and evil in the society. During the industrial revolution, a lot of consequential ideologies began mushrooming such as materialism and secularism (Duffy, 30). Contrary to the piety observed previously, now the trends shifted to making profits at all costs. This depicted a conflict between the good to be done in the society and the evil that technology had introduced in the same society. Therefore this she (Shelley) depicts well by bringing in the dual personality of Frankenstein. He is depicted as to having a kind nature but the rejecting society compels him to seek revenge (evil), and he has to fight between the two forces.
However, in as much as Shelley uses this story to depict the happenings in her society as it was then, she as a philosopher and dramatist employs the use of symbols to concretize her message further. She uses the symbol of a monster; quite absurd but she uses it to represent the strange creature that gets into peoples' lives and wreaks havoc. The monster is a representation of the new, unfamiliar technology and trends of revolution. Moreover, she uses the symbols of electricity in the book to depict just as much as it is dangerous and destructive in many cases, so too is the new energy form (electricity) now used to power machines replacing the human labor force (creating unemployment).
Another important motif that characterizes the novel is the obsession to vengeance (London, 67). Shelley as a Philosopher had observed that the new modernizing trends of the industrial revolution had impacted the society both positively but also gravely negatively. She had foreseen that the unemployment being occasioned by the revolution and introduction of technology was bound to create a state of unrest within the society. She knew that it would end up in chaos and the unemployed people would seek redress from the state. To capture this scenario that was working its progress in a domino effect motion, she depicts of Frankenstein (a product of technology) ends up wrecking the society, and he ends ups displaced by it thus sinking into insatiable desire towards vengeance. Frankenstein's vengeance is as a result of what the society had become and his maker (Victor Frankenstein). Hence the society in Shelley's viewpoint was bound to turn towards vengeance towards each their employers and the government (social revolutions)
As illustrated, Shelley was a gothic writer, and hence the aspect of Gothic wouldn't have escaped her writings. She introduces the gothic supernatural and mysterious elements by depicting Frankenstein as a reanimated creature (supernatural and strange act by the scientist) (Levine 56). She also uses the effect of darkness, another gothic aspect. She novel depicts several activities that happen in the cover of darkness and uses the notions of ‘dark powers' – evil forces to represent the dark gothic influence. This theme elicits sentiments of terror and fear in the reader, which are also Goth characteristics.
Moreover, she uses this unique gothic characteristic which is the existence of doubles. Goths believe that their souls exist in doubles; that they live on two realms of life, the bright side characterized by goodness and sanguinity and the dark realm characterized by withdrawn feelings of melancholy.
However, in as much as she uses all this literal forms, themes and motifs in her writings, Shelley fails to provide solutions for the problems she had identified in her community. It would have been a complete synthesis had she identified the problems in her society and used the same writing skills to recommend solutions to them or at least suggest a way forward.
Conclusion
Finally was illustrated, this novel by Shelley was greatly influenced by her day to day experiences, and she used it to bring to the reader's attention to the aspects happening in her society. She effortlessly used her skills to merge the use of conventional symbols to communicate her message and also incorporated the gothic elements to her writings that gave the novel a thrilling yet captivating approach.
Work Cited
Duffy, Ian PH. Bankruptcy and insolvency in London during the industrial revolution. Vol. 1. Routledge, 2017.
Hartwell, Ronald Max, ed. The causes of the Industrial Revolution in England. Vol. 3. Routledge, 2017.
Levine, George Lewis, and Ulrich Camillus Knoepflmacher. The endurance of Frankenstein: essays on Mary Shelley's novel. Univ of California Press, 1982.
London, Bette. "Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the spectacle of masculinity." Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (1993): 253-267.
Haywood, Ian. "Reforming Ideas in Britain: Politics and Language in the Shadow of the French Revolution, 1789–1815; British Drama of the Industrial Revolution." (2016): 510-514.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus 1818. Engage Books, 2008.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein: 1818. Intervisual Books, 2010.
