If I had planned this better, we’d have started discussing this novel around Halloween. Mary Shelley started the novel in 1816 and published it in 1818. The novel’s context is quite important (but, of course, it isn’t the end of the search for meaning).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it possible to have a year without a summer? Sure. And climatologists warn of years with only summers if we don\u2019t curb fossil fuel use, but we\u2019re too self-centered and short-sighted to do anything to change that, so I\u2019ll focus our attention on the warning we\u2019ll most likely ignore from Frankenstein<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary Shelley started writing her novel while on vacation to Lake Geneva during the summer of 1816, which has been dubbed \u201cThe Year without a Summer.\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>Let’s consider events prior to this non-summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Timeline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Volcano\u2026<\/strong> (I don’t know where I’m gonna go \/ When the volcano blow)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1815: Mt. Tambora in Indonesia erupts on April 10th, killing 90,000 people in the region<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some other discussions of this (not required reading but definitely interesting):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the volcano affected much of the world, it hit Europe at a time of tremendous political, social, scientific, and technological change. It wasn\u2019t just nature revolting. Citizens felt a dis-ease<\/em> with the rate of change and worried that their pursuits might be getting out of hand. For instance, the French Revolution started as a small uprising that led to major changes. Once the revolutionary forces were unleashed, they were difficult to contain\u2026many heads rolled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One could say the Revolution was a golem<\/strong><\/a>. Although there are various golem myths, the one associated with Frankenstein<\/em> is that the monster, created by Victor Frankenstein, was intended for good but gets out of hand, destroying its creator. Nuclear energy and the Hulk are considered golems in popular culture. They serve some purposes for good but can get out of hand and destroy things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, the Dr. Darwin that Shelley mentions in the first sentence of the letter at the beginning of her book refers to Erasmus Darwin<\/a><\/strong> (who died in 1802), grandfather of Charles Darwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary Shelley’s mother died 11 days after she was born, and Shelley herself lost three children and her husband. This article “Mary Shelley\u2019s Obsession with the Cemetery”<\/strong><\/a> illuminates Mary Shelley’s early fascination with cemeteries and human relationships with the deceased. The author makes an interesting observation that after Shelley married Percy, she “was ‘almost continuously pregnant, \u2018confined,\u2019 or nursing’…and many of the metaphors surrounding Victor\u2019s monster-manufacture are suggestive of pregnancy.” Also, it’s well documented that her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, was in debt and left home to avoid being thrown in debtors prison. Perhaps the confines of marriage and the requirement to be the dutiful wife were monstrous concepts for Mary Shelley.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnxieties Europeans Felt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mary Shelley’s Fascination with Death<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Next Class<\/h3>\n\n\n\n