Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, although Mary Shelley does not provide any in-depth explanation or discussion as to exactly how Victor Frankenstein created his "living dead man", it is clear that he utilized many known scientific properties of the age, especially electricity. The author points out that, in order to fabricate this human monster, Frankenstein must have employed certain known medical procedures to create his monster, which in the novel is described as being collected from "charnel-houses" and "slaughterhouses" which "furnished many of my materials", meaning that these "materials" were body parts. The paper concludes that Mary Shelley, as a result of her great imagination and obvious knowledge of the medical field during the early 19th century, created an enduring fable, one which has remained in print for almost two hundred years.

From the Paper:

"Since most of Frankenstein takes place in the confines of Europe, it would be to our advantage to examine what was occurring in France and Great Britain in relation to medical research in the early part of the 19th century. As Smith points out, "Although the understanding of human anatomy was well-developed by 1800, physiology was founded on superstition and suppositions." In France, the dissections and post-mortem experiments of certain doctors and surgeons were seen by some people as quite disturbing; in fact, they were viewed as "radical and sacrilegious.""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Roberts, Andrew. "Pandora's Box--The Gift of Science: Frankenstein, Science and Industry." 1990. Internet. Accessed March 2, 2006. http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/SHE6.htm.
• Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. New York: Pyramid Books, 1976.
• Smith, Jon. "Student paper on 19th Century Medicine." Internet. Accessed March 2, 2006. http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~jonsmith/19cmed.html.
• Storment, Suzanna. "Frankenstein: The Man and the Monster." 2002. Internet. Accessed March 2, 2006. http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/frank.comment3.html.
• Williams, Guy. The Age of Miracles: Medicine and Surgery in the 19th Century. Dover, DE: Thunderbolt Books, 1995.

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